Euro Decisions at Valais
2006 FIA European rally champion Abarth team driver Giandomenico Basso goes to the Valais Rally in Switzerland in the hope of regaining his title, the Fiat group’s final chance of a major rally title this year. The Italian driver starts the eleventh and final event in the ERC series 14 points clear of his last remaining challenger, the Polish Peugeot driver Michal Solowow, with unusually a maximum total of 19 points which can be scored. This is the only round on this year’s ERC divided into three legs, This is the biggest motorsport event in the country, using stages mostly on asphalt but with certain gravel stretches, run in mountainous ski-resort territory with stages which go up to 1800 metres.

Middle Eastern Conflicts
Two points separate the top three drivers in the Middle East rally series next weekend at the start of the Jordan Rally, the penultimate round of the seven event championship. Al Attiyah heads the series with three wins, total 30 scores, followed by his Qatar teammate Misfer Marri with a collection of scores totalling 29, and then the Saudi driver Yazeed al Rajri with two wins and a second, making 28. Like the world championship event last year, the rally is based at the Dead Sea resorts, and runs on Friday and Saturday. The final round of the MERC will be held in Dubai in early December, when the MERC Pirelli Star Driver will also be selected.

With Help from Father’s Friend
Austrian driver Franz Wittmann Junior, son of Austria’s legendary rally driver who won the national title 12 times and was the last genuinely private driver to win a world championship rally, is to drive a Super 2000 on the Waldviertal Rally this weekend. Interwetten team driver Franz Junior has been in vain in the IRC series with a Group N Mitsubishi unable to match the speed of Super 2000 cars. The car is being provided by the team of Ronald Leschhorn, who in earlier days was instrumental in father’s rally successes.

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