Only Three can Win
The curious balance of the 2009 world championship calendar has taken its first victim. Patrik Sandell is already out of the race for the Production Car World Championship before half way through June, despite already winning the category on two events and a second place. Drivers must contest six of the eight rounds of the series, and six of the eight qualifying events have already been held. Sandell has contested five rallies, and his only remaining event will be the Wales Rally GB in October. He now plans to gain more asphalt rally experience between now and then on non championship events. This year the PCWRC series was virtually all on gravel while the 2010 calendar is likely to feature many more asphalt rallies. Three drivers are still in PCWRC contention. Neither Nasser Al Attiyah and Armindo Araujo will contest Repco Rally Australia and have only one event to go, Wales Rally GB. A third driver, Eyvind Brynildsen can also end up champion, and he is competing on both remaining events.

Star Driver Divorce
Following the Acropolis Rally when they had their third successive series of misfortunes Pirelli Star Driver Nicos Thomas has changed codrivers. Halfway through the six-round PSD programme, Nicos has parted company with Stephane Prevot, one of the world’s most experienced world championship codrivers, and elected instead to compete with a fellow Cypriot Angelos Loizides. This change has come at a critical time for Thomas, a driver who comes from the country with some of the slowest rallies in the world. The next event for the PSD drivers is Neste Oil Rally Finland, the world championship’s fastest event, an event which Prevot had contested eight times before, finished in the top ten places five times and was third with Chris Atkinson last year. Thomas, who was admitted into the PSD squad at the last moment after an appeal, has not enjoyed a great season so far. He went off the road in Portugal, suffered fuel related trouble in Sardinia and then had transmission and engine troubles in Greece, while on Cyprus Rally, a non-PSD event but which was Nicos’ home rally, they retired with electrical trouble

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