10/09/2009
RallyRACC with 80 entrants

Olivier Quesnel, Sébastien Loeb, Dani Sordo

The entry list of the penultimate round of the WRC includes 20 Spanish teams

RallyRACC with 80 entrants

A total of 80 entrants from 28 countries, 20 of them Spaniards, make up the official entry list of the 45 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, penultimate round of the World Rally Championship, organised by the RACC, to be held from 1 to 4 October, having its epicentre in Salou and the PortAventura theme park.  The list has one participant more than last year, showing the great acceptance of the Spanish round despite the clear drop of the number of participants in recent races due to the international crisis, which does not seem to affect the Spanish race from a sporting perspective.

After the final results in Australia, the Spanish race has become decisive for the Championship. The five WRC teams will be facing it with 10 official WRCars: Citroën Total WRC (Sébastien Loeb, Dani Sordo); BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT (Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala); Stobart VK M-Sport Ford RT (Matthew Wilson, Henning Solberg); Citroën Junior Team (Evgeny Novikov, Conrad Rautenbach); and Munchi’s Ford WRT (Federico Villagra; Paul Bird).

Four manufacturer supported WRC are also included in the list: Petter Solberg (Citroën), Sébastien Ogier (Citroën), Khalid Al-Qassimi (Ford) and Andreas Mikkelsen (Citroën), which are joined by two private vehicles driven by veteran Dany Snobeck (Peugeot), current French champion of the speciality, and Graham Coffrey (Subaru) from the UK. The RallyRACC will witness Petter Solberg using a Citroën C4 for the first time, substituting the Xsara he had been using so far.

The J-WRC has nine entrants for its last round of the season at the RallyRACC. Although the title has already been awarded to Czech driver Martin Prokop (Citroën), the fight for the always prestigious victory will be significant for German driver Aaron Burkart (Suzuki), since finishing in one of the top two positions will award him with the runner-up position in the Championship. RACC driver Jordi Martí (Renault) will be the Guest Driver enjoying the privileges of the usual competitors of the class. A highlight will be the participation of the five Pirelli Star Driver programme members, who will be facing their first asphalt rally, all of them at the wheel of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.

One of the last minute Spanish entries is Dani Solà, who will be finally taking part in the RallyRACC with a Honda Civic-Type R similar to the car he used in this same race two years ago. No less than 22 vehicles of the N4 class, known as Production class, have submitted their request to enter the race even though the Spanish event is not a scoring round of the P-WRC. Among the entrants there are world championship participants such as Eyvind Brynildsen from Norway and Hermann Gassner from Germany, both with Mitsubishi, the Spaniards Albert Orriols (Mitsubishi) and Egoi Elder Valdés (Subaru), Albert Llovera (Fiat) from Andorra and six of the competitors from RMC Motorsport’s Producción Rally Racing Championship, sponsored by RACC and the Spanish Motor Sport Federation.

Moreover, there will also be ten Fiestas from the single-make cup organised by Ford in some European rounds of the World Championship, six of which are the new R2 which will be having their debut at the Spanish round.

The distribution of the 80 entrants, 28 of which are FIA priority drivers, is as follows: 16 WRC, 9 J-WRC, 8 R3 and R2 vehicles, 27 Group N4 (including the 5 Pirelli Star Driver participants), 8 A6 class and 12 vehicles of the N3 and N2 classes.

RACC Premsa