26/09/2007
43 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA: The most exciting world championship of recent times

Presentation of the 43 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA

The 2007 WRC finally lands in Spain. It is with no doubt the most exciting world rally championship of recent times considering the duel between the two best drivers of the moment: championship leader Marcus Grönholm (Ford) and current world champion, Sébastien Loeb (Citroën). The fast and selective stages in the Spanish province of Tarragona will be once again exclusive witnesses, for the third time in a row, of the RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, which returns this year to its traditional autumn dates (4 to 7 October), after more than one and a half year since the last edition. It will be the 12th scoring round of the WRC (out of 16) and the third asphalt rally, in addition to being the 6th and penultimate round of the FIA Junior WRC. Dani Sordo (Citroën), Xevi Pons (Subaru) and Dani Solà (Honda) are topping a list of 27 Spanish drivers.

Grönholm 5-Loeb 5: Tie break in Spain

Only a few editions of the World Championship have arrived at this stage of the season with such an equal fight and at such a high level in the top of the standings. After 11 rounds, the Finnish driver Marcus Grönholm (Ford Focus RS WRC 2007) and Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C4 WRC), promise to show a new round filled with intensiveness. The first of them is the current championship leader, with 90 points thanks to 5 victories and no non-scorers. Loeb is second, and has also won 5 rallies, but he is 10 points behind Grönholm after two DNFs. Race after race, stage after stage, the battle for the victory is settled between the two of them with a high-voltage sporting intensiveness and with an extraordinary level which is only typical for two World Champions. Loeb will be trying to clinch his third triumph in Salou to close the gap in the standings to Grönholm, who will be retiring from the world of rallying at the end of the year. Catalunya will witness the fight for the victory but also the fight for prestige.

A selective route including novelties

The itinerary of the 43 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, with 352.87 timed kilometres (18 stages) out of 1,359.96, includes major novelties compared to the previous year. The biggest changes are in Leg 2 with two new special stages, Coll de Grau (26.33 km) and La Serra d'Almos (4.11 km, the shakedown in the opposite direction), the first of them being one of the hardest of the race and also part of a 4-stage loop with no service (together with Vilaplana, Margalef-La Palma d'Ebre and La Serra d'Almos). But participants will previously have to tackle a first day of 6 stages: Querol (25.43 km/2 passages), El Montmell (24.14 km/2 passages), El Lloar-La Figuera (22.43 kms/1 passage) and Pratdip (26.48 km/1 passage). A further novelty is the extension of the Riudecanyes stage, with 4 new kilometres in the beginning, which, together with Colldejou (the longest special with 26.51 km) will make up the third and last leg, with two passages of both stages.

Salou and PortAventura, operations base

The important tourist enclave made up by the city of Salou and the PortAventura theme park, in the middle of the Costa Daurada in Tarragona, will once again host the operations base of the RallyRACC. The modern and large facilities of PortAventura will be again the nerve centre of the event, hosting the Service Area, the RallyRACC Village, the Race Direction and the Media Centre, while the Salou Promenade will be the venue of the start and finish podium, and the prize-giving ceremony.

The Junior World Championship might be decided in Catalunya

The seventh edition of the FIA Junior Rally Championship will be staging at the 43 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España its penultimate round of the year, with all titles yet to be decided and a large number of entrants. 20 crews will be adding large amounts of excitement and show to the event, including the most important representatives of this series.

Therefore, all fans are forced to follow the performance of the Suzuki Swift S1600 of the Estonian driver Urmo Aava and the Swedish driver Per-Gunnar Andersson (2004 Champion), currently first and second in the standings, the Renault Clio R3 of the Swedish driver Patrik Sandell, provisional third and current series Champion, or the Suzuki Swift S1600 and the Citroën C2 S1600 of the Estonian Jaan Mölder and the Czech driver Martin Prokop. Prokop won the Junior class of the RallyRACC 2006.

The 20-year-old driver of the Canary Islands Yeray Lemes, will be participating in the Junior class at the wheel of a Citroën C2 S1600 with the Auto-Laca Team. Spain has always been a country with a large and brilliant representation in this series, having as a special highlight the titles achieved by the RACC drivers Dani Solà (2002) and Dani Sordo (2005) and the second place of Salvador Cañellas (2003).

Penultimate round of the Fiesta Sporting Trophy International

The second edition of the international single-make cup Fiesta Sporting Trophy, the only event being held within the framework of the European WRC rounds, will be racing in Spain its sixth and penultimate round with the Briton Barry Clark already crowned as 2007 Champions after taking the victory at all races of the year held so far (Norway, Portugal, Sardinia, Finland and Germany). The 25-year-old driver will be taking part in the RallyRACC at the wheel of his Group N Ford Fiesta ST with the Stobart Team, just as his main rival in the fight for the title the Lithuanian driver Vytautas Baranauskas.

Despite the fact, that the title has already been awarded and the sporting interest of the series has descended slightly, the competitiveness of these Group N cars fitted with a 2.0 litre tank and 165 HP is impressive.

Debut of the bioethanol-fed Ford Fiesta ST 2.0

The Team of the Ford Network of the Canary Islands will be taking part in the RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España with a Fiesta ST 2.0 Flexi Fuel, a vehicle almost equal to that being used at the international single-make cup but with the novelty of being the first race vehicle on a national level driven by ecological fuel: bioethanol E-85. This is a true novelty on the Iberian Peninsula and the debut of this kind of car in a WRC round in Southern Europe, after its debut at this year's Rally of Sweden.

The driver of the Spanish Team is Heriberto Godoy, from the Canary Islands and winner of the 2006 Fiesta Sporting Trophy of the Islands. Bioethanol E-85 does not pollute the atmosphere since it has very low emission levels of CO2, which the main cause of the greenhouse gases, and it also offer a much better performance than the ST of the usual group N, given its higher octane number (107), allowing the power to rise up to 180 HP.

A further initiative to be included for the first time at the RallyRACC will be the Italian reinsertion project M.I.T.E, which involves the participation of the blind co-driver Francesco Cozzula (90% eye disability), who will be sitting on the right seat of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII of his fellow countryman  Massimo Ferronato.