Portugal is back in the World Rally Championship. After being replaced in 2001, it has been a long road back as a candidate rally and now included in the 2007 championship as Round 5 of the WRC.
Portgual has been included in the WRC Drivers Championship 22 times, dating back to 1979. It was rotated to 2-Litre Championship in 1996. The rally is on its fourth name. It has been known as:
Rallye of Portugal Vinho do Porto (1979-1990)
Rallye of Portugal (1991-1993)
TAP Rallye of Portugal (1994-1995, 1997-2001)
Vodafone Rallye de Portugal (2007)
Debut WRC wins in Portugal:
Markku Alén (FIN) - 1975 (pre Drivers Championship) in a Fiat Abarth 124 Rallye
Joaquim Moutinho (POR) - 1986 in a Renault 5 Turbo
François Delecour (FRA) - 1993 in a Ford Escort Cosworth
Notable WRC debuts in Portugal
François Duval (BEL) - 2001 in a Ford Puma Super 1600
Rui Madeira (POR) - 1992 in a Citroën AX GTI (retired)
Andrea Navarra (ITA) - 1995 in a Toyota Celica GT Four
Jorgé Recalde (ARG) - 1980
Carlos Sainz (ESP) - 1987 in Ford Sierra RS Cosworth
For complete list of Winners (1979-2001) and Historical Stats click here.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
2 new items
Hi everyone!
I hope you are enjoying the 2007 racing season.
My website is been updated and now has two exciting new areas.
First, I have created the Speed World Challenge arm of my webpage. Currently the 1999, 2006 & 2007 are online. I am currently working to fill in the gap and hope to do so very soon. Keep checking for all the stats on the Speed World Challenge GT Series.
Secondly, I have also been pounding away on my "bread & butter" - WRC Rallies Historical Stats. All rallies have their own main page with a link to the historical stats. All Historical Stats pages are up and running. On the main pages, I have results back to at least 2001, some even earlier and I am also working to bring all events up to date.
Please check these out and let me know what you think.
I hope you are enjoying the 2007 racing season.
My website is been updated and now has two exciting new areas.
First, I have created the Speed World Challenge arm of my webpage. Currently the 1999, 2006 & 2007 are online. I am currently working to fill in the gap and hope to do so very soon. Keep checking for all the stats on the Speed World Challenge GT Series.
Secondly, I have also been pounding away on my "bread & butter" - WRC Rallies Historical Stats. All rallies have their own main page with a link to the historical stats. All Historical Stats pages are up and running. On the main pages, I have results back to at least 2001, some even earlier and I am also working to bring all events up to date.
Please check these out and let me know what you think.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
2007 Speed World Challenge Preview
This weekend is the opening race for the Speed World Challenge GT series. It all kicks off at historic Sebring International Raceway. Other famous North American road racing venues will grace the 2007 calendar, including Long Beach, Watkins Glen, Mosport, Road Atlanta and the season finale at Mazda Laguna Seca. The series will return to Lowe's Motorspeedway and take a second crack at the new Miller Motorsports Park. GT cars will take to the streets in Toronto as well another venue to be announced.
Cadillac is back in full force to try and reel in the manufacturer's title. Defending series champion Lawson Aschenbach has signed with the team to be the lead driver. He will be teamed with 2005 champ Andy Pilgrim in the #8 and a host of others in the third Cadi, #16.
2 of the most successfull World Challenge GT drivers, Michael Galati (2001 & 2002 champ) and 2003 GT champion Randy Pobst return as members of the K-Pax/3-R racing team. Former Winner Scotty B White returns with rookie team mate Cindi Lux for Team Naykid racing (#2 & #3).
Other notables running races in 2007: Tommy Archer (2004 champ), Mike Davis, Brian Kubinski (R), James Sofronas, Tomy Drissi, Lou Gigliotti, Michael McCann and many more. Check out all the action at www.world-challenge.com or watch race coverage on the Speed Channel.
Cadillac is back in full force to try and reel in the manufacturer's title. Defending series champion Lawson Aschenbach has signed with the team to be the lead driver. He will be teamed with 2005 champ Andy Pilgrim in the #8 and a host of others in the third Cadi, #16.
2 of the most successfull World Challenge GT drivers, Michael Galati (2001 & 2002 champ) and 2003 GT champion Randy Pobst return as members of the K-Pax/3-R racing team. Former Winner Scotty B White returns with rookie team mate Cindi Lux for Team Naykid racing (#2 & #3).
