Magic Bullet Stages review

Derek McGarrity got his 2012 Northern Ireland Rally Championship off to the best possible start with a dominating win on Saturday's Magic Bullet Stages Rally.

The opening round of the Championship, held at the Kirkistown Race Circuit in County Down, saw 78 competitors take to the start of the rally. Only 6 stages lay ahead, but it did manage to claim 12 crews.

10 WRC cars took to the start, including McGarrity's Impreza S14, Derek McGeehan's MINI John Cooper Works WRC, reigning Champion 'King' Kenny McKinstry's Impreza S8 and Alan McGeehan's Toyota Corolla WRC. Ford Escorts were well represented, with many MK2 examples, as well as Roy Haslett's screaming F2 example.

Throughout all 6 stages, McGarrity tore the opposition apart, winning each and every stage, eventually ending up with a 38 sec winning margin over Kevin Barrett's S11 Subaru. Perhaps McGarrity's Subaru is better set up for the racetrack-based stages, with the car still running European-spec suspension.

Derek McGeehan took third in the MINI John Cooper Works WRC, albeit over 1 min off the lead. The same MINI that Eugene Donnelly claimed second place overall in his rallying return in Galway a couple of weeks back.

Ray Brammer netted fourth in his WRC Impreza, a scant 4 secs behind McGeehan. Both scrapped throughout the event over the final spot on the podium, with McGeehan taking the spot.

In fifth was Kenny McKinstry. The reigning Champion spun then stalled his S8 Impreza, losing nearly a minute in the process, losing any possibility of a win. But, even without losing the minute, he still wouldn't have had the pace to keep up with McGarrity's S14, 6 evolutions ahead of McKinstry's example.

James Gillen and John McGaffin finished the rally with only 1.4 secs separating the pair of Impreza WRC drivers, with sixth place going in Gillen's favour. Eighth went to Drew Stewart in his MK2, also going fastest 2WD as well. Ninth went to rally car dealer Kieran Graffin of KG Motorsport, driving his usual Lancer Evo 9. Rounding out the Top 10 was Trevor Ferguson, who also won Group N.

As mentioned above, Ferguson won Group N in his Subaru Impreza N11. Neil McCance took second in his Evo 9, 7.5 secs back. Jason Curran, on only his second event in 4WD Group N machinery, took an impressive third, 26 secs back. Indeed, this was Jason's first 4WD finish, as on his 4WD début his transfer box failed, putting him out of the rally.

The Magic Bullet Stages Rally also marked the start of the Junior 1000 Championship, known as the hugely successful Formula 1000 Championship in Britain. 14 year old Ben Crealey, who had Liam Regan on the notes, dominated the rally, taking fastest times on each of the four stages the Junior's contested. His final winning margin was 33 secs over Kyle White. Rhys Bunting came third, nearly a minute off Crealy's impressive pace. Rhys Bunting had the normally Citroen C2 S1600-driving Andrew Bushe on the notes.

Flat to the Lat in Sweden!

Jari-Matti Latvala put his disappointing Monte Carlo crash firmly and maturely behind him by charging to his second Rally Sweden win.

"It is amazing. Four years ago I won this rally and now I got it again. The first time I won this rally I became the youngest ever winner of a world championship rally and beat my hero Henri Toivonen's record. It's fantastic to win it again.” he said.

Fastest on 8 of the 24 tests, Latvala finished the only snow rally of the year with a 16 sec winning margin over another former Rally Sweden winner, Citroen's new boy Mikko Hirvonen. Hirvonen won 5 stages in only his second rally for Citroen, almost becoming the only driver to win for Citroen on only their second rally. Even a puncture for Latvala on the final day couldn't net Hirvonen this accolade, something even Sebastien Loeb couldn't achieve.

Hirvonen said: "It's not too bad. I think we learned a lot this weekend," he said. "Okay, I really did want to win this rally for the team but Jari-Matti was very strong this weekend. We had a fantastic fight and I really enjoyed it, but it's second this time."

Mads Ostberg took yet another impressive podium in Sweden, taking third. Set-up mistakes, brake problems and a car that jumped into launch control mode on SS17 all hindered the Norwegian, so second, or maybe even first, could have been firmly on the cards, despite the rapid pace of the two Finns ahead.

"Third place this time is like second place last time, it's a very good result. I was not able to fight Jari-Matti and Mikko this year. There's only one position left on the podium [first] and we'll try to get that next year." Ostberg, the multiple Norwegian Rally Champion, said.

Petter Solberg, in the other works Ford, ended the rally in fourth. The 2005 winner of this event scrapped with Mads Ostberg for most of the event, losing time with a spin, re-gaining it with a smart tyre choice, losing time again with set-up problems and losing even more time with not one but two punctures on the final day, including one on the Power Stage, dropping him back behind Ostberg. Even with the puncture on the Power Stage, he still took second placed points for the stage.

