Victory in last weekend’s Argentine championship Rally Villa Dolores came for the world’s most southernly rally driver, non championship competitor Luciano Preto from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, with a Peugeot 208 MR turbo. Â
Luciano Preto won the Rally Villa Dolores in a Peugeot 208.Two events remain in the series. Marcos Ligato leads with 332 points ahead of Federico Villagra 275 and Cancio 241
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David Higgins won he final round of the Rally Amtica series, the Lake Superior Performance Rally based at Houghton, Michigan. Second was Subaru teammate, the famous stuntman Travis Pastrana. Â
Best two wheel drive was the 25 year old Porsche of Ramana Lagemann
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Three seconds separted the top three cars at the end of Rally Due Valli at Verona, final round of Italy’s premier rally series, the CIR. Â
The event winner was Paolo Andreucci, but the Campionato Italiano Rally 2016 was won by Giandomenico Basso in a Ford Fiesta R5, beating Andreucci (Peugeot 208 T16) and Umberto Scandola (Skoda Fabia R5).
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Craig Breen made a typically intriguing comment before Cataluna. He said it is easier to become an astronaut than a top rally driver. Â
“When you are in school some kids want to be fireman, some people want to be electricians, and you have the dreamers who want to be astronauts. Â
“I don’t know how many astronauts there are in the world, but there’s 15 places at the pinnacle of this sport.  I dreamed of being in one of those places and I have now got one,” he said.
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Jon Armstrong from Northern Ireland won the remaining series R5 prize drive when he walked away with the Drive DMack Fiest Trophy category at Rally Catalunya.
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Jose Fontes won the Rali Casino Espinho.Jose Pedro Fontes won the Rali Casino Espinho in a Citroen DS3 R5 and became national Portuguese rally champion for the second time.
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The reputation of the impressive German VW team was dented when it was found Andreas Mikkelsen’s car had been fitted with different registration plates front and back, by mistake! Not a serious crime…
- Martin Holmes