Markko Martin wins in England
Former rally driver Markko Martin emerged from retirement to win the Richard Burns Memorial Rally, a two-day single venue event held in honour of the world rally champion who died in 2005. The Estonian was accompanied by retired codriver Robert Reid, whose active rally career was spent alongside Richard. The event was held at Marham, a military airfield in Norfolk, East England, and attracted around one hundred entries. Markko and Robert were at the wheel of a Subaru Impreza WRC2008, giving Subaru historically their first victory with this model. Markko is currently a regular test driver for Subaru World Rally Team. The event was organized in conjunction with the Richard Burns Foundation and the RAF Benevolent Fund.

Capirossi follow Valentino Rossi
Suzuki MotoGP rider Loris Capirossi is following Valentino Rossi into rallying! After earlier experience in the annual end-of-season Bologna rallysprint, the Italian Capirossi is now to compete in a Suzuki Swift Sport Cup car on the Tempest Rally on 8th November. This one-day event includes 80km of stages on military roads and forests in South England. His team manager Paul Denning will be competing on this event as well. Suzuki are the sponsor of the Tempest Rally, one of Britain's longest running club rallies. This year the Tempest is the final round of the national Suzuki one-make rally series. His codriver will be Craig Thorley.

Mats Jonsson wins again!
Fifty year old Mats Jonsson became 2008 Group A rally champion of Sweden at the final championship round this weekend at Norrkoping. He was driving the same ten year old Ford Escort World Rally Car with which he won the South Swedish European zone championship rally earlier this year. This was the fourteenth time he had become a rally champion in his country. His greatest claims were winning the Swedish world championship rally in 1992 and 1993, each time with Toyota. When asked if he intended to try for a fifteenth title, he admitted he wanted to do that. And when asked if he would progress to a Focus World Rally Car, he said he could not afford such a car...! The Norrkoping Rally was a two day event. Mats had a spin on the first day and restarted in a favourable sixth position Overnight leader Jari Saarinen and second places Jonas Wigren both lost time when they stalled their Focus World Rally Cars, giving Jonsson his chance to win the rally and the title.

2008 African Rally Championship has ended
South African driver Jon Williams is the FIA's first Pirelli Star Driver, an award which brings him a car sponsored by the FIA and Pirelli on six rounds of the 2009 world rally championship. He gained the award after finishing the top qualifying driver on the Zambia Rally, the final round of
the FIA's African championship, beating Peter Horsey and Alfir Khan from Kenya. Horsey started the event the favourite for the award but firstly went off the road and lost seven minutes, then had suspension failure three stages from the end. Khan had started the event four points behind Williams, an impossible challenge to overcome unless Williams retired. The event itself was won by Japanese driver Hideaki Miyoshi who thereby became the 2008 FIA African regional champion. Zambian Muna Singh was Miyoshi's closest rival starting seven points behind, but he retired on the first full day with gearbox failure. Zimbabwe Rally winner Jamie Whyte finished second on the rally and second in the series. Five events were run in this year's African series, with the Rwanda round cancelled for financial reasons and the Safari Rally in Kenya finally held after being postponed. This event was run to the north and the east around Zambia's capital Lusaka. Four other drivers are waiting to win Pirelli Star Driver scholarships. The next will be decided at the Asia Pacific round in Malaysia on the second weekend in October. Two weeks later the two contenders selected out of the European and other regional series will be known and finally the Middle East series candidate will not be known until the end of the year.

Guy Wilks looking for happiness
British rally champion Guy Wilks is in a race against time to land a seat with the Subaru World Rally Team for 2009 and he needs Britain to back him. Guy is appealing for all British rally fans, motor clubs, businesses - everyone who shares our passion for the sport - to get involved in the Wilks 500 Club investment/sponsorship scheme. Guy said: "Driving for Subaru would be the realisation of a dream for me and I think it would really give British rally fans something to cheer. It would be fantastic. Whether it's five pals clubbing together or a business who sees this as a big marketing opportunity, I would be very grateful for your support." Subaru have said that Guy would receive equal machinery to Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson if the Wilks 500 Club can raise the finance to secure a third seat in the team next year. Guy added: "David Richards has talked about wanting a Brit back in his team in the near future - and I want to be that Brit. "It's so frustrating to sit on the sidelines and watch my old JWRC rivals Dani Sordo, P-G, Urmo Aava, Jari-Matti Latvala - all guys I could beat - setting fastest times and taking podiums in the WRC." Make a tax efficient investment in Guy's future earnings and endorsements from the World Rally Championship. Guy is releasing 500 shares at a cost of £2,000 per share.

3mmm
photo 1: Markko Martin and Robert Reid
photo 2: Ford Escort WRC and Mats Jonsson
photo 3: 2008 African Champion
photo 4: Jon Williams - VW Polo