IRC. Opel is coming to Scotland. German rally driver Tim Stebani is due to drive the MSD Opel Corsa OPC Super 2000 at IRC Rally of Scotland, as the second round of Hankook’s gravel tyre development programme. In October Stebani drove the Hankook car for the first time on a gravel event in Germany at the Lausitz championship rally when he finished sixth overall.

Argentina. Mitsubishi driver Marcos Ligato won the penultimate round of the Argentine championship at Bariloche. Championship leader Nicolas Madero, who hoped to clinch the title on this event, stopped on day 1 with a broken oil radiator, and the championship will now be decided at the final round at Cordoba.

Belgium. Two points separated the top three drivers in the Belgium national championship. Winner of Condroz-Huy Rally, the final round , was Pieter Tsjoen in a Ford Focus WRC and this enabled him to pip Paul Lietaer and Melissa Debackere to the title. Tsjoen is now champion for the fifth time. Francois Duval led for half the way but crashed, as did Patrick Snijers while Freddy Loix lost a lot of time with electrical troubles. Strong rumours in Belgium suggest that Thierry Neuville will drive the second Kronos Peugeot car in six rallies in the IRC in 2010 with Kris Meeke as number one driver, while Neuville will also have a programme in the JWRC in a Citroen C2. Kronos chief Marc van Dalen said nothing yet had been finalised.

NZ. Tony Quinn won the six day asphalt Dunlop Targa NZ in his Nissan GT-R. Reigning national rally champion Hayden Paddon lost time when he went off the road.

France. Jean-Francois Mourgues won the Criterium des Cevennes, penultimate round of the French asphalt championship, with PCWRC codriver Denis Giraudet alongside in his Peugeot 307 WRC. Second place went to P207 S2000 driver Guillaume Canivenq who leads the series. This will be decided at the Rallye du Var on 27th November where again Sebastien Loeb will start together with his wife Severine.

Italy. This year’s JWRC runner-up Michal Kosciuszko graduated to Super 2000 and snatched a last-stage victory on the Azzano Rally, final round of the Italian gravel series, in a Skoda Fabia S2000. He beat Andrea Navarra (Subaru) by 0.3 seconds...

Other news. Porsche driver Sergio Vallejo was declared Spanish champion at Costa Brava heralded the oldest rally in Spain. The event doubles as the penultimate round of the Spanish championship and is also the penultimate round of the FIA’s European Historic Sporting Rally Championship. This competition was won by Walter Röhrl teaming up with co-pilot Peter Göbel in a Porsche 911 RSR from 1981. Peugeot 207 S2000 driver Jozef Beres is champion of Slovakia after winning the Kosice Rally last round of the championship. Subaru WRC driver Denis Kuipers won the final round of the Dutch Rally open series, Bernhard ten Brinke finished second with his Ford Focus WRC and took the title.

3mmm