European Rally Championship. Fiat driver Giandomenico Basso scored maximum European Championship points when he finished second on the ELPA Rally, taking the championship lead away from Michal Solowow. Solowow retired when the gearbox of his Peugeot was damaged on a rock. The rally was run in Central Greece in very changeable conditions, won by Mitsubishi driver John Papadimitriou with Northen Ireland codriver Allan Harryman. Another Irish success this weekend! Solowow started the event with a five point lead over Basso, but the event turned out to be quite a lottery because of the weather. Basso, Papadimitriou and Solowow swopped the lead in the first three stages. Fontana punctured in his Mitsubishi and later had electrical troubles, Vovos spun twice and then retired with transmission trouble. Two ERC events remain, Antibes and Valais.

Finland. The last round of the Finnish Rally Championship, the Hyvinkaan Rally, has been won by Juha Salo – Mitsubishi Evo IX. Already champion since the previous round, Jari Ketomaa – Subaru Impreza N15 was second at over a half of a minute. Janne Touhino driving a Peugeot 207 S2000 was third, more then two minutes behind.
Japan. Katsuta has now won four consecutive asphalt rallies in Japan, but Nutahara still leads the All-Japan series. The Shinshiro Rally is based at the home of the Yokohama factory but Dunlop users dominated the event!

Austria. Raimund Baumchlager won the penultimate round of the Austrian Championship, the ARBO Steiermark Rally, and the national title. Driving a Skoda Fabia Super 2000 the Austrian beat the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX driven by Patrick Winter, while Polish driver Tomasz Kuchar – Peugeot 207 S2000 was third. Andreas Waldherr – VW Polo S2000 had to retire with gearbox problems and Manfred Stohl with Subaru Impreza CNG finished 7th. Baumchlager won his eight national title.

Spain. The Spanish championship Rallye Villa de Llanes was won by Alberto Hevia’s Skoda Fabia S2000 ahead of Miguel Fuster’s Porsche GT3 and Enrique Ojeda’s Impreza.

Norway. Mads Ostberg – Subaru Impreza WRC won by more then 3 minutes the last round of the season, Rally Hedemarken, clinching in the same time the championship title. Finishing on the 4th place Martin Stenshorne could not beat Andrea Mikkelsen in the fight for the group N title.

Africa. There is anger in Africa at the decision to give Peter Horsey the Pirelli Star Driver award at the recent Shoot-out in Rwanda. Navraj Hans is upset because he had the same overall time as Horsey on the rally (second place was decided by a tie-decided rule), Chase Atwell because he set five fastest stage times as opposed to Peter's four, notwithstanding he restarting under SupeRally rules, and both because Horsey was a "Wild card" entry in the series and did not qualify for the Shoot-Out through the usual means. The FIA state the awards are given according to their discretion. No change is expected...

Asia Pacific. Entry for the penultimate round of the FIA’s APRC series is small in quantity, great in quality. This weekend’s Rally Indonesia sees Australian Cody Crocker confident to be crowned champion for the fourth successive time in his Subaru. He currently stands twenty seven points ahead of Katsu Taguchi. Full two-car teams from Subaru Singapore, MRF and Cusco Racing are taking part.

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