Wales returns to Rally GB
A brief communique issued at the end of the second day of Rally GB stated that the Wales Assembly Government has agreed with International Motor Sports, who run Rally GB on behalf of the British motorsport, to continue sponsorship of the event. Nothing was said about the future location of the event, the length of time covered by the revived agreement, the future name of the event, the amount of funding concerned, or any compensation payable for the withdrawal of sponsorship for the 2009 event. The statement confirmed however the widely held assumption that the Welsh government withdrew their support because the FIA had decided that he event would not be included in the 2010 world championship calendar. The event was reinstated when the FIA broke the rotational event selection system and put into the 2010 world series earlier this year. The withdrawal of support meant the 2009 was funded out of federation reserves, and led to a noticeable lack of promotion for the event within Cardiff.

Long time world championship codriver David Senior had his moment of glory as a driver. Because the Cypriot driver Spyros Pavlides had to miss coming to Britain for personal reasons, leaving the team Autotek with a potentially unfulfilled obligation to field a car on Rally GB, David was asked to become a driver for a day. He duly drove the car passed the official start line and then went home.

Jari-Matti Latvala admitted the way he prepared for the traditionally slippery Rally GB was to go out on icy roads back home in Finland driving an old rear-drive Ford Escort BDA.

After clinching the PCWRC title back in Australia, it was still necessary for Araujo’s Ralliart Italy team to enter this event, and used this occasion to gain top level experience of the Evo X models. The team has run Evo X cars this year with the official Pirelli Star Driver teams but till now these cars have not proved reliable. Happily all five PSD drivers reached the finish, including the luckless Nicos Thomas who had not finished a rally till now. The only serious problem for the team on this occasion was a gearbox failure for the South African Jon Williams. The next PSD event will be Jordan 2010.

Gravel note crews were as usual banned as is customary on gravel rallies, but an entry for an experienced gravel note driver Patrick Magaud was made in the hope Citroen could receive up-to-date information about stage conditions before the second loop stages were run. The organisers issued a stern pre-event warning that this was not allowed, and the entry was withdrawn.

19 year old Irish driver Craig Breen clinched the Fiesta Sport Trophy International championship at Rally GB, ahead of German driver Patrick Anglade. Fiesta cars won two of the five classes on Rally GB. Apart from Loeb’s Citroen and Brynildsen’s Skoda, the only other class winner was Loic Mattei’s Peugeot 207 RC Rally turbo.

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