Other notables running races in 2007: Tommy Archer (2004 champ), Mike Davis, Brian Kubinski (R), James Sofronas, Tomy Drissi, Lou Gigliotti, Michael McCann and many more. Check out all the action at www.world-challenge.com or watch race coverage on the Speed Channel.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Rally Mexico Historical Stats
Mexico joined the World Rally Championship as part of the 2004 WRC expansion. It has been run three times and all three times it was dubbed Corona Rally Mexico
2007 is the first time Mexico is not round 3 of the WRC; this year is round 4.
Firsts in Mexico:
Jussi Välimäki collected his first career WRC points finish in 2004 (7th)
Gareth Mac Hale scored his first career WRC points finish in 2006 (6th)
Recent Mexican struggles for Ford:
Since Markko Märtin & François Duval gave Ford a 1-2 finish in the inaugural event, Ford has not scored a podium finish. Their best result: 6th.
Numerology:
2004 - Markko Märtin’s 3rd WRC win, 2005 - Petter Solberg’s 12th WRC win, 2006 - Sébastien Loeb’s 21st WRC win. All wins are divisible by 3.
This bodes well for Ford because Marcus Grönholm’s next win would be his 27th career, and Mikko Hirvonen’s next triumph would give him his 3rd career win.
Did You Know?
When Gareth Mac Hale had a surprise 6th place finish last year in Mexico, it was the first time an Irishman scored a WRC point since Billy Coleman in 1985 (4th in France).
For complete Rally Mexico Historical Stats, click here.
2007 is the first time Mexico is not round 3 of the WRC; this year is round 4.
Firsts in Mexico:
Jussi Välimäki collected his first career WRC points finish in 2004 (7th)
Gareth Mac Hale scored his first career WRC points finish in 2006 (6th)
Recent Mexican struggles for Ford:
Since Markko Märtin & François Duval gave Ford a 1-2 finish in the inaugural event, Ford has not scored a podium finish. Their best result: 6th.
Numerology:
2004 - Markko Märtin’s 3rd WRC win, 2005 - Petter Solberg’s 12th WRC win, 2006 - Sébastien Loeb’s 21st WRC win. All wins are divisible by 3.
This bodes well for Ford because Marcus Grönholm’s next win would be his 27th career, and Mikko Hirvonen’s next triumph would give him his 3rd career win.
Did You Know?
When Gareth Mac Hale had a surprise 6th place finish last year in Mexico, it was the first time an Irishman scored a WRC point since Billy Coleman in 1985 (4th in France).
For complete Rally Mexico Historical Stats, click here.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
IRC - 2006 Review/2007 Preview
With the new season fast approaching, lets take a look back at the 2006 International Rally Challenge.
As one of the first hotbeds of the S2000 category, South Africa was the perfect way to kick off the IRC. The “Year 0” season started with the Zulu Rally South Africa. Alister McRae won the first stage in his Mitsubishi Lancer and dueled locals Serge Damseaux & Enzo Kuun throughout Leg 1. The Scot lead Damseaux’s Toyota by eleven seconds with Kuun’s Volkswagen in tow.
Day 2 saw Damseaux attack with a win on the opening stage, but a costly error would later drop him over ten minutes behind. With a couple more stage wins, McRae cruised to victory over Kuun for the first IRC rally victory.
The Fiat Punto S2000 mades its IRC debut on the Belgium Ypres Westhoek Rally and was dominant. Umberto Scandola won the opening stage, but it was his team mate Giandomenico Basso that dominated the rally. The Italian won 9 straight stages to open up an insurmountable gap of the pack of Belgians. Defending rally winner Kris Princen was second, with a host of WRC faces in tow, lead by Larry Cols and Freddy Loix.
Round 3, Rally Vino da Madeira was much of the same. After Portuguese national champion Armindo Araújo won the opening stage, Basso took over. He won 7 of 10 stages on Leg 1 to build a lead of over a minute on Araújo. The Italian cruised through the second leg for back-to-back victories. Local Fernando Peres finished third. The win gave Basso the first ever IRC Driver’s Championship and was en route for the European Rally Championship.
The final round in Sanremo experienced severe weather that cancelled all four stages of the opening leg. Another Fiat Punto was the class of the field. Paulo Andreucci took 3 of the 6 remaining stage wins to nip another experienced Italian, Andrea Aghini, for the final win of the year. 2005 ERC Champ Renato Travaglia was third.
For complete 2006 results, stats and point standings, click here.
In 2007, the name has been changed to Intercontinental Rally Challenge but the action should be even hotter. The calendar has been expanded to 9 rounds. Ypres, Madeira and Sanremo return for 2007 and are joined by some former WRC rallies: Safari Rally Kenya, Rally of Turkey, and Rally China (pending confirmation). In addition the famed Barum Rally Zlin, Rally of Russia and Rally du Valais will round out the season.
