Rally of Champions

Loeb Votes Gronholm Off The Island

Rallysport's season ending 'fun-in-the-sun' event has become a consolation prize for WRC runner up Sebastien Loeb, winning the popular Canary Islands Race of Champions event by defeating dual World Champion Marcus Gronholm in the final.

Fourteen drivers progressed into the finals of the event with eight moving into the quarter finals. Loeb moved through the quarter finals beating Super 1600 Suzuki driver Daniel Carlsson, while Marcus Gronholm faced the star of the event, American trail bike rider Travis Pastrana. Pastrana rolled his Evo VIII Lancer, defaulting Gronholm the progression to the semis while in the other two quarter finals 2002 European Rally Champion Renato Travaglia was beaten by new Mitsubishi signing Gilles Panizzi. Ford's number two driver Francois Duval got through local hero Flavio Alonso.

Loeb then beat Duval twice to progress to the final, while Panizzi pushed his former teammate to a third heat before conceding to Gronholm. Into the final, Loeb recorded a 1:56.15 to Gronholms 1:56.45 to take the first heat by a car length. Loeb's Peugeot 206 WRC then struck problems, developing first a handbrake failure then the engine went off song prior to the second attempt to start the second heat. Loeb recorded a 1:52.30 to take the best of three final series, 0.7 of a second ahead of Gronholm.

In the Nations' Cup event held the previous day, the All Stars team of Panizzi, Toyota Formula One driver Cristiano da Matta and Aprilia 250cc rider Fonsi Nieto defeated the Spanish team of Flavio Alonso, CART racer Oriol Servia and another 250cc rider in Emilio Alzamora. Francois Duval won his third Juniors title, defeating Daniel Carlsson in the final. While FIA GT champion Thomas Biagi defeated his Ferrari Maranello co-driver Matteo Bobbi in the final of the racers competition.

  Formula Nissan

Bernoldi and Leinders Wrap Up Formula Nissan

With Franck Montagny having wrapped up the drivers' title months back, there would be an intense battle for runner's up position in the Superfund World Series by Nissan. Narain Karthikeyan held second heading into the final pair of races held in Brazil by eight points, but the Indian driver had recently been ill and was off the pace all weekend.

With Montagny involved in accidents in both races, opportunities sprang up everywhere for other drivers to shine. Ex-Formula One driver Enrique Bernoldi was threatening early taking to front row grid spots in qualifying. Bernoldi started from pole alongside Montagny in race one, and quickly raced away to win. Heikki Kovalainen capitalised on the rain and the absence of Bas Leinders and Karthikeyan from the upper order to climb to second place. The mercurial Jean-Christophe Ravier climbed to third in the conditions with Paul Edwards taking his best result of the year in fourth ahead of Stephane Sarrazin.

With Kovalainen off pole in race two, a series 1-2 for Gabord Competicion was suddenly on the cards. Out of six, Sarrazin spun early, putting himself out of the running while Montagny collided with Ander Vilarino in a nasty looking accident, though both drivers managed to walk away. The safety car affected the pit strategies of some, but Bas Leinders timed it to perfection, and after the restart he climbed around Ravier to take the lead, a lead he would not lose as he took the final victory of the season. Ravier hung on to finish second while Bernoldi finished third, despite making his compulsory pit stop at the worst moment, just as the Safety Car emerged.

Formula 3000 driver Enrico Toccacelo, guest driving for RC Motorsport, took fourth ahead of Kovalainen, who with fifth place had enough points to hold onto championship second from Leinders. Antonio Garcia took sixth, returning to the series after a year with BMW in the European Touring Car Championship. Second going into the Jarama finale, Karthikeyan slipped off the championship podium as Bas Leinders's race two victory saw him take third place in the series by seven points.

