RallyScotland to decide championshipposted in RSCOT25 | 09 | 2010
ORGANISERS OF the second RallyScotland, which gets underway in Perth on Friday, October 15, breathed a huge sigh of relief after current Intercontinental Rally Championship leader Juha Hanninen failed to clinch the title in San Remo by just 4.4-seconds.
The Finn could have wrapped the championship up if he'd won today's event on the Italian asphalt, but the Skoda driver could only manage second, a nailbiting 4.4-seconds behind Italian winner Paulo Andreucci's Peugeot.
Now the title battle will move to Scotland for the penultimate round of the IRC guaranteeing RallyScotland a bumper entry from all the major manufacturer teams and leading drivers from all over the world.
"Last year the RallyScotland suffered because Kris Meeke clinched the championship for Peugeot before the final round, which was ours," RallyScotland clerk of the course Iain Campbell explained today. "With the championship decided, a number of the big teams stayed away from our event
"We were facing the same scenario this year, but thankfully with Andreucci winning in San Remo the title isn't decided so we'll have an all-out battle for the championship in RallyScotland.
"That means we're guaranteed all the works drivers and teams from the likes of Peugeot, Skoda and Proton, plus some of the best independents from around the world.
"The drivers who contested the inaugural RallyScotland last year rated a number of the stages in Perthshire and the Trossachs as the best stages in the world; so it's fitting that this year we'll have one of the best entry fields in the world tackling Scotland's best forest stages. It's going to be spectacular."
The three-day event, which starts on the Friday at Scone Palace and finishes on the Sunday afternoon at Stirling Castle, will be beamed live into millions of homes in 70 countries around the world by Eurosport.
Last year's winner Guy Wilks will be determined to win again for Skoda and help team-mate Hanninen to the championship, but the Darlington driver will face tough competition from last year's IRC champ Meeke — who finished fourth in San Remo but now can't retain his title — and Lanark's Alister McRae in his Proton.
Jim McGill