Peugeot confirmed that they will participate in 8 rounds with a pair of 207 Super 2000’s for Nicolas Vouilloz of France and Enrique Garcia-Ojeda of Spain. Back from last year’s success with beat Fiat, with two Fiat Grande Punto S2000. The team leader will be Italian Andrea Navarra and the second car will be shared by Scandola and Finland’s Anton Alen. Toyota, Skoda, Volkswagen all have Super 2000 cars and we could see some of them on board as the season progresses.
In addition to the factory teams, Bernd Casier of Belgium and Luca Betti of Italy have thrown their hats into the IRC. Both former Junior World Rally competitors will be privateers; Casier in a Peugeot 207 S2000 and Betti in an undisclosed S2000 car. Also 7 time WRC winner Gilles Panizzi is looking to put together funds for a drive. Couple all these drivers with local talent and there should be some great fights in 2007.
The season will open this weekend on the Safari Rally Kenya. The Fiat Puntos of Navarra and Scandola will be challenged by the best Africa can throw at them. Not only the tough conditions, but the skilled drivers of the African Rally Championship will stand in the way of victory. Reigning ARC champ Patrick Emontspool, Conrad Rautenbach and many others are on the entry list. In addition several familiar faces from the Safari’s WRC past are present: Azar Anwar, Emmanuel Katto, Sammy Aslam, Peter Horsey to name a few.
As one of the first hotbeds of the S2000 category, South Africa was the perfect way to kick off the IRC. The “Year 0” season started with the Zulu Rally South Africa. Alister McRae won the first stage in his Mitsubishi Lancer and dueled locals Serge Damseaux & Enzo Kuun throughout Leg 1. The Scot lead Damseaux’s Toyota by eleven seconds with Kuun’s Volkswagen in tow.
Day 2 saw Damseaux attack with a win on the opening stage, but a costly error would later drop him over ten minutes behind. With a couple more stage wins, McRae cruised to victory over Kuun for the first IRC rally victory.
The Fiat Punto S2000 mades its IRC debut on the Belgium Ypres Westhoek Rally and was dominant. Umberto Scandola won the opening stage, but it was his team mate Giandomenico Basso that dominated the rally. The Italian won 9 straight stages to open up an insurmountable gap of the pack of Belgians. Defending rally winner Kris Princen was second, with a host of WRC faces in tow, lead by Larry Cols and Freddy Loix.
Round 3, Rally Vino da Madeira was much of the same. After Portuguese national champion Armindo Araújo won the opening stage, Basso took over. He won 7 of 10 stages on Leg 1 to build a lead of over a minute on Araújo. The Italian cruised through the second leg for back-to-back victories. Local Fernando Peres finished third. The win gave Basso the first ever IRC Driver’s Championship and was en route for the European Rally Championship.
The final round in Sanremo experienced severe weather that cancelled all four stages of the opening leg. Another Fiat Punto was the class of the field. Paulo Andreucci took 3 of the 6 remaining stage wins to nip another experienced Italian, Andrea Aghini, for the final win of the year. 2005 ERC Champ Renato Travaglia was third.
For complete 2006 results, stats and point standings, click here.
In 2007, the name has been changed to Intercontinental Rally Challenge but the action should be even hotter. The calendar has been expanded to 9 rounds. Ypres, Madeira and Sanremo return for 2007 and are joined by some former WRC rallies: Safari Rally Kenya, Rally of Turkey, and Rally China (pending confirmation). In addition the famed Barum Rally Zlin, Rally of Russia and Rally du Valais will round out the season.
Peugeot confirmed that they will participate in 8 rounds with a pair of 207 Super 2000’s for Nicolas Vouilloz of France and Enrique Garcia-Ojeda of Spain. Back from last year’s success with beat Fiat, with two Fiat Grande Punto S2000. The team leader will be Italian Andrea Navarra and the second car will be shared by Scandola and Finland’s Anton Alen. Toyota, Skoda, Volkswagen all have Super 2000 cars and we could see some of them on board as the season progresses.
In addition to the factory teams, Bernd Casier of Belgium and Luca Betti of Italy have thrown their hats into the IRC. Both former Junior World Rally competitors will be privateers; Casier in a Peugeot 207 S2000 and Betti in an undisclosed S2000 car. Also 7 time WRC winner Gilles Panizzi is looking to put together funds for a drive. Couple all these drivers with local talent and there should be some great fights in 2007.
