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2009 Rally GB
The 2009 Rally GB was the 12th and last round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season and the 65th running of the Rally of Great Britain. The rally consisted of 16 special stages. Sébastien Loeb claimed victory to record a sixth successive world rally title. Report Sébastien Loeb secured his sixth world title with a win at the season finale in Wales. His rival Mikko Hirvonen had to settle for second place and thus buried his dream of his first world title. Loeb came to Wales a point behind World Cup leaders Hirvonen. So the starting position was clear. The one who finishes ahead of the other in points is world champion. Loeb and Hirvonen fought a second duel at the top on the first day. Loeb took the lead in the first stage. Hirvonen kept getting close, but couldn't dislodge him from the lead. The preliminary decision was made on Saturday morning. On stages eight and nine, Hirvonen struggled to find the right pace and lost time. The gap grew to 25 seconds. So Loeb went in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2009 World Rally Championship Season
The 2009 World Rally Championship was the 37th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of twelve rallies and began on 30 January, with Rally Ireland and ended with Rally GB on 25 October. Sébastien Loeb won the World Drivers' championship at Rally GB by one point from Mikko Hirvonen, taking his sixth consecutive crown. Citroën secured their fifth Manufacturers' title, Martin Prokop won the JWRC Drivers' championship and Armindo Araujo won the PWRC Drivers' championship. Regulation changes The number of mechanics available per car has been dropped from 12 to 8. Calendar The 2009 championship was contested over twelve rounds in Europe, South America and Oceania. The 2009 season included twelve rallies, which was three fewer than the 2008 season, because the FIA imposed a "Round Rotation" System in order to attract candidate rallies to have a chance to be a WRC event. Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Jordan, Turkey, Germany, New Zealand, France and Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henning Solberg
Henning Solberg (born 8 January 1973) is a Norwegian rally and rallycross driver. Together with his female co-driver Ilka Minor, he currently competes in the World Rally Championship (WRC) with cars of M-Sport. Solberg is the older brother of the 2003 FIA World Rally Champion Petter Solberg and through his Swedish spouse Maud the stepfather of Swedish rally driver Pontus Tidemand. Career Henning Solberg was born in Askim, but grew up in Spydeberg. Like his younger brother Petter, Henning started his career as a driver in ''bilcross'' (Norwegian low-budget rallycross similar to Swedish ''folkrace'' and Finnish ''jokamiehenluokka'') and rallycross events, and switched completely to rallying in the mid-1990s. Between 1999 and 2003, he became the Norwegian Rally Champion for five years in a row. After several events as a privateer in the WRC, Solberg got a contract with Bozian Racing for the 2004 season. At his first event with the Peugeot 206 WRC, the 2004 Swedish Rally, Solb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Talbot
Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south east of the town and is one of the biggest steelworks in the world but has been under threat of closure since the 1980s. The population was 37,276 in 2011. History Modern Port Talbot is a town formed from the merging of multiple villages, including Baglan, Margam, and Aberafan. The name 'Port Talbot' first appears in 1837 as the name of the new docks built on the south-east side of the river Afan by the Talbot family. Over time it came to be applied to the whole of the emerging conurbation. The earliest evidence of humans in the Port Talbot area has been found on the side of Mynydd Margam where Bronze Age farming ditches can be found from 4,000 BC. There were Iron Age hill forts on Mynydd Dinas, Mynydd Margam, Mynydd Emroch and other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhondda
Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley (''mawr'' large) and the smaller Rhondda Fach valley (''bach'' small) – so that the singular "Rhondda Valley" and the plural are both commonly used. The area forms part of the South Wales Valleys. From 1897 until 1996 there was a local government district of Rhondda. The former district at its abolition comprised sixteen communities. Since 1996 these sixteen communities of the Rhondda have been part of Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough. The area of the former district is still used as the Rhondda Senedd constituency and Westminster constituency, having an estimated population in 2020 of 69,506. It is most noted for its historical coalmining industry, which peaked between 1840 and 1925. The valleys produced a strong Nonconformist movemen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hafren Forest
Hafren Forest lies north-west of Llanidloes, an ancient market town in Mid Wales. Overview The forest covers around , and consists mainly of pine and spruce trees. It takes its name from the Afon Hafren () which rises in a deep peat bog approximately outside western boundary of the forest, high on the slopes of Pumlumon, the highest mountain in Mid Wales. History The forest, planted in 1937, is continually changing with felling and planting of trees. The forest is also home to Bronze Age copper and lead mines, most notably "Nant yr Eira" and possibly "Nant yr Rickett". The creation of the forest in 1937 involved the purchase of twelve upland sheep farms, including "Rhyd y Benwch" which is now the location of a car park and picnic area. Although the farms were not left derelict, they could not provide enough accommodation for forest workers in this sparsely-populated area. At first, with the initial small size of the forest, enough workers could be found locally. Later, workers w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Barritt
Daniel Barritt (born 23 August 1980) is a British World Rally Championship co-driver from England. Background Barritt was born in Burnley, UK. His family has been involved in rallying for three generations. His grandfather, for example, was a navigator (in the 1950s) and his dad adopted the same activity two decades later, at which point Barritt started going along with his dad. This piqued his interest from a very young age. He thinks he saw his very first rally from his bassinet. Early co-driving Barritt believes that his hometown, Burnley, played a part in his sporting career, given the number of famous stock car and bike racers who hail from the area. The town also has motorsport clubs which help those interested get into the sport and for sure assisted Barritt when he first started out. Going pro When Barritt was 16, he co-drove for his dad in Scotland on the Tour of Mull Rally. From then on he was hooked. In 2000 in England, he drove in his first rally. He turned pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conrad Rautenbach
Conrad Rautenbach (born 12 November 1984) is a rally driver from Zimbabwe who competed in the World Rally Championship for the Citroën Junior Team along with his co-driver Daniel Barritt. He won the African Rally Championship twice, in 2007 and 2011. Career He drove for the privately run PH Sport team with Urmo Aava in a Citroën C4 WRC for the 2008 season, where he achieved points finishes on two occasions, an 8th at Rally Turkey and a best result of 4th at the Rally Argentina. However, he also had some bizarre moments in 2008, not least of which the now infamous collision with Sébastien Loeb at the Jordan Rally where both cars managed to collide head-on forcing both to retire instantly. For 2009 Rautenbach joined the Citroën Junior Team where he continued to campaign in a Citroën C4 WRC. On Rally Ireland, the first event of the season, Rautenbach had a promising first day, setting stage times consistently in the top eight, and ended the day in fifth place. However ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miikka Anttila
Miikka Anttila (born 10 September 1972) is a Finnish rally co-driver, currently teaming with Jari-Matti Latvala at Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. Anttila has previously served alongside such drivers as Mikko Hirvonen, Janne Tuohino and Kosti Katajamäki. Career Debuting in the World Rally Championship in 1999, Anttila began co-driving Latvala at the 2003 Rallye Deutschland and got his first win at the 2008 Swedish Rally. He missed the birth of his second child to participate in the Rally de Espana in 2011. He joined Volkswagen Motorsport after its formation as a manufacturer team in 2013. For 2017, Anttila is racing for the works Toyota team. At the 2018 Tour de Corse, Anttila made his 197th WRC start which made him the most experienced competitor in the history of the sport. The record was previously held by Spanish driver and two times world-champion Carlos Sainz who started 196 events. He became the first-ever competitor to start 200 rallies in the WRC at the 2018 Rally d'Italia. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jari-Matti Latvala
Jari-Matti Latvala (born 3 April 1985) is a Finnish rally driver who has competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC). His co-driver for most of his career was Miikka Anttila, who co-drove for Latvala between the 2003 Rallye Deutschland and 2019 Rally Catalunya. He is well known for his aggressive driving style, which earns him many plaudits, and comparisons to the late Colin McRae. With 18 event victories in the WRC, he is the most successful driver to not have won a championship. Latvala is also the driver with the most World Rally starts in the sport which he achieved in 2019, 17 years after his debut. Starting in 2021, he served as the team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, replacing Tommi Mäkinen. Career Latvala began driving when he was eight years old, after receiving a Ford Escort from his father Jari Latvala, also a rally driver and 1994 national champion in the Group N class. At the age of ten, Latvala started practicing with an Opel Ascona on a frozen lake. 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott Martin (co-driver)
Scott Martin (born 6 November 1981) is a British rallying co-driver who competes in the FIA World Rally Championship. Biography Martin began his rallying career in 2001 co-driving at a national level in the UK. With Matthew Wilson in 2004, he finished as second outright co-driver in the British Rally Championship (BRC) in the Ford Focus RS. After the 2004 season, Martin was accepted into the MSA British Rally Elite Scheme, a specialist training scheme for young British rally drivers. In 2005 he was involved in a serious accident on the opening round of the BRC, the Rally of Wales, and was airlifted to hospital. Later that year he achieved his first international win on the Trackrod Rally with Wilson. The team also finished first on the Colin McRae Stages Rally. In 2006 Martin, with Scottish driver Barry Clark in the Ford Fiesta ST, scored third place in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy International (FSTi) series and third place in the S1600 category of the BRC. The following year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matthew Wilson
Matthew Wilson (born 29 January 1987) is a British rally driver from Cockermouth in Cumbria. He is the son of M-Sport boss and former World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson. Wilson competed in the WRC for the Stobart M-Sport Ford team. He achieved his best result at the 2007 Rally Japan, finishing in fourth place. Career Early Wilson was initially a brief competitor in single seaters, winning 17 out of 22 races to become T Cars Champion in 2002, before graduating to the Formula Renault UK Championship in 2003, finishing 18th overall for Manor Motorsport. Wilson competed in his first rally, the 2003 Malcolm Wilson Rally, as co-driver to his father, and together they won the event. His first WRC event was the Wales Rally GB in 2004, in which he finished in 13th place overall. He was one of only six driver and co-drivers selected for the Motor Sports Association British Rally Elite training scheme designed for young British drivers in 2005, and became the youngest ever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ford Focus RS WRC 08
The Ford Focus RS WRC is a car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport and based on the Ford Focus Climate 2-litre production hatchback, developed to compete in the World Rally Championship. The RS stands for ''Rallye Sport'' and the WRC for ''World Rally Car'', the car's FIA specification. The Focus RS WRC was in competition from 1999 to 2010, winning 44 world rallies and two manufacturers' world titles (2006 and 2007). It was replaced by the Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Like all contemporary World Rally Cars, the car is heavily modified from the production version, with which it shares only the basic shape and some parts of the bodyshell. The car features four-wheel drive, rather than the front-wheel drive of the road car. The engine used in the 2007 Focus WRC is based on Ford's 2.0 Litre Duratec from other models in the Focus range as rallying rules do not permit the standard 2.5-litre engine of the Focus ST or road going RS. As with most rally cars, the 2.0-litre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