Evgeny Novikov showed his maturity yet again with a strong run to fifth. No problems and a mature drive netted his second Top-5 finish of the year. He also showed he has lost none of his sheer speed, but now using it more like a dimmer light switch, only using as much as he needed at the time, rather than either on or off. He showed rallying's living legend Seb Loeb how he can do this, keeping the Frenchman at bay. What makes this more impressive is that the Russian has only driven once before on snow, and it was in Norway 2009, whereas Loeb has won two snow events, one of which being Sweden.

The aforementioned eight-times World Champion, Seb Loeb, fought back to sixth after stuffing his DS3 WRC into a snow bank. He then punctured and spun on Day 2, but managed to consolidate this series of misadventures with a dominating Power Stage win.

Seventh went to Henning Solberg, consistent as usual, but the Norwegian was unable to keep the flying Loeb behind him. Nevertheless, seventh was a good result.

Patrick Sandell was the highest MINI in eighth, driving for the Prodrive-run team. A fairly novel error, leaving a piece of road section-only bodywork in place when he took to a stage lead to the car overheating, but crucially the it didn't expire. Something that couldn't be said for his team-mate.

"Overall it was a perfect weekend for me. It's been absolutely fabulous. I really like this car. It's fantastic to drive. We've been adapting step by step and now we are setting good times." said a happy Patrick Sandell.

Martin Prokop and Eyvind Brynildsen took the final two points for ninth and tenth, respectively.

Dani Sordo's other MINI expired with engine problems after ending up in a snow bank. Theirry Neuville prioritised experience over speed and came home 12^th, over 10 mins off the lead. Team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah ended 21^st in his DS3 WRC début, a further 7 mins back.

PG Andersson claimed a heroic home win in the S-WRC in his works Proton Satria Neo S2000. After leading in Monte Carlo before an engine fire put him out, Sweden heralded no problems and he took a dominating win, over 1 min 30 secs ahead of S-WRC Championship leader, Craig Breen.

"It's a fantastic feeling to finally do it with PROTON. We had no real problems from start to finish, although we made a few set-up changes to get the best out of the car. Today we just looked after our advantage and concentrated on bringing our car safely to the finish." said the Swede.

Breen was involved in a scrap over second with Henning Solberg's stepson, Pontus Tidemand, but Breen got the hammer down & stretched his lead over Tidemand to over a minute.

P-WRC Champion Hayden Paddon took fourth after ending up stuck in a snow bank for some time.

"Unfortunately we got stuck in a snowbank earler and that compromised our rally. It's not the result I wanted but at least we were there at the finish to score some points." He said.

Rounding out the rest of the S-WRC runners are Yazeed Al-Rhaji (on his first snow rally, and in the Ford Fiesta RRC), Maciej Oleksowicz and Alastair McRae, in the other works Proton.

MINI/Prodrive semi-split confirmed

As expected, Prodrive's works team contract with the MINI WRT has been terminated.

Funding was the major sore point between the BMW and Prodrive, and this lead to today's announcement.

Dr. Kay Selger, who holds the title of 'Senior Vice President of Business Coordination and Brand Management' at MINI, said he was glad to learn that the long-term future of the team has been secured. He also said he is sure the MINI brand is suited to rallying, and hopes that MINI will continue to grow and succeed.

“I am delighted that the future of Mini in the WRC has been secured on a long-term basis. We remain convinced that the sport of rallying is perfectly suited to our brand. The situation we now find ourselves in means the Mini Motorsport family can, and will, continue to grow on the rally scene. With three podiums from just seven starts in the world championship, the Mini John Cooper Works WRC has already emphatically proven its potential. I am confident that our customer teams around the world will continue to thrill Mini fans with this car over the coming years.”

Selger also revealed how the FIA themselves wanted MINI to remain in the WRC, saying: "The FIA was just as interested in the long-term presence of the Mini brand in the WRC as we were, and was actively involved in finding a constructive solution. We are grateful for the good cooperation and the understanding it has shown us."

Motorsport Italia are now understood to be running the works cars now. The team will run under the WRC MINI Team Portugal. Paulo Nobre and Armindo Araujo will score points as the manufacturer team.

So where does all this leave Prodrive? The engineering firm based in Banbury, Oxfordshire will continue to build and prepare the cars. Prodrive will also run a 'works-supported customer team', retaining Dani Sordo and rotating the other seat between 'pay drivers'. How many events Sordo will get is still unclear, but if sufficient funding is in place he will get all remaining 12 World Rallies. Kris Meeke's return to the WRC has been put further into doubt, with major doubts in place as to whether or not he will return, despite a contract in place until 2013.

The only reason Prodrive has been retained to develop the cars is that they have intellectual rights to some parts within cars. MINI will still complete the homologation of the John Cooper Works WRC cars, which will see it be in homologation, and thus eligible for the World Rally Championship, for the next 6 years, until 2018.

Dr. Selger thanked Prodrive for playing a “major role” in the development of the cars, thanking the firm “on behalf of Mini Motorsport”.