The season will open this weekend on the Safari Rally Kenya. The Fiat Puntos of Navarra and Scandola will be challenged by the best Africa can throw at them. Not only the tough conditions, but the skilled drivers of the African Rally Championship will stand in the way of victory. Reigning ARC champ Patrick Emontspool, Conrad Rautenbach and many others are on the entry list. In addition several familiar faces from the Safari’s WRC past are present: Azar Anwar, Emmanuel Katto, Sammy Aslam, Peter Horsey to name a few.
Lazio Racing Stats is Improving
Hi everyone!
I have done a lot lately, I hope you like it.
First was to get a new blog, you asked me to do it, so I did. I have pasted the old entries in below in case you want to see them.
I have also switched to using Cascading Style Sheets to make my pages cleaner and more efficient. However, if you have an older browser that does not support CSS, you will see white pages with lits. Sorry about that!
Please give me any feedback you think is appropriate.
Thanks
I have done a lot lately, I hope you like it.
First was to get a new blog, you asked me to do it, so I did. I have pasted the old entries in below in case you want to see them.
I have also switched to using Cascading Style Sheets to make my pages cleaner and more efficient. However, if you have an older browser that does not support CSS, you will see white pages with lits. Sorry about that!
Please give me any feedback you think is appropriate.
Thanks
Rally Norway Stats
Originally posted 2/15/2007
Coming up is the 3rd round of the WRC - the all new Rally Norway. Since this is the debut of Rally Norway, there are no stats to post. So I decided to put some interesting tidbits together. Enjoy!
This is the 22nd running of Rally Norway and last year's winner was Henning Solberg in a Peugeot 307 WRC.
Norway Drivers Statistics
World Champions: 1 - 8th all-time
Petter Solberg (2003)
Rally Victories: 13 - 7th all-time
Petter Solberg (13)
Podiums: 33 - 8th all-time
Petter Solberg (32)
Henning Solberg (1)
Points: 368 - 13th all-time
Petter Solberg (324)
Henning Solberg (42)
John Haugland (2)
Point Finishes: 73 - 13th all-time
Petter Solberg (61)
Henning Solberg (11)
John Haugland (1)
Did You Know? Even though Petter Solberg is the first Norweigian to score a rally win, podium, and championship, the first man from Norway to score a WRC point was John Haugland in 1979 (9th place - Sweden).
One to Watch: Thomas Schie (NOR) - 2 time defending national champion makes his 7th WRC start. He debuted at 2002 Swedish Rally (retired) and scored his best result of his career last weekend in the 2006 Swedish Rally (14th). Now he is on home soil, and has shown skill on his native land. With a flawless drive he could be in position to steal away a point from some of the big boys.
Coming up is the 3rd round of the WRC - the all new Rally Norway. Since this is the debut of Rally Norway, there are no stats to post. So I decided to put some interesting tidbits together. Enjoy!
This is the 22nd running of Rally Norway and last year's winner was Henning Solberg in a Peugeot 307 WRC.
Norway Drivers Statistics
World Champions: 1 - 8th all-time
Petter Solberg (2003)
Rally Victories: 13 - 7th all-time
Petter Solberg (13)
Podiums: 33 - 8th all-time
Petter Solberg (32)
Henning Solberg (1)
Points: 368 - 13th all-time
Petter Solberg (324)
Henning Solberg (42)
John Haugland (2)
Point Finishes: 73 - 13th all-time
Petter Solberg (61)
Henning Solberg (11)
John Haugland (1)
Did You Know? Even though Petter Solberg is the first Norweigian to score a rally win, podium, and championship, the first man from Norway to score a WRC point was John Haugland in 1979 (9th place - Sweden).
One to Watch: Thomas Schie (NOR) - 2 time defending national champion makes his 7th WRC start. He debuted at 2002 Swedish Rally (retired) and scored his best result of his career last weekend in the 2006 Swedish Rally (14th). Now he is on home soil, and has shown skill on his native land. With a flawless drive he could be in position to steal away a point from some of the big boys.
WRC Sweden Statistics
Originally posted on 2/7/2007
I am moving all my rally stats to this website. This is the first time for this so I hope it works.
Swedish Rally Historical Stats
Sweden has been included in the WRC Drivers' Championship 26 times, beginning in 1979. It was skipped in 1990 and rotated to a Formula 2 event in 1994.
It has been Round 2 of the WRC 24 times, but twice was the opening event: 1989 & 1986.
Sweden has been dominated by Scandanavians; Frenchman Sebastien Loeb is the only non-Scandanavian to win (2004).
