23/07/2008
Dani Sordo: 'The RallyRACC has always brought me something good'

Presentation of the RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally of Spain

RACC Motor Sport presented today, in Santander (capital of the autonomous region of Cantabria in the North of Spain), the route of the 44 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, 12th scoring round of the WRC, to be held in the Spanish province of Tarragona from 2 to 5 October 2008. The event was attended by RACC driver Dani Sordo, who is taking part in the Championship at the wheel of an official C4 WRC within the official Citroën Total WRT team.

"The RallyRACC has always brought me something good. It was the first rally I took part in, thanks to the support of the Cantabrian Government, Auto Comas and the RACC; it was also the rally were I took the Junior World Championship; it was in Tarragona where I stepped on the WRC podium for the first time, and in 2007 I was even leading the race, which was finally won by my team-mate Loeb and I finished second", explains Sordo, who is right now preparing the coming Rally Finland, the next round of the World Championship, from 1 to 3 August, opening a series of three scoring races in only one month.  

Sordo adds: "Saying that the RallyRACC is my home rally sounds like a cliché, but it actually is. I love its route and I consider PortAventura the best Service Park of the Championship; it has enviable facilities. A victory would be a good result for me. In fact, our team's aim for the rest of the championship is to achieve one-two results in all of the asphalt rallies, thus counteracting to Ford's strength."

As regards the route of the Rally de España, the Cantabria-born driver explains: "It has a strong start this year, with the first day being the longest of the rally. The second day will be hard too and we will have to think carefully about the tyres. The last day will be as selective as the rest, with the same number of stages. I think that the rally will be hard-fought until the finish".

As regards the next two rounds of the WRC, Sordo explains: "Finland will be a complicated rally, because there a quite a few true specialists. I was testing there, and we won the O.K. Auto-ralli there, but the best was not the result, but the several tests we were able to do during the stages. I'm looking forward to Germany: we will have to give our 200% there, since it is a rally in which we will have to aim for the victory".

Talking about his performance in the 2008 WRC, Sordo states that he has "very fond memories; Jordan (2nd) for example, especially the first two days, but I'm also happy with the last two rallies, Greece (5th) and Turkey (4th), where I was able to see that the times are improving and that we are doing a lot better on the gravel".

Among the main novelties presented by the 2008 RallyRACC route, there is the inclusion of four new stages, La Mussara, Priorat-Ribera d'Ebre, Les Garrigues and La Llena, the last two of which enter the province of Lleida; the new shakedown stage (Escornalbou), which is much closer to the service park in PortAventura in order to make the work for the teams easier; and the schedule of the three race days (3 to 5 October), with three daily stages to be covered twice. The rally will have its start and finish in Salou, while the nerve centre of the race will be located in the PortAventura theme park. It will include a total of 18 special stages and 1,315.27 km, 352.36 of which will be timed.