Rally

Rovanpera's Canary Song

The year opened with a rally, and it closed with a rally. Of sorts. It's only a short flight from the never ending sands of the Sahara of the world's toughest motorsport event, the Dakar Rally, to the resort paradise of the Islas Canarias, to compete in an event of Michele Mouton's creation, which attracts the very cream of rallying and motorsport in general. The event is the Michelin Race of Champions.

Some of the big names in rallying were there, joined by Formula One drivers Johnny Herbert and Fernando Alonso, NASCAR's Robby Gordon, Le Mans champions Emanuelle Pirro, Frank Biela and Tom Kristensen, MotoGP's Olivier Jacque and 2001 500cc World Champion Valentino Rossi, World Superbike riders Ruben Xaus and 2001 World Champion Troy Bayliss and hillclimber Rhys Millen. Among the rally drivers competing were Miki Biasion, Juha Kankkunen, Marcus Gronholm, Alister McRae, Harri Rovanpera, Gilles Panizzi, Jesus Puras and Armin Schwarz. There were also divisions for younger drivers and a Legends category that was basically a battle of ex-World Champions from the 80s.

A wide variety of machinery is used, to make the challenge harder, ranging from Peugeot 206 and SEAT Cordoba WRC rally weapons, to Group N spec Mitsubishi Lancers, specially prepared Saab 9-3 4WD rallycross cars, a motorcycle-engined buggy, early 70s Mk 1 Ford Escorts, and a pair of priceless Audi Quattro Group B rally cars loving restored by Audi to the condition they revolutionised rallying in in the mid 80s.

The three match race final series was contested firstly in the Saabs, then the second and third races in the SEAT, which was expected to favour Harri Rovanpera, a former SEAT WRC driver, over the experienced Armin Schwarz.

To get to the finals, Rovanpera won two of his three heats, beating Fernando Alonso and Juha Kankkunen, but ominously lost to Schwarz. Rovanpera then took out his Peugeot team leader Marcus Gronholm in the quarter final and beat Francois Duval, the top qualifier from the Junior Masters division, in the semi final.

Schwarz defeated Alonso as well as Rovanpera in the heats, but lost to Juha Kankkunen. In the quarter final Schwarz easily accounted for Robby Gordon, before upsetting Alister McRae in the semi final.

In the Saabs Schwarz continued his heat form and beat Rovanpera by half a second. Once in the SEATs though, Rovanpera found himself on more familiar ground, taking the second final by a second. In the deciding race Rovanpera flew his SEAT around the Circuito Deportiva Islas Canarias course in 1:54.31, beating Schwarz by over half a second.

"Armin certainly pushed me hard, but maybe I was a little lucky that two of the heats in the final were run in SEATs. It's been a couple of years since I've driven one, but I think it helped."

In the Nations' Cup section of the rally, the home team from Spain, consisting of Ruben Xaus, Fernando Alonso and Jesus Puras defeated the 'All-Stars' team of Australian Troy Bayliss, Dane Tom Kristensen and and Finn Harri Rovanpera. 1984 World Champion Stig Blomqvist defeated 1985 World Champion Timo Salonen and regained the Legend Masters title, while the Junior Masters Title saw Mitsubishi's Francois Duval defeat Citroen's Super 1600 Champion Sebastien Loeb in the final.

  Briefs

• The brewing court fight over Richard Burns's services for the 2002 season has been resolved before potentially long, bitter and expensive court proceedings have begun. While no-one is saying anything about the specifics, Richard Burns and co-driver Robert Reid will take the number 1 plate to Peugeot, and have already commenced testing, which will see Peugeot keeping numbers 1 and 2 they ran this year with Marcus Gronholm as reigning world champion.

  Ford have confirmed that Nicky Grist will be staying with Colin McRae for another season next year. There was recent speculation that a clash of personalities between the two would see Grist leave the team. On the subject of co-drivers, Tommi Makinen's regular co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki will miss the first two rounds of the 2002 season to make sure he is fully recovered from the injuries he suffered in the crash in Corsica. Kaj Lindstrom will continue the job that he performed for Makinen at last month's Rally of Great Britain in the meantime.

  Hot on the heels of his Race of Champions Legends title, 1984 World Champion Stig Blomqvist is returning from retirement to join Skoda's WRC campaign. Blomqvist join the Skoda line-up of Kenneth Eriksson, Toni Gardemeister, Roman Kresta and Gabriel Pozzo. Blomqvist will share the team's third car with Kresta, each running seven events.

• Team Herdez has announced a change in driver personnel with journeyman Michel Jordain Jr being replaced with Mexican Indy Lights hot shoe Mario Dominguez. Dominguez was fourth in this years undersubscribed Indy Lights series, impressed the team with a test in 2000, and has maintained contact with the team in the meantime.

  Recently, teams started their preparations for the 2002 season with a test at the Sebring road course, Team KOOL Green putting some miles on the 2002 Reynard, and Team Ganassi doing the same with a 2002 Lola.

• Penske Racing has finally confirmed one of the worst kept secrets in racing when Roger Penske announced Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves will be switching series from CART to IRL, with their first event being the season opening IRL round at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida on the 2nd of March. While CART has lost high profile names to IRL before, most notably Al Unser Jr, this still represents a serious blow to CART's credibility. Roger Penske is one of the founders of CART and his team have won nine championships in the CART era. The team recently tested in preparation for the 2002 season.

• Pedro Lamy and Max Wilson have reportedly tested for an Australian V8Supercar team, PAE Motorsports. PAE Motorsport presently run the Caterpillar-backed Ford Falcon which has been driven in this year's Shell Championship Series by John Bowe and Simon Wills. Team Principal John Briggs announced earlier this month the team would be expanding to four cars next season. Since then, the team has tested several drivers, including the two internationals. Wills remains with the team, while reigning Bathurst 1000 champion Tony Longhurst and Lamy look set to take two of the other three Ford Falcons.

• Karl Wendlinger will be joining fellow Formula One refugee Jean Alesi in the burgeoning DTM series. Wendlinger will be joining the Abt Sportline team which run Audi TT-R Coupes. Wendlinger joins an already strong outfit in Laurent Aiello, Christian Abt, Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstrom.