Manfred Stohl has used his detour into the Austrian National Rally Championship for testing. The 35-year-old OMV driver completed over 180 special stage kilometres at the OMV Rally Waldviertel in Austria with its strong international starter field in the Natural Gas Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX which had been developed by himself. Even though he did not compete in a World Rally Car it was nevertheless a suitable preparation for the penultimate WRC assignment this year. Stohl: “One obviously can’t compare the CNG Mitsubishi to a WRC. Still, each SS-kilometre counts. I furthermore expect similarly slippery conditions in Ireland even though we’ll compete on tarmac there. We are in a good racing-rhythm, in any case. And that counts for a lot. ”
Points are possible
The Rally Ireland is a new addition to the WRC-calendar this year. Therefore the premises are the same for all teams. A fact that is to the advantage of the OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team. Thus Stohl/Minor hope for a place among the first eight. Stohl: “After quite some time we scored points in Japan once again. We want to repeat that in Ireland. The harder the conditions the easier this could be for us. But we nevertheless will have to attack from the first kilometre on. Each place we move up in the WRC intermediate standings means a better starting position at the Wales Rally GB. That is what we have to focus on. ”
Already EUR 125.790 in the OMV Move & Help account
Since this year’s season of the OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team is under the sign of OMV Move & Help, EUR 20 will be donated to OMV Move & Help for each completed special stage kilometre. At the 14 WRC-runs completed so far, Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor, Daniel Carlsson/Denis Giraudet and recently in Germany, Spain and Corsica also Francois Duval/Patrick Pivato have already taken in 125.790 Euro overall. In Ireland further 6.840 Euro are at stake since Manfred Stohl will carry the colours of the OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team alone. Move & Help is the educational program by OMV for over 35.000 children and youths in cooperation with SOS Children’s Village, Caritas and UNICEF.
342 special stage kilometres on 20 special stages
The Rally Ireland will commence on Thursday (November 15) at 19.00 (local time) with the Stormont super special. 19 further special stages with an overall length of 342,34 kilometres are scheduled from Friday to Sunday (November 16 – 18). The overall length measures exactly 1.196,25 kilometres. The finish line will be crossed on Sunday at 14.18 (local time) in Sligo.
This is the Republic of Ireland
Area: 70.282 sq km; Population: 4,2 million inhabitants; Population density: 60 people per sq km; Capital: Dublin (953.000 inhabitants); The Republic of Ireland has been independent since 1922 and is a parialmentary democratic republic. The primary official language is Irish even though it is only spoken by 3% of the population. The second official language is English.
Standings in the FIA World Rally Championship for drivers (after 14 of 16 runs): 1. Grönholm 104 points, 2. Loeb 100 points, 3. Hirvonen 84 points, 4. Sordo 53 points, 5. P. Solberg 38 points, 6. H. Solberg 34 points, 7. Atkinson 29 points, 8. Latvala 24 points, 9. Stohl and Duval 12 points each, 10. Gardemeister and Kopecky 10 points each.
Standings in the FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers (after 14 of 16 runs): 1. BP Ford WRT 189 points, 2. Citroen Total WRT 156 points, 3. Subaru WRT 73 points, 4. Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team 70 points, 5. OMV Citroen Kronos WRT 43 points, 6. Munchi’s Ford WRT 14 points.
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