Subaru Success in Tanzania
Subaru Impreza cars provisionally took the top three places on the Rally for Tanzania, the first FIA regional championship rally of 2009 and the first qualifying event for the 2010 world championship under-27 Pirelli Star Driver award. Overall winner was veteran Zimbabwe driver Jamie Whyte who inherited the lead when the Ugandan Emmanuel Katto suffered a puncture and a broken jack near the end and dropped to second. Twice previous African champion Muna Singh had retired earlier with accident damage. Leading PSD challenger on day 1 was Matthieu Adrianjafy from Madagascar in a Subaru but he retired on day 2 with engine problems. He had however amassed enough stage results to qualify along with Tanzanian Randeep Birdi (Mitsubishi) for the regional Shoot-out later in the year. Unlucky PSD challengers included Tanzanian Navraj Hans whose Mitsubishi had engine trouble while the Mitsubishis of Kenya brothers Peter and Alex Horsey both retired.

This year each of the four FIA regions offering the chance of a PSD award to their competitors will select their award winners by virtue of who makes the fastest stage times relative to other eligible drivers on two qualifying events, and not according to the best highest placed in the over results. In the case of the African series, drivers living in the north of the qualifying region will be judged on this event and the Safari Rally in Kenya, those living further south on the Zambia and Zimbabwe events, then they meet for a final shoot-out on the Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally.

Results Kobil Rally of Tanzania 20-22 February 2009 Dar-es-Salaam
1. Jamie Whyte/Philip Archenoul      Subaru Impreza    3h06m25s
2. Emmanuel Kato/Moses Mutovu        Subaru Impreza    3h07m00s
3. Oliver Costa/JF Ruhashyankiko     Subaru Impreza    3h15m04s
4. Lola Verlaque/MeganVerlaque       VW Polo S2000     3h19m41s
5. Randeep Birdi/Sahib Bhatti        Mitsubishi Lancer 3h20m48s
6. Saleem Haji/Rahim Sulieman        Mitsubishi Lancer 3h21m30s
7. Don Smith/Bob Kaugi               Subaru Impreza    3h23m47s
8. Dharm Pandya/Sanjay Pandya        Subaru Legacy     3h28m26s
9. Gamdust Haji/Bashir Suleiman      Subaru Impreza    3h55m06s

Provisional Pirelli Rally Results: Randeep Birdi 39pts; Mathieu Andrianjafy 32; Salim Haji 32; Alex Horsey 22; Izhar Mirza 21; Peter Horsey 19; Navraj Hans 11.

Raikkonen in a Snow Bank
Jari Ketomaa won the 2009 SM Vaakuna-Ralli, based in the Finnish town of Mikkeli, driving his Subaru Impreza WRX Sti (N14) as Pirelli Star Driver winner Jarkko Nikara (Evo 9) finished an excellent second overall, his best rally result to date. Jussi Valimaki brought his Evo 9 home in third place ahead of the Tommy Makinen Racing Subaru N14 of Kristian Sohlberg, Jukka Ketomaki (Evo 10) and Teemu Arminen (N14). Kimi Raikkonen once again impressed on a rally in his Tommi Makinen Racing prepared Abarth Grande Punto S2000, as he had been lying seventh overall only to go off on SS6. Spectators helped get the car back on the road but Raikkonen ended up down the leaderboard in 17th at the finish. Retirements included early leader Juha Salo (Mitsubishi Evo 9) out on SS3 with mechanical problems, Janne Tuohino (Subaru Impreza WRX Sti) and Jukka Hiltunen (207 S2000) both off on SS3, while Kosti Katajamäki (Evo 9) went off on SS4. Ketomaa now leads the Finnish series.

Other news from the Weekend
Argentina: Nicolas Madero scored a last stage victory over rally leader, fellow Mitsubishi driver Federico Villagra at the opening round of the Argentina championship. The event was based at Mina Clavero, the home town of the late champion Jorge Recalde. In third place was the Subaru Impreza of Claudio Menzi.

Birr Nenagh Stages: Northern Ireland Dunlop champion Patrick Elliott headed a top five results for Impreza World Rally Cars, while Mitsubishi cars took the took the top four places in Group N. Gareth MacHale was among 150 entries for this event. He had entered an Opel Corsa Super 2000 but did not start.

Sad news from Portugal. Jose Megre, founder of off-road competition in his native country, died on Saturday after a long illness. As a motor engineer, he worked with the Portuguese sporting federation, having first become involved in motorsport through his work at Entreposto, the national Portuguese Datsun/Nissan operation. He was 66 years old

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