Hyundai’s i20 R5 is to make its competition debut in the hands of Kevin Abbring, Stephane Sarrazin and Fabio Andolfi on the Tour de Corse.
Notwithstanding earlier assurances the R5 project was to be for privateers without official cars in action, Abbring’s car will in fact be an official entry.
The team states: “There has been no change in policy. The R5 program remains focused on our customers. We have no intention of running a long term factory program for the car in WRC2, or any other championship. The Tour de Corse is an opportunity for us to showcase the performance of the car alongside our customers during the earliest stages of the cars competitive career.
“As well as running Kevin at the event, each of the Customer teams will have a dedicated engineer working with them and will be able to call on the knowledge of the Customer Racing department during the event.”
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Like the popular annual end-of-season single venue Monza Rally in Italy, there are plans to run a similar event at the Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France, scheduled for 9-11 December. 140km of special stages, ranging from 25.9 to 7km.
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Around 160 crews will contest the various categories of Rally Isle of Man (15-17 September), final round of the MSA British Rally Championship. Elfyn Evans has already won the series, but for this event there are surprise entries from Citroen WRC candidate driver Craig Breen and Mark Higgins.
Special feature of the three day event is the Sloc hillclimb course, not used as a rally special stage for the last 36 years!
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Back in Britain after 22 years is former works Ford WRC driver Miki Biasion, invited as a guest driver to demonstrate an old Group B Lancia Delta S4 at the Cholmondeley Castle special stage Rallyfest on the Saturday of Dayinsure Wales Rally GB. Biasion won 1986 Rally Argentina in an S4.
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Winner of the very high speed German championship ADAC Rallye Niedersachsen was Fabian Kreim in a Skoda Fabia R5, a half minute ahead of Mads Ostberg’s Fiesta R5. The Peugeot 208 T16 of Christian Riedemann was third, after gearbox trouble. Mads commented that his car needed a high ratio gearbox as he was on the rev limiter in top gear on nearly every straight.
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Molly Taylor was second at Lightforce Rally SA. (Photo: Luke Whitten)A third successive outright win came for Brendan Reeves at the Lightforce Rally South Australia, ahead on points from Molly Taylor on this two-day national championship event.
Subarus took the top four places, but Harry Bates went off the road in his old Toyota S2000 and Mark Pedder had engine problems on his Peugeot 208 Maxi Rally.
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Former Porsche driver Ivan Ares won the Rallye Princesa de Asturias (previously Asturias Rally) in a Skoda Fabia R5 ahead of the Fiesta R5s of Luis Monzon and Manuel Mora. The event was part of the FIA European Rally Trophy.
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Slovak driver Jaroslav Melicharek won his national championship Rally Kosice in a Fiesta WRC, but the results at the end of Leg 1 were enough for the Slovak title to go to the rally leader, Czech Pavel Valousek, who then immediately retired from the event in order to celebrate his success, reportedly in real style.
Polish driver Grzegorz Grzyb (Fiesta R5) spectacularly shot off the road, demolishing trees as he went, but escaped apparently without major injury.
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Jerker Axelsson (Subaru Impreza WRC) won the sixth and penultimate round of the Swedish Championship the East Sweden Rally in Linkoping. PG Andersson had already clinched the title driving a Skoda Fabia WRC and did not take part.
Axelsson leads the fight for runner-up position in the series. Veteran Mats Jonsson retired his Ford Escort WRC with steering problems. Thomas Thunstrom (Citroën DS3 R5) finished second.
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The Russian rally driver Evgeniy Firsov died last Friday while testing his Prosport team Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX in a head-on collision with another car, which was also testing. Firsov had finished third overall earlier this year in the Gukovo Rally.
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Marco Signor (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) beat Luca Pedersoli Luca (Citroën C4 WRC) by 1.6 seconds to win the Italian WRC Championship Rally Internazionale San Martino di Castrozza e Primiero.
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Adapta, the company which ran Mads Ostberg in Niedersachsen Rally, has explained that their Fiesta R5 had a maximum speed of 178 kph, and that their rivals could reach over 200 kph. The company explained this had no bearing on the reason for entering the event, which was to gain more asphalt rallying experience.
- Martin Holmes
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