"With its great enthusiasm and hard work, the Prodrive team has played a major role in the remarkable sporting success we have achieved on our initial outings with the Mini John Cooper Works WRC. On behalf of Mini Motorsport, I would like to thank everyone at Prodrive for their efforts so far and we look forward to working with them in support of our Mini John Cooper Works WRC customers in the future." he said.

One final point can be made on the WRC MINI Team Portugal front. The team has a much weaker 'works' line-up, when compared with the works teams of Ford and Citroen. When Prodrive ran the works team and Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke drove the cars, they had the beating of the other established teams. Now, with it's weakened, albeit much better funded, line-up, BMW may be in for some further headaches and embarrassment in the coming rallies.

MINI/Prodrive deal set to collapse

MINI and Prodrive are set to go their separate ways in the coming days, with a formal announcement of the contract between the two being terminated.

Although the programme has been moderately successful since it's début in Italy last year, disagreements between MINI's parent company BMW and Prodrive over finance have now come to a head.

Speculation suggests that BMW expected Prodrive to come up with a major sponsor to fund the campaign beyond the initial setting up of the team, funded by BMW. After the major sponsor failed to materialise, Prodrive expected to make up the funding shortfall with sales of customer cars. Prodrive approached BMW for extra funding for the programme, but with BMW investing reported vast sums of money in DTM, the request was not a warmly welcomed one.

To make up for the lack of money, the MINI team dropped Kris Meeke as works driver (reducing him to test & reserve driver), and allowed paying drivers to 'buy' Meeke's seat. The cost to 'buy' Meeke's seat for a World Rally was rumoured to be in and around the £200,000 mark. Pierre Campana was in Meeke's seat in Monte Carlo, and Patrik Sandell is expected to be in the No. 52 MINI for Sweden.

Even with a record of 3 podiums from 7 starts, and four stage wins (including a Power Stage win) to their credit, the Prodrive-run operation is set to cease shortly. Speculation suggests that the contract may head to the X-Raid team, that ran the Dakar Rally winning MINI of Stephane Peterhansel, or the Motorsport Italia team that runs Armindo Araujo and Paulo Nobre in the WRC. Or BMW might even decide to bring the programme in-house, alongside it's works DTM programme.

The team have already begun their journey off to Rally Sweden, but the announcement expected next week may have implications even for the team in Sweden.

Wilson out of Sweden

Matthew Wilson has pulled his entry for next weekend's Rally Sweden after breaking his ankle in a training accident near his home in Cumbria.

Wilson was out running as part of his fitness programme and fell at an awkward angle. He was taken to hospital, looking as he has broken and dislocated his ankle.

“It looks as though I’ve broken and dislocated my left ankle so, unfortunately, that means no Rally Sweden for me,” he said.

Understandably disappointed, Wilson revealed how he had been preparing for the Swedish round better than he had been for Monte Carlo.

"I was really looking forward to Sweden. We were a lot more prepared for this rally [than Monte Carlo] and we would have been looking for a good result. I'm absolutely gutted." he added.

Wilson's team, the Go Fast Energy World Rally Team, has elected not to run a replacement driver, so regular driver Henning Solberg will be the team's sole entrant for the second round of WRC 2012.

"No question" of MINI/Prodrive split

Richard Taylor has rubbished rumours that the MINI/Prodrive deal is about to fall apart.

“There's no question of that, no question at all. The team is on its way to Sweden for the pre-event test as we speak. Mini remains committed to the programme and to supporting customers. We all want to see the Mini John Cooper Works WRC out there on the stages and that's what we will see with Prodrive running the cars on Rally Sweden next week." said Taylor.

The MINI World Rally Team is due to begin testing with regular driver Dani Sordo and Patrick Sandell in Sweden later this week, at least showing the team will be in Sweden. Financial problems at the end of last year lead to Kris Meeke being dropped from a 'race seat' to a test driving role.

Regarding the money problems, both Prodrive and MINI's owners BMW have been blaming each other. Prodrive have reportedly been looking for BMW to spend more money on the programme while BMW have been reportedly looking for Prodrive to get a title sponsor. Indeed, rumours have been circulating that BMW are spending an incredible 20 times more on their works DTM project. The financial agreement between BMW and Prodrive was that BMW would fund early development and homologation while Prodrive would source a title sponsor.

News of VW's, BMW major competitor in the German and world car markets, big-budget assault on the WRC has reportedly rattled some of BMW's top brass. Indeed, VW pulled the plug on their very successful cross-country project to concentrate on the WRC programme.

Reports of BMW wanting to bring the project 'in-house' have also been doing the rounds. How well this project would go, however, is unknown as BMW have never fully supported a rallying campaign. BMW's moderately successful M3 programme during the Group A era of the late 1980's was run by Prodrive.

The MINI WRC Team has been openly hopeful of finding a sponsor after Dani Sordo's podium on the Rallye Monte Carlo.