Result of Superfund World Series by Nissan, Jarama, Spain:

Race One

Pos  Driver                   Team
 1.  Enrique Bernoldi         GD Racing
 2.  Heikki Kovalainen        Gabord Competicion
 3.  Jean-Christophe Ravier   Epsilon Euskadi
 4.  Paul Edwards             Keerbergs Transport Racing
 5.  Stephane Sarrazin        Racing Engineering
 6.  Santiago Porteiro        Adrian Campos Motorsport
 7.  Narain Karthikeyan       Carlin Motorsport
 8.  Pablo Donoso             GD Racing
 9.  Felix Porteiro           Keerbergs Transport Racing
10.  Enrico Toccacelo         RC Motorsport

Race Two

Pos  Driver                   Team
 1.  Bas Leinders             Racing Engineering
 2.  Jean-Christophe Ravier   Epsilon Euskadi
 3.  Enrique Bernoldi         GD Racing
 4.  Enrico Toccacelo         RC Motorsport
 5.  Heikki Kovalainen        Gabord Competicion
 6.  Antonio Garcia           Adrian Campos Motorsport
 7.  Polo Villaamil           RC Motorsport
 8.  Bruno Besson             Saulnier Racing
 9.  Paul Edwards             Keerbergs Transport Racing
10.  Bruce Jouanny            Carlin Motorsport

Final Standings: Franck Montagny 241, Heikki Kovalainen 134, Bas Leinders 128, Narain Karthikeyan 121, Jean-Christophe Ravier 116, Enrique Bernoldi 112, Stephane Sarrazin 110, Ander Vilarino 98, Bruno Besson 95, Bruce Jouanny 62, Polo Villaamil 61, Marc Gene 54, Paul Edwards 34, Felix Porteiro 26, Norbert Siedler 25, Santiago Porteiro 16, Tuka Rocha 12, Angel Burgueno and Enrico Toccacelo 11, Carlos Pereira 7, Antonio Garcia 6, Didier Andre 5, Ricardo Gonzalez and Pablo Donoso 3, Vitantonio Liuzzi 2, Jose Maria Perez-Aicart 1

  Touring Cars

Huisman Victorious

Duncan Huisman led home a BMW 1-2-3 at the recent Macau Guia Touring Car event. The ETCC driver took both wins at the former Portuguese colony street circuit. Second was taken by Franz Engstler with Marc Hennerici third. The first non-BMW was Brit James Kaye aboard a Honda Civic ahead of Hong Kong resident Lo Ka Fai's Honda Integra. Andy Priaulx, second in the first leg did not finish the second, while the other factory BMW of Jorg Muller went out in the first leg.

  MotoGP

McWilliams Signs For Aprilia

Briton Jeremy McWilliams will ride for Aprilia in MotoGP next year after two seasons with the Kenny Roberts-run Proton KR team. McWilliams, 39, will replace American former World Superbike champion Colin Edwards at the Italian team and partner 27-year-old British Superbike champion Shane Byrne.

"I'm really up for the fight next year after signing this contract," McWilliams told the BBC last Friday. "It's a great move for me and their bike this year was certainly more competitive than what I was riding."

McWilliams was 18th in the riders standings last season with 27 points and a best finish of sixth at the French Grand Prix.

The Northern Irishman raced for Aprilia in the 250cc and former 500cc categories and finished on the 500cc podium for them at his home Grand Prix at Donington Park in 2000.

Report provided by Reuters

  Rally

Sainz Says He May Not Retire After 2004

Spain's former World Rally champion Carlos Sainz is having second thoughts about retiring at the end of next season.

The 41-year-old Citroen driver told reporters after crashing out of the British Rally last month that 2004 would be his last year in the championship. But the official rally website quoted Sainz as saying at a Citroen media event in Paris that retirement might not now be his plan.

"I was frustrated after GB," he said. "It's true that I announced I would retire after 2004 but I'm not a politician so I'm not obliged to fulfil all my promises.

"I am very proud and honoured to have competed in the championship showdown for Citroen and it's now not certain that I will retire at the end of 2004," he added.

Sainz, a two-time champion with Toyota, was one of three title contenders going into the final round of the season but crashed out on the first full day.

"I asked myself If I was still quick enough, if there is a place for me in the WRC," he said.

"The results are always there. I believe I am still competitive, it's still my passion. I am going to stop, sure, but perhaps not at the end of 2004. We will see what happens with my motivation and my results."

Report provided by Reuters

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