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Post by Will on Nov 2, 2008 16:52:47 GMT
Can it be silly season time now? ;D
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sarah
Chief Marshall
Posts: 79
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Post by sarah on Nov 2, 2008 19:24:45 GMT
Oh yeah, for sure. I'm involved with so many series now, I have rumours flying out my ears.
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Post by Hurricane on Nov 3, 2008 18:32:28 GMT
I know rumours are going about that Van Merksteijn Motorsport is going for a full or 10-round 2-car WRC team, but there is no confirmation on that as of yet.
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Post by Will on Nov 3, 2008 18:34:58 GMT
Can we have a list of all confirmed drives for next year? Please?
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Post by Hurricane on Nov 3, 2008 19:39:32 GMT
Citroën Total World Rally Team: Citroën C4 WRC 09 - Sébastien Loeb - Daniel Sordo
BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT: Ford Focus RS WRC 08/09 - Mikko Hirvonen - Jari-Matti Latvala - Khalid Al Qassimi
Stobart Ford WRT: Ford Focus RS WRC 08 - Matthew Wilson - Henning Solberg - Urmo Aava
Munchi's Ford RT: (8 rounds) Ford Focus RS WRC 07 - Frederico Villagra - Barry Clark
Citroën Junior Team: Citroën C4 WRC 07/08 - Sebastian Ogier (6 rounds, maybe more) - Conrad Rautenbach - Evgeny Novikov (8 rounds) - Chris Atkinson (Ireland, maybe more)
Subaru Adapta WRT: Subaru Impreza WRC 08 - Mads Östberg - Petter Solberg
Van Merksteijn WRT: (8 rounds) Ford Focus RS WRC 07 - Peter Van Merksteijn - Peter Van Merksteijn Junior
***
Driver and team names in italics mean they are rumours and not confirmed.
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Post by Nick McRae on Nov 3, 2008 19:41:22 GMT
I think there was a story on WRC.com the other week about their being 6 Impreza's in 09 - that'd be three Scooby teams! I also heard about that too Bart, so we'll say it's true
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Post by Will on Nov 3, 2008 21:10:44 GMT
Thanks for the list...Suzuki not confirmed? Or just not letting on who their drivers are?
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Post by Roo on Nov 4, 2008 3:30:18 GMT
The Citroen Sport Technologies team (B-team) is the team that may dictate what drivers go where. Conrad Rautenbach is already confirmed, so it is going to be a choice between existing driver Urmo Aava and S1600 champion Sebastien Ogier. I have a feeling that unless Citroen share the seat around, which is not normally Citroen's policy, Seb will get the seat over Urmo.
So where does Urmo Aava go? He has certainlly had a very good season, with a couple of stage wins and a couple of top 5 finishes. He could go to...
Subaru Adapta: the team is set to become a scandinavian team, with Mads Ostberg already confirmed and Henning Solberg rumoured for another seat. Given Markko Martin's close ties with Subaru, fellow Estonian Aava could follow suit. or......
Suzuki: The team of the mighty Zooks have not announced their driver line ups as yet. Although it is likely that Gardemeister and PG Andersson will retain their contracts with the team, it is possible that Aava could join the team, as Urmo has been involved with Suzuki's S1600 program.
The top three teams of Citroen RedBull, BP Ford and SWRT are unlikely to change their driver lineups. However, it is the B-Teams, and the creation of, that will make things interesting.
Stobart Ford Matthew Wilson Francois Duval Henning Solberg Andreas Mikelsson
Citroen CST Conrad Rautenbach Sebastien Ogier Urmo Aava
Subaru Adapta Mads Ostberg Henning Solberg Urmo Aava
Subaru II Xavier Pons Guy Wilks
The Two Subaru Teams:
I have not read anything yet about two secondary Subaru teams being confirmed. Subaru manager Paul Howarth has stated previously that the team would like to run 5 maybe 6 cars next year. The only team that has confirmed running Impreza WRC08's next year, apart from SWRT is the Adapta Team, and Mads Ostberg is the only confirmed driver at this stage.
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Post by Hurricane on Nov 4, 2008 9:17:03 GMT
The rumours about the Subaru B-team were strengthened in the Eurosport preview of rally Spain / Corsica I think.
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Post by Nick McRae on Nov 4, 2008 11:44:13 GMT
Here's the WRC.com story I mentioned earlier, about their being 6 Impreza's next year! Clicky!
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Post by Roo on Nov 5, 2008 1:27:01 GMT
Ah okay, now it's beginning to make a little more sense. So we have the Subaru Adapta team, which will have two cars, Mads Ostberg and somebody else. And then we have SWRT. There will be a minimum of two SWRT cars on each event obviously, Petter and Atko. Subaru are obviously looking to expand to three cars, similar to the situation of Brice Tirabassi on tarmac in Spain and Corsica. So after reading Paul's comments on the wrc.com interview, it seems likely that there will be five Subarus on each rally. Three at SWRT, two at Adapta. The sixth will be provided where SWRT see a good oppurtunity. So for example, let's say that Guy Wilks and Brice Tirabassi share the third car. But for Ireland for example, SWRT enter an additional car, one for Wilks and one for Tirabassi. But I think the likely hood is that there will be five Subies available for season 2009, with an occasional, if at all sixth car. For those who can remember back far enough, the last time Subaru ran four cars on a rally, it didn't go too well.
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Luigi
Spectator
Posts: 14
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Post by Luigi on Nov 5, 2008 10:26:38 GMT
Sebastien Ogier will not drive for Citroën Technologies in 2009. He has had a program of 6 rallies (the first 6 of the season) so far but it will be in a C4 with support from Citroën Sport and the French Federation.
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Post by tfliprex on Nov 5, 2008 17:27:07 GMT
A Subie team with Tirabassi and H. Solberg would make sense: One is tarmac the other gravel. But Roo has mentioned Pons; so Pons would make more sense than H. Solberg only becuase Pons is already involved with Subie. I'd rather have H. Solberg because lately he has been doing well, and Pons runs didn't really amount to much this year, ok, granted he ran in the old body style, but Atko and Petter out-ran him every time. Wouldn't it be a bit of a shocker if Novikov or Hanninen would appear in the list? Sorry, just rambling here... Flip
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sarah
Chief Marshall
Posts: 79
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Post by sarah on Nov 5, 2008 19:04:51 GMT
I've been told that Novikov will be in either a Peugeot S2000 next year or a WRCar. Hanninen will stick with Ralliart NZ as far as I know.
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Post by Roo on Nov 6, 2008 2:15:39 GMT
Yeah I mentioned Ponsy because he has a lot of sponsorship dollars and has driven with the team before. However, Guy Wilks has been raising the necessary funds all through this year and he would be quicker and probably more consistent than Pons.
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