“If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise” and the surprise that would greet you had you been in the forests of south Wales this weekend, would have been the final round of the 2010 World Rally Championship!
The WRC is the top of the tree in terms of world motorsport in Garage Awesome’s eyes, I know some will argue that F1 is the top tier, but for sheer entertainment and driver ability, nothing comes close to the skill the WRC drivers continue to show over the 13 rounds held this year, taking in a wide variety of surfaces, stages and crazy weather conditions.
So, who did the envious task of covering the British round of the pinnacle of motorsport fall to? Well, Chris is still developing his camera skills and has spent the weekend taking photos of pretty much anything, and with work commitments elsewhere, that and the release of a certain XBox title this week beginning with “Call” and ending in “Duty”, that has turned into a full time job, put me out of the running, so it was no surprise that Coop volunteered to spend 3 days, in a wet, muddy and cold forest in the south of Wales to bring you the coverage we have!
Coop is a hardened rally fan, with his dad often marshalling the local and national events, so it came as no surprise that he was the man for the job, and with his camera failing just a couple of weeks back, he dug into his bank account and managed to get a replacement only last Thursday, so this is its maiden outing!
With the Garage Awesome team accounted for, on with the action! Most of you will already be aware, that for the 7th time in a row, Frenchman Sebastien Loeb and his ever present co-driver; Daniel Elena have taken the overall WRC driver’s title, so with the pressure totally off, a great display was expected from all the drivers in a straight fight to be Rally GB winner!
SS1 took part in front of a packed crowd in the city of Cardiff, in the bay, and with the perfect start for Loeb; taking the stage win over fellow Citroen C4 drivers; Sebastien Ogier and Danny Sordo.
Day 2 saw Special Stages 1-7 with Jari Matti Latvala, Loeb and Ogier sharing stage wins, but it was Loeb who had the advantage of 1.8secs over Petter Solberg, also driving a Citroen C4 WRC. By the end of day 3 Loeb still had his lead and had managed to increase it over Petter to just under 5 seconds, current 3rd overall was the Focus of Mikko Hirvonen.
The last day, and the last time you will get chance to see the current cars in the WRC as the regulation changes bring in a whole new fleet for the 2011 season, saw Loeb carry on winning the first of 4 stages by 7 seconds extending the lead over Solberg to 11.5 seconds, and then taking SS18 too, making an 18 second cushion going into the last 40km.
But, the fairytale ending was fulfilled, despite Latvala and Sordo taking SS19 and 20 respectively, King Sebastien of Rallyworld rode his trusty Citroen steed home to take victory of Wales Rally GB, followed by Petter Solberg and Jari Matti Latvala taking the final podium spot!
Retirements, fortunately, were few and far between, with Ogier’s off road expedition on SS8 making him the only top runner to fail to complete the rally. Fan-favourite, American internet video star Ken Block, came close however, with a broken drive shaft on day 2 putting him behind, however to make up for it, he told media afterwards that on SS19 he “went extra hard and extra sideways” to say thank you to the hardcore fans out on the stages.
Finally, before you indulge in some action shots, we have to mention the other championships decided today with Xavier Pons clinching the SWRC in his Ford Fiesta and Armindo Araujo’s Lancer Evo taking the PWRC championship title!
Phew, that’s Wales and The WRC done for another year! It would be nice to go again next year, hey maybe we can convince Coop that we should all go! Be sure to know that Garage Awesome will continue to bring you some of the UK’s best rally action in 2011!
Pic Credits – Rich Cooper