It has had 2 names:
International Swedish Rally (1979-2001)
Uddeholm International Swedish Rally (2002 - 2006)
8 Drivers picked up Maiden WRC wins in Sweden:
before WRC Drivers' Championship
Stig Blomqvist (1973) Bjorn Waldegard (1975)Per Eklund (1976)
Anders Kullang (1980)
Ingvar Carlsson (1989)
Mats Jonsson (1992)
Marcus Gronholm (2000)
Harri Rovanpera (2001)
Did You Know? : Colin McRae's WRC debut came on the 1987 Swedish Rally in a Vauxhall Nova, co-driven by Derek Ringer (GBR).
For complete stats, click here.
Getting Started
Originally Posted on 2/7/2007
Good morning internet!
I am LazioCenturion or as my friends call me Matt. I started this webpage a week or so ago to share all my racing stats with the world.
Growing up I always loved playing with cars and then I started to love keeping track of the pretend races I had. That soon turned into a hobby of keeping statistics for anything and everything.
Auto racing became my main statistical pursuit, and being from the United States, NASCAR was the natural fit. That was until 2001 when I discovered the World Rally Championship. Not only was it the most entertaining thing I had ever seen, but it also has a huge amount of stats associated with it.
After building up Excel spreadsheets for all 361 World Rallies dating back to 1979, I moved onto other things. There is an American series called Speed World Challenge. The GT portion of the series is similar to FIA GT in the type of cars. Currently, SWC GT has Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Dodges and Porsches as the main cars, but there are also Volvos, Aston Martins, and more. I quickly sucked up the stats for this series, dating back to 1999.
This past year, 2006, when there was down time from Speed World Challenge and between the last couple rallies of 2006, I was bored. So I decided to find another series and it was Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, aka German Touring Cars. I followed basically the same format as the SWC and put together results and stats dating back the inception of the "new DTM" in 2000.
Of course, when I saw the official release about the 2007 IRC, my interest was peaked, so I decided to collect the 2006 results from the "0 season" and bring along the 2007 results in the same fashion as the WRC.
It was this last piece that really spurred the website. Until then, I had been posting rally statistics and such on the motorsport forum. But in my research, I could not find any good sites for the IRC. This gave me an idea to put all my data out there for everyone to enjoy.
I originally was building it using Yahoo! Page Builder, but not exactly happy with the results, so I decided to use HTML. The only problem was I knew no HTML. But I found some good tutorials on the web and now I have some very simple pages with a few images, but mostly text and links.
I am still working on putting all the pages in the same format and updating all my links, so I apologize for any errors you receive. But I hope in the coming weeks to have everything in order and uploading lots of files for you to check out.
Have fun!
Good morning internet!
I am LazioCenturion or as my friends call me Matt. I started this webpage a week or so ago to share all my racing stats with the world.
Growing up I always loved playing with cars and then I started to love keeping track of the pretend races I had. That soon turned into a hobby of keeping statistics for anything and everything.
Auto racing became my main statistical pursuit, and being from the United States, NASCAR was the natural fit. That was until 2001 when I discovered the World Rally Championship. Not only was it the most entertaining thing I had ever seen, but it also has a huge amount of stats associated with it.
After building up Excel spreadsheets for all 361 World Rallies dating back to 1979, I moved onto other things. There is an American series called Speed World Challenge. The GT portion of the series is similar to FIA GT in the type of cars. Currently, SWC GT has Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Dodges and Porsches as the main cars, but there are also Volvos, Aston Martins, and more. I quickly sucked up the stats for this series, dating back to 1999.
This past year, 2006, when there was down time from Speed World Challenge and between the last couple rallies of 2006, I was bored. So I decided to find another series and it was Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, aka German Touring Cars. I followed basically the same format as the SWC and put together results and stats dating back the inception of the "new DTM" in 2000.
Of course, when I saw the official release about the 2007 IRC, my interest was peaked, so I decided to collect the 2006 results from the "0 season" and bring along the 2007 results in the same fashion as the WRC.
It was this last piece that really spurred the website. Until then, I had been posting rally statistics and such on the motorsport forum. But in my research, I could not find any good sites for the IRC. This gave me an idea to put all my data out there for everyone to enjoy.
I originally was building it using Yahoo! Page Builder, but not exactly happy with the results, so I decided to use HTML. The only problem was I knew no HTML. But I found some good tutorials on the web and now I have some very simple pages with a few images, but mostly text and links.
I am still working on putting all the pages in the same format and updating all my links, so I apologize for any errors you receive. But I hope in the coming weeks to have everything in order and uploading lots of files for you to check out.
Have fun!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)