World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (WRC) is a rally racing series across the world (although the main focus is in Europe, due to the sport's roots), culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's championship and manufacturer's championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. This means that Petter Solberg driving for Subaru can win the driver's championship but Citroën can win the manufacturer's championship, which is what happened in 2003. The competition first received the designation of WRC in 1973.
World Rally Cars
The Championship currently features 16 rallies and production-based 2.0 L Turbocharged 4WD cars built to World Rally Car regulations racing across tarmac, gravel and snow. The power output has been limited to around 300bhp. Current cars in the championship include the Citroën Xsara, Ford Focus RS, Peugeot 307, Skoda Fabia, Subaru Impreza, and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Citroën, Peugeot, Skoda and Mitsubishi have pulled out of the championship for 2006 and those cars, although in use by privateers, are not in further development. Citroën will be returning to WRC in 2007 using the C4.
The WRC was formerly held for Group A and Group B rallycars. However, due to the increasing power, lack of reliability and the fatal accidents on the 1986 season, Group B was permanently banned. Later, in 1997, the Group A cars evolved into the WRC car spec, to ease the development of new cars and bring new makes to the competition.
The World Rally Championship also features classes called the Production World Rally Championship and the Junior World Rally Championship.
World Rally Calendar
For 2004 through 2005, the championship rallies included Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, New Zealand, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Argentina, Finland, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Italy, France, Spain, and Australia. Japan and Mexico debuted in 2004.
The 2006 rallies will be, in order, Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Spain, France, Argentina, Italy, Greece, Germany, Finland, Japan, Cyprus, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.
World Rally Results
See current (i.e. 2006) World Rally Championship race results.
The current Championship table looks like this [after Rally Argentina 28-30 April, 2006]:
Drivers'
| Place | Driver | Car | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | S.Loeb | Citroën | 56pts |
| 2. | M.Gronholm | Ford | 35pts |
| 3. | D.Sordo | Citroën | 24pts |
| 4. | P.Solberg | Subaru | 18pts |
| 5. | M.Stohl | Peugeot | 18pts |
| 6. | G.Galli | Peugeot | 11pts |
| 7. | A.Bengue | Peugeot | 9pts |
| 8. | C.Atkinson | Subaru | 8pts |
| 9. | M.Hirvonen | Ford | 7pts |
| 10 | H.Solberg | Peugeot | 7pts |
Manufacturers' / Team
| Place | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Kronos Total Citroen | 69pts |
| 2. | BP-Ford WRT | 57pts |
| 3. | Subaru WRT | 51pts |
| 4. | OMV-Peugeot Norway | 31pts |
| 5. | Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT | 15pts |
| 6. | Red Bull Skoda | 11pts |
World Rally Champions List
| Year | Drivers' Championship(car) | Manufacturers' Championship |
|---|---|---|
| FIA Cup for Drivers: | ||
| FIA Cup for Drivers: | ||
World Rally Championship event wins
- 26 – Carlos Sainz (Spain)
- 25 – Colin McRae (Great Britain)
- 24 – Tommi Mäkinen (Finland) / Sébastien Loeb (France)
- 23 – Juha Kankkunen (Finland)
- 20 – Didier Auriol (France) / Marcus Grönholm (Finland)
- 19 – Markku Alén (Finland)
- 18 – Hannu Mikkola (Finland)
- 17 – Massimo Biasion
- 16 – Björn Waldegård (Sweden)
External links
- World Rally Championship (official site)
- Rallystuff.net (Unofficial WRC Fan Site)
- RallyBase
- Rallye-Info.com (formerly WRC-Online.net)