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RALLY
NEWS NO.1 Saturday morning..early..New Brighton Today's Rapid Fit backed Rally of Wirral marks yet another watershed in the development of British Rallying, being the very first round of the new Formula Rally. Backed by several manufacturers, Formula Rally is designed for the new breed Super 1600 cars, following the technical specifications of the World Championship class. This is seen by many as a stepping stone to the World Championship itself. Four manufacturers, Ford, Volkswagen, Proton and Peugeot are involved here in Britain so far. More will surely follow. Also today we have various one make championships closely aligned with Formula Rally - Ford Puma, Ka, Peugeot Super 106 Cup, Volkswagen Rally Challenge. An added dimension to today's proceedings is that this is the first Championship event since the Foot & Mouth outbreak. Normally the cars would be breaking cover to run through the forests, but this late start to the series is by necessity 'urban', over the tarmac roads of New Brighton promenade. Today's format may be slightly different, but will be none the less demanding for that, with it's own special challenge. As regards who will be setting the pace at the front, this really is a whole new ball game, impossible to call. Ford has a proven package in the Puma, plus a strong driver line up in Martin Rowe and Patrick Magaud. Robert Woodside, fresh from a Puma class win on the Rally Luxembourg, and Ka & Puma Champion Simon Maugher could be dark horses. Volkswagen has a brand new Polo Kit Car. Nobody yet knows what to expect from the new VW,which looks the 'business' Certainly Neil Simpson is the man to make it sing. Peugeot have not got the new Super 1600 206 together yet, so will rely on the tried and trusted 106 Super GTi from last year, again with a very special driver, Justin Dale, behind the wheel. Reigning 1600 British Champions Proton again has Mats Andersson driving the Satria Kit Car. The Protons are a great all round package and have had a lot of development work done by Harry Hockly over the winter. Such is the newness of today's concept and the new technical specifications, that we really do not know what to expect. There are wild cards such as Geoff Jones and Gethin Jones in Corsas, Christer Steen in a Skoda, Max McKillen in a Saxo and a whole lot more. We will just have to wait and see how they all go. At the press opening last night in Corkhill's Liverpool VW showroom, Martin Rowe gave us some of his views - "We, thats the seeded drivers at the front, have a lot to lose. There are drivers further back with everything to gain. It is a tricky stage. Indeed the 'recce' was the trickiest ever. There is every combination of roundabout.I would much prefer to be going into the forests. We will have to keep it neat and tidy. It will be hard to heat up our Pirelli tyres on such short stages. We must keep out of trouble, try and stay off the handbrake. Just one tenth of a second slow out of a roundabout, repeated several times, could make all the difference at the end of the day."The running order today is not exactly as per seeding, the top cars starting in the order, Rowe(7), Andersson(1),Dale(5),Simpson(3),Magaud(8),Collins(2) & Jones(10). More news to follow..BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
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