Betting on Wittmann
25 year old Austrian driver Franz Wittmann Junior is expected to be Mitsubishi's main challenger in the 2009 IRC series, starting at Rallye Monte Carlo (21-24 January), entering seven or eight qualifying rounds, sponsored by the betting company Interwetten. He was nominated by the Austrian federation as their representative in the 2008 Pirelli Star Driver Shoot-out and his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX which will be run by Stohl-Racing brought him second place in the 2008 Austrian series. Franz's father was eleven times national Austrian champion, over a period of 25 years, and was second in the FIA European series in 1978.


Petter Solberg entered Rally Norway
Petter Solberg confirmed his entry into this years Rally Norway with Phil Mills as his co-driver. But Petter has not found a solution regarding what car he will be driving, and has asked the FIA to accepted a request to notify them of this information at a later date. Meanwhile he denied buying a Citroen Xsara WRC from the French Manufacturer according to his website. Close to 50 competitors have submitted their entries to Rally Norway, taking place 12-15 February. The WRC’s youngest ever points scorer Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen, is the big favourite in the PWRC category this year at his home event. This year Mikkelsen is competing in the Norwegian national Subaru Cup series, which combines rally and circuit racing, and the nineteen year old no doubt hopes Rally Norway will not be his only 2009 WRC entry. Mikkelsen is entered with a Subaru Impreza N14, which will be run by URT, in the PWRC category where he will compete with Patrik Flodin, Patrik Sandell and Martin Prokop among others. Mikkelsen had to abandon plans to run a WRCar with M-Sport in the championship this year as he didn't find the necessary budget.

Daihatsu Withdraw from Rallying
Daihatsu today became the third Japanese company to withdraw from rallying, each citing the world economic downturn as the reason. Daihatsu's recent rallying activities have centred around national championship event with an annual international appearance with their cars at Rally Japan. Their current rally cars are Boon models (known in other countries as Sirion) which have been successful in both Group A and group N versions. Their activities have been handled by the specialist Japanese DRS company, who worked not only on behalf of the factory but also for privateers. In 1993, Daihatsu cars finished 5th, 6th and 7th overall on the world championship Safari Rally in Kenya.

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foto 1: Wittmann - Mitsubishi
foto 2: Daihatsu