EVENT: 43rd RallyRACC-Catalunya Costa Daurada WCR round 12 of 16 JRC round 6 of 7

DATE: 5-7 October 2007

WHAT'S NEW IN SPAIN IN 2007?

• Two stages being run in the opposite direction for the first time. All the other stages are familiar.
• After one year held in the spring, the event reverts to an autumn fixture.
• The event is again paired with Corsica, which follows Catalunya, but this year the events are held on successive weekends.
• Experiments will take place with on-board alarm systems, equivalent to visual yellow flags, to warn competitors when there is a problem on a stage.

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT CATALUNYA?

• This event came together in its present form with the amalgamation of the two major events in the area, the Catalunya Rally and the Costa Brava Rally.
• The event moved its headquarters to Costa Daurada in 2005, although stages in the present area had been used earlier for several years.
• This is considered to be the smoothest of any of the asphalt events in the World Championship, although until 1992 part of the rally was run on gravel stages.
• Some stages are run in both directions (on different days), which is an unusual feature in the World Rally Championship, although it will also happen in Mexico and Corsica.
• Every year, something memorable seems to happen at this event. In 2005, Sebastien Loeb scored his tenth and final victory in the same season. In 2004, Spain's greatest-ever rally driver, Carlos Sainz contested his final rally in his home country. It never rains in Spain? In 2003 it did, causing a radical last day change of positions, the fourth rally running affected by rain that year. In 2002, Sainz crashed into a spectator car parked close to the side of the stage. In 2001, Citroen cars made a stunning demonstration of speed on the debut of the Xsara WRC. In 2000, there were no fewer than 26 World Rally Cars on the entry list.  In 1999, Spain was the last time a two-wheel drive car, and a non World Rally Car, won a World Rally.  The Spanish legends go on and on!
• Watch the speed with which the World Championship teams will desert the service park on Sunday, after the final service halt that morning. In seemingly no time at all, the vast asphalt area at PortAventura will be emptied and the equipment will be heading to the docks for transportation over to Corsica.
• PortAventura is a theme park offering the excitement of many different parts of the world, all at the same place! It is located just outside Salou.
• There are two national Spanish rally championships. In the asphalt series, there are nine rounds, seven of which have already been run (the World Championship event does not count).  Results of the best seven events count. Leading the series is Sergio Vallejo, at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 (sports cars are admitted in this series), just ahead of Miguel Fuster (Fiat Abarth S2000) and Alberto Hevia (VW Polo S2000). The eighth round (Llanes Rally) was due to be held on 22 September, which was sure to alter the order! Vallejo is expecting to have a GT rival by the final round of the series - Jesus Puras in a Ferrari 360 Modena.
• The alternative gravel championship is currently led by Dani Sola, at the wheel of a Mitsubishi. This series does not run events in the summer months, because of the fire risk. Four rounds have so far been held, the last one (Ourense) in early May.
• Cars on these events have no turbo restrictor rules, so 400bhp is generally the power output of the leading cars. The next round is Palma del Rio Rally, due to be held on 29 September.
• One of the sensations of Spanish rallying in 2007 has been a man with two names. The 35-year-old Cantabrian driver, whose first name is Enrique, is known by either of his family names, Garcia or Ojeda - or sometimes both! He has been contesting both the European and IRC series, and has been leading both of them. He has contested only five World Championship events to date, but won his class on three of them, winning Group N overall in Catalunya in 2005. In 2006, he contested the European series in a Peugeot 206 S1600 and finished highest-placed Group A car in Mille Miglia.
• This year, he has a Peugeot 207 S2000 and has had a series of second places: at the Fiat and Barum rallies (both times behind his Peugeot team-mate Vouilloz), at Ypres (behind his rival Peugeot driver Rossetti) and at Russia (behind Alen), while he returned to his native Spain to win the Principe de Asturias overall.
• RallyRACC is working with four universities (in Finland, Germany, New Zealand and Ireland) in research required by the FIA to determine the true commercial value of World Rally Championship events in each region.

TYRE SPECIFICS

• Number of sets expected: 7.
• Number of different tread patterns allowed: 2.
• Number of tyres which can be used during the event (including Shakedown): 47.
• Number of tyres which can be nominated for use on the event: 70.
• Maximum stage distance to be covered on same set of tyres: 59.58km (stages 7-10 and 11-14).

