Another official photo call! Interest in the revived Rally Turkey (13-16 September, due to be run at the Anatolian resort of Marmaris) was renewed this weekend with the official launch ceremony held in Istanbul, attended by the WRC Promoter Oliver Ciesla.
This is the first new venue for a WRC event since the Rallye de France went to Strasbourg in 2010, though six editions of Rally Turkey itself were held elsewhere in the country, most recently also in 2010.
Despite considerable efforts to attract new countries into the WRC, the last new nation in the series came eight years ago with the once-and-only Rally Bulgaria.
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One-two success for Hyundai i20 R5s cars on the fourth round of the Spanish asphalt series was Rally Villa de Adeje in the island of Tenerife.
Jose Suarez won his first outright Spanish championship rally win for five years, finishing 2.9 seconds in front of Ivan Ares, with Fiesta driver Miguel Fuster third.
Ares and Fuster are joint leaders of the series. One week earlier, Suarez was top placed Spanish championship driver on the Canarias ERC event.
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Skoda driver Fredrik Ahlin scored his second Swedish championship win of the season at the South Swedish Rally, which he had won the last time he entered the rally three years ago.
Ahlin won every stage.
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Second Estonian championship win of the season came to the Mini Cooper JCW driver Valeriy Gorban of Ukraine. This was the Tallinn Rally.
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The British MSA Asphalt tarmac championship Manx National Rally was won by Jason Pritchard’s Focus WRC, while the BTRDA gravel championship Plains Rally in central Wales was won by the Fiesta R5 of Matt Edwards
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A week ago there was a special secret gathering in the hills west of Madrid when the twice world champion and double Dakar winner, Carlos Sainz, teamed up with current and former Formula One drivers Carlos Sainz Junior, David Coulthard and Mark Webber.
The drivers were there to prepare a promotional film for Channel 4 of Great Britain, for showing together with the Monaco Grand Prix.
This was at a special two kilometre track on Sainz's farmland, where all four drivers tested a Renault Clio N5 rally car of the Spanish RMC Motorsport team.
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The British MSA Asphalt tarmac championship Manx National Rally was won by Jason Pritchard’s Focus WRC, while the BTRDA gravel championship Plains Rally in central Wales was won by the Fiesta R5 of Matt Edwards
= = = =
A week ago there was a special secret gathering in the hills west of Madrid when the twice world champion and double Dakar winner, Carlos Sainz, teamed up with current and former Formula One drivers Carlos Sainz Junior, David Coulthard and Mark Webber.
The drivers were there to prepare a promotional film for Channel 4 of Great Britain, for showing together with the Monaco Grand Prix.
This was at a special two kilometre track on Sainz's farmland, where all four drivers tested a Renault Clio N5 rally car of the Spanish RMC Motorsport team.
