Rally GB Seeks Date Change
The FIA's world council meeting on 26th March is to consider a request to postpone the Wales Rally GB for a week, so as to run the event on 5-7 December. The use of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff where the rally headquarters is based and a short promotional stage is held, will be lost if the permission is not granted. The stadium is now no longer available on the date applied for, because of an important Rugby fixture, South Africa vs Wales. Today the Acropolis Rally is announcing a change of their headquarters. This will move from the Equestrian centre at Markopoulo across to the military area at Tatoi to the north of Athens. Tatoi airfield has long standing connections from the ‘seventies with the Greek round of the championship, being the venue for races which were run a part of the Acropolis.

Tide is Turning for Subaru
FIA's homologation of a spherical bearing in the front suspension of the 2008 version Impreza Group N car is being claimed by Subaru competition managers as the breakthrough necessary to make this car a consistent winner. With these special parts fitted, 2008 version Imprezas finished first and second in Paraguay on the Cordillera Rally, opening round of the FIA's Codasur zone championship, while Jari Ketomaa won the Group N category on the Tahko Spa national championship rally in Finland. Not only does this piece give better handling but also reduces the stress on the power steering equipment, as the basic steering is more precise.
Image: Diego Dominguez winning Cordillera Rally in Paraguay

Bacco is Back
20 year old Italian driver Giorgio Bacco is to contest Rally Argentina as a late entry in the Production Car category, replacing Fabio Frisiero at the wheel of Subaru number 47. The FIA have allowed Frisiero to withdraw from this event for family reasons. This is part of the three car Motoring Club entry, in which the Dunlop sponsored Slovenian driver Andrez Jereb drives car 45 and the Finn Jari Ketomaa car 46. Motoring Club chief Gabriele Favero confirmed that Bacco has driven as a non-championship driver for Motoring Club in Sardinia, Finland and the Wales Rally GB while still a teenager. While Jereb and Ketomaa will be in N12s, Bacco will continue to drive an N11 Subaru.
Image: Bacco in Sardinia action

Cols Hurt in Rally Test
At the end of last week Belgian champion Larry Cols was involved in a high speed testing accident at Rodt, near St Vith in the VW Polo S2000 in which he had been engaged to contest this year's national series. It is reported that the Rene Georges team engineer Hans Goudezeune was with him at the time and died when the car impacted an isolated tree on the codriver's side. Cols lost consciousness in the accident and is currently in intensive care with multiple injuries in an induced coma. They were testing the car before the opening round of the Belgian series this weekend, the East Belgian Rally, trying to improve the handling characteristics of the car.
Image: Goudezeune and Cols

Promotion for Wilding
39 year old Australian Paul Wilding has been promoted to Team Manager of Suzuki World Rally Team, following the unexpected departure of Akira Kawada who had held the position since January. Paul has a long history with Suzuki Sport having been involved in Suzuki's rally sport projects over many years, among them the chief coordination of Suzuki's debut year in the JWRC (2002), management of Suzuki's Asia-Pacific Rally Championship team (2002-2004) and the 2006 Suzuki JWRC team. It was during his APRC work that the achievements of current Subaru World Championship driver Chris Atkinson and his brother first gained international attention. His new responsibility starts in Argentina. The former manager Akira Kawada has left the team at short notice, to return to a career in motor sport journalism. He came into office following the decision of the team's technical manager Michel Nandan to leave after Wales Rally GB last December.
Image: Technical director Inagaki and former manager Kawada

Noble Takes Over
Gordon Noble, veteran Northern Ireland codriver, is taking over from Tom Walsh as Clerk of the Course of Rally Ireland, when it returns to the world championship calendar in the last weekend of January 2009. Noble has been active in international rallying for 15 year, having codriven for Trevor Cathers, the late Mark Fisher, Kris Meeke and the 2004 FIA World Production Car Rally Champion Niall McShea. Former Formula 1 team principal Eddie Jordan continues as Rally Ireland Chairman.

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