EVENT SPECIFICS

Route

• Total distance: 1359.96km.
• Number of stages: 18.
• Number of different stage venues: 9, of which one is run in both directions, while the Shakedown stage is also run on the event in the opposite direction.
• Maximum number of times the same stage roads are used: 3 (stages 6, 16+18: run twice one way, once the other).
• Stage distance: 352.87km.
• Stage surfaces: asphalt.
• Longest stage: 26.51km (stage 16+18).
• Highest elevation on stage: 983 metres (on stage 7+11).
• Central Service Park: PortAventura.
• Shakedown Stage: 3.98km long, at a location 60km west of Salou. For Shakedown there will be a subsidiary Service Park at Mora la Nova.
• Ceremonial Start: 1930 Thursday from Salou, in reverse order for World Championship cars.
• Official start: 0700 Friday from PortAventura.
• Superspecials: none.
• Stages in darkness: none.
• Restart times
• Friday (6 stages, 148.05km) at 0700 from PortAventura.
• Saturday (8 stages, 119.16 km) at 0800 from PortAventura.
• Sunday (4 stages, 85.66km) at 0730 from PortAventura.
• Finish: from 1450 at Salou.

TEAM NEWS

(M = Manufacturers, MT = Manufacturers' Team)

CITROEN TOTAL WORLD RALLY TEAM (M)

• Loeb is hoping for a hat-trick of wins on this event.
• Both drivers will come straight from Cork 20, where Sordo drives a Xsara instead of a C4.

BP-FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM (M)

• Team leader Marcus Gronholm has announced that he will retire from World Championship rally sport at the end of the season. Mikko Hirvonen will come straight from Cork 20.

OMV KRONOS CITROEN WORLD RALLY TEAM (MT)

• A two-car team again: Francois Duval is back in car number 6! He has also been entered on the forthcoming Tour de Corse.

SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM (M)

• All three drivers will use the cars they last ran in Germany. Congratulations to Xevi Pons: he was due to marry Sandra on 23 September.

STOBART VK M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM (MT)

• Latvala is hoping for more luck in Spain than before. His best previous result here was second in Group N in 2005, after two punctures cost him the category lead. This is Henning Solberg's first time on this rally.

MUNCHI'S FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM (MT)

• This will be the Munchi's team's first appearance on asphalt, and the first time either driver has been to this rally.

NEWS

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

• The 1995 FIA World Rally Champion Colin McRae lost his life in a helicopter accident in Scotland on 15 September, at the age of 39.
• It has been confirmed that all World Championship events in the 2007 season will be using the ISC-T timing and tracking systems.

JUNIOR RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

• This is the penultimate round in the 2007 JRC.  Five drivers still have a chance of winning the title: Aava, Andersson, Prokop, Burkart and Beres.  Three drivers - Gallagher, Auquier and Bonato - can still win the Rookies' title, but Gallagher only has to finish the Catalunya Rally to be champion (there will be six rookies on this event, and sixth place would give the required three points to secure the title).
• Yeray Lemes has been nominated by the RACC as a Guest driver. He comes from the Canary Islands and is to drive a Citroen C2 S1600 prepared by Piedrafita.
• Only one driver registered in this year's JRC opted to miss this event: Aigar Pars from Estonia.
• This will be Alex Bettega's third successive appearance on a World Championship rally with a different make of car, from a Fiesta S1600 in Sardinia through a Suzuki Ignis S1600 in Finland and now a Renault Ignis R3 on this event.  Something else is to follow in Corsica. . .

NON-CHAMPIONSHIP ENTRIES

• Good news from MMSP! It is hoped that the Rugby-based company will be restructured and will be allowed to continue to run Lancer World Rally Cars. Details about the new company should be announced soon.
• The weekend before Catalunya (29-30 September) sees major rally activities all around Europe. Firstly in Ireland is the Cork 20 Rally, being used by some teams as a test event for Rally Ireland. Then there is the Sanremo Rally, a critical round of the IRC. Finally, in Britain, there is the spectacular Rally Show to be held at Chatsworth.  Although the faster roads in the south of Ireland are not completely typical of the tighter roads to be found on the forthcoming Irish World Rally, it is the last chance for teams to gain a feel for rallying in that country before November. Sanremo offers spectators and drivers a throwback to the spectacular days when rally cars raced round the Ligurian mountains at night. 
• Reigning Spanish Rally Champion Dani Sola will appear in his home country in a new version of the R3 class Honda Civic Type R, in which he has been contesting the IRC series. As usual, the car will be run by the JAS Motorsport team from Italy. They will be involved in a quick trip from Sanremo, where the IRC event is run the weekend beforehand. On Thursday afternoon before the start, there will be a presentation of this car, brought up to full 2008 R3 specification, in the JRC hospitality area in the Service Park.
• Manuel Rueda, who had to withdraw from the JRC in mid season, is to be present in Catalunya with his Clio R3, in a non-championship entry.
• Although Barry Clark is already 2007 Fiesta champion, he is still competing on this event.  There will be four Fiesta STs on this event, one of which (driven by Canaries Islands Fiesta champion Heriberto Godoy) will use E85 biofuel.
• Some strong non-championship Group N entries are on the event. These include the two Group N Dutch federation team Mitsubishis, the PCWRC competitors Andreas Aigner and Patrik Flodin, and the young Norwegian driver Eyvind Brynildsen.

REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• European Rally Championship (ERC) & International Rally Championship (IRC). Both series had the same event as their main activity over the past month: the Barum Rally Zlin in Czech Republic, where the Peugeots of Vouilloz and Ojeda came 1-2, ahead of the Mitsubishis of Pech and Kresta.  Fiat had a bad time: Alen, Loix and Fontana all went off the road, while Navarra and Travaglia (now in a Fiat) could only finish seventh and eighth.
• IRC. China Rally has now announced a change of date. It will now run on 9-11 November.
• Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC). Australian Cody Crocker won the title for the second year running, when he finished a lowly fourth at Rally Indonesia, after endless handling difficulties. Winner was Jussi Valimaki, ahead of Mitsubishi team-mate Katsuhiko Taguchi.
• APRC. China Rally (mentioned above) will also count for the APRC. Like last year, the event will be based at Zhejiang Longyou.

2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR & RESULTS

• Event - date. . .
• website. . .
• Overall winner; PCWRC / Group N winner;
• JRC / Super 1600 winner.
• 01 - MC - 19-21 Jan. . .
• www.acm.mc. . .
• Loeb (Citroen); - / Burri (Subaru); - / Prokop (Citroen).
• 02 - S - 9-11 Feb (PC1). . .
• www.swedishrally.com. . .
• Gronholm (Ford); Svedlund (Subaru); no S1600 starters.
• 03 - N - 16-18 Feb (J1). . .
• www.rallynorway.no. . .
• Hirvonen (Ford); - / Flodin (Subaru); Andersson (Suzuki).
• 04 - MEX - 9-11 Mar (PC2). . .
• www.rallymexico.com. . .
• Loeb (Citroen); Higgins (Mitsubishi); no S1600 starters.
• 05 - P - 30 Mar-1 Apr (J2). . .
• www.rallydeportugal.pt. . .
• Loeb (Citroen); - / Flodin (Subaru); Andersson (Suzuki).
• 06 - RA - 4-6 May (PC3). . .
• www.rallyargentina.com. . .
• Loeb (Citroen); Villagra (Mitsubishi); no S1600 starters.
• 07 - I - 18-20 May (J3). . .
• www.rallyitaliasardegna.com. . .
• Gronholm (Ford); - / Manfrinato (Subaru); Aava (Suzuki).
• 08 - GR - 31 May-3 Jun (PC4). . .
• www.acropolisrally.gr. . .
• Gronholm (Ford); Arai (Subaru); - / Kaltsounis (Opel).
• 09 - FIN - 3-5 Aug (J4). . .
• www.nesteoilrallyfinland.fi. . .
• Gronholm (Ford); - / Flodin (Subaru); Sandell (Renault).
• 10 - D - 17-19 Aug (J5). . .
• www.rallye-deutschland.de. . .
• Loeb (Citroen); - / van den Heuvel (Mitsubishi); Prokop (Citroen).
• 11 - NZ - 31 Aug-2 Sept (PC5). . .
• www.rallynz.org.nz. . .
• Gronholm (Ford); Arai (Subaru); no S1600 starters.
• 12 - E - 5-7 Oct (J6). . .
• www.rallyracc.com.
• 13 - F - 12-14 Oct (J7). . .
• www.rallyedefrance.com.
• 14 - J - 26-28 Oct (PC6). . .
• www.rallyjapan.jp.
• 15 - IRL - 16-18 Nov (PC7). . .
• www.rallyireland.org.
• 16 - GB - 30 Nov-2 Dec (PC8). . .
• www.walesrallygb.com.

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS

• Drivers (after round 11 New Zealand): Gronholm 90, Loeb 80, Hirvonen 69, P.Solberg + Sordo 31, H.Solberg 28, Atkinson 25, Latvala 17, Gardemeister 10, Carlsson + Stohl 9, etc.
• Manufacturers (after round 11 New Zealand): BP-Ford WRT 159, Citroen Total WRT 113, Subaru WRT 60, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford RT 55, OMV Kronos Citroen WRT 35, Munchi's Ford WRT 6.
• JRC (after round 5 Germany): Aava 32, Andersson 28, Sandell 19, Molder 17, Prokop 16, etc.

EVENT HISTORY (Recent Winners)

• 2006 (PortAventura) - Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena, Citroen C4 WRC (102.88kph).
• 2005 (PortAventura) - Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena, Citroen Xsara WRC (101.96kph).
• 2004 (Lloret de Mar) - Markko Martin/Michael Park, Ford Focus WRC (95.46kph).
• 2003 (Lloret de Mar) - Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi, Peugeot 206WRC (97.26kph).
• 2002 (Lloret de Mar) - Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi, Peugeot 206WRC (97.54kph).
• 2001 (Lloret de Mar) - Didier Auriol/Denis Giraudet, Peugeot 206WRC (94.32kph).

ENTRY DETAILS

• 84 entries have been accepted, with 23 World Rally Cars and 20 JRC entries, including one "Guest" entry.