26/09/2008
44 movistar RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA: Rally de España, a decisive round for the WRC

RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA 07

The 2008 WRC reaches its decisive phase of the season with the 44 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España. After the three consecutive victories of the current leader and world champion, Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (Citroën), the twelfth round of the world rally championship, to be held from 2 to 5 October, will mark the start of a point of inflection, since activity will continue only one week later with the Rallye de France, Tour de Corse, also on asphalt, which may decide the final standings.

With a considerable entry (79 participants, 27 of which are WRC and 17 Spanish teams), the Spanish round of the WRC will consist of three stages, with Port Aventura being once again the true nerve centre of the event. During the three race days, participants will cover a total of 18 stages, 9 different, uniformly distributed, since each day will consist of 6 stages. The total 1,315.27 km of the event include 352.36 timed kilometres.

In this edition, two of the specials will be visiting the province of Lleida, although they obviously are based in the province of Tarragona. As every year, the city of Salou will be playing a leading role, since it is its Promenade that will not only host the multiple activities related to the event, but also the podium on which the start ceremony ill be held on Thursday October, 2, in the evening.

The brands move their pieces for the RallyRACC
The fact that both the manufacturer and the driver title are yet to be decided, has led to certain restructuring in both contending brands, Citroën and Ford, who have moved their pieces in recent weeks in order to have their best options available for the Spanish race, testing or entering asphalt specialists. There is a difference of 8 points between Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen, the top two in the standings and star drivers of the two title candidate makes. As regards the manufacturers' standing, the difference is a bit larger for the French team, with 20 points. The latter was able to open a gap thanks to the brilliant performances of their two drivers, Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo, in the latest rallies.

Although Citroën, with Loeb and Sordo, start the RallyRACC as clear favourites, Ford has made a strategic driver-movement, preferring to opt for the speed on asphalt of the Belgian driver François Duval, against Jari-Matti Latvala, who will be taking part in the race with the colours of the subsidiary team, Stobart. The only aim of this operation is trying to get rearmed against Citroën for the coming two rallies that will be decisive for the titles.  

The rest of the teams will try to make use of the battle for the lead in the manufacturer's championship between Citroën and Ford , with Subaru having a lot to say as well.

27 WRC, 14 of which are manufacturer vehicles
All of the six WRC manufacturer teams are on the entry list of the 44 movistar RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, and they will be taking part with at least two cars each.  In addition to Citroën and Ford, Subaru will be present with Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson, while Suzuki will have Ton Gardemeister and Per-Gunner Andersson. They will be joined by the Stobart team, with Matthew Wilson and the already mentioned Jari-Matti Latvala, as well as both Munchi drivers, Federico Villagra and Henning Solberg. Subaru and Ford have also decided to enter a third vehicle, obviously out of the manufacturers' points, which will be driven by Frenchman Brice Tirabassi and Khalid Al Qassimi from Abu-Dhabi, respectively.

There are a total of 27 WRC entered, 14 of which are manufacturer entries and 2 manufacturer supported entries, meaning a spectacular participation. They will be joined by 18 participants of the J-WRC (Super 1600 and R3), 16 Production participants (Group N 4WD), despite this not being a scoring round for the P-WRC, 11 Group N 2WD entrants, including participants of the Fiesta Sporting Trophy - the only single-make series within the World Championship - and 7 Group A participants. 

RallyRACC and Tour de Corse, paired events
Since the cost reduction in the WRC has become a parameter of vital importance for the manufacturers involved and the FIA as well, the sanctioning body has established a series of rallies which are technically paired, meaning that the chassis and the engine of the cars entered in the manufacturers' championship must be the same for both races. Moreover, the teams can only use two sets of transmission (gearbox and differentials) for both races, as well as a certain number of key parts for both of the teams' cars: 2 front and rear sub-frames, 2 sets of steering racks, 2 turbos and 5 sets of shock-absorbers (each set is composed by 2+2 units), together with the respective connections to the hub carrier.

The cars and all of these parts will be sealed during the scrutineering of the Rally de España and will be checked before and after both races. This special feature, together with the fact that there will be only four days between the finish of the RACC Rally and the start of the Tour de Corse, confer the Spanish round a major strategic significance, since any serious problem or incident on the cars or the hypothetical use of sealed parts will entail an evident risk of supply for the next race. This little distance in days between both races is possible due to the acceptable distance between Tarragona and Ajaccio, even though the service teams will have to travel by ship.

Therefore, RACC Travel has set-up again a charter flight from Reus to Ajaccio, in order to make travelling easier both for drivers and people interested in both rallies. This flight, which has become a great idea, considering that the seats were sold-out quickly, will be done on Monday, October 6th in the morning, so that all of the drivers using it, will be able to prepare the reconnaissance of the French round, which starts the following day.

In addition to the paired rallies, the new FIA regulation as regards the technical aspects of the WRC teams, states that they have a maximum of 5 engines and 10 chassis per vehicle and year. As regards the tyres, Pirelli is the provider for all of the WRCars, 4WD cars and J-WRC cars, and participants will have the chance to choose between the soft and hard tyre version for the Rally de España.

Decisive round for the J-WRC as well
The RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA will also be the sixth and penultimate round of the season for the Junior World Championship, J-WRC.  Frenchman Sébastien Ogier  (Citroën) has become a main figure of the series, since he has taken over the leadership after tree victories, with a comfortable advantage of 9 points over Irishman Shaun Gallagher (Citroën), the latter having his last chance to score points since he has discarded the Tour de Corse. This could give Ogier the world title in Catalunya, if he manages to win the race.

As regards the entries, there are 18 vehicles, all of them registered for the world championship, including Spanish driver Sergio Pérez, who will be the only Guest Driver, having the same privileges of world championship participants. Pérez will be taking part with a Citroën C2 S1600 of the Auto Comas team.