WRC Rallye de España - Salou

The WRC has arrived in PortAventura

Start of the RallyRACC week in Salou and the Costa Daurada

From today, Monday, the Service Park of the 45 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España (1 to 4 October), gets going with almost all infrastructures of the teams already set up. Located on the car park of the PortAventura theme park, the Service Park is distributed into working areas, according to the type of participant or championship, although the largest part is taken up by the two big teams of the championship, the so-called priority one teams, i.e. Citroën Total and BP Ford Abu Dhabi, which also include in their structures their satellite teams, i.e. Citroën Junior at Citroën, and Stobart VK and Munchi’s at Ford. They are surrounded by viewing areas for spectators.

The distribution of the entrants is also planned for the participants of second and third priority, i.e. the J-WRC drivers and the Pirelli Star Drivers and bet santy copies this there is also an area for the remaining participants, including the Spanish drivers, those pertaining to the Producción Rally Racing series and the Fiesta Sport Trophy International. All the trucks of the official teams are located in their designated areas, surrounded by working structures that will be operative throughout the week.

The Rally Headquarters have also opened today and tomorrow will be the first day for the Media Centre, both of which will be located this year in the new PortAventura Convention Centre next to the PortAventura Hotel. From today, the teams will start with the sporting checks and continue with the scrutineering procedures which end on Wednesday. Tuesday and Wednesday are reconnaissance days, while the Shakedown (Coll de la Teixeta) will be carried out on Thursday, 1 October, the same day of the start ceremony that will be held from 20.00h on the podium located on the Salou Promenade.

Reconnaissance (not testing) of the stages is regulated so that all of the participants may cover certain stages on certain days. Thus, tomorrow Tuesday, 29 September, the drivers will have the chance to cover the stages Querol, El Montmell, La Mussara and Riudecanyes - the initial section of the latter being also the Shakedown stage - while on Wednesday, 30 September, they will be able to drive along the stages Priorat-Ribera d’Ebre, Les Garrigues, La Llena, Santa Marina y La Serra d’Almos. According to their status as priority 1, 2 or 3, the drivers will start the reconnaissance in different stages in order to avoid having too many vehicles on the same stage.

The 45 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, will be held from 2 to 4 October covering an itinerary of 1,299.13 km including 18 special stages, making up 353.62 timed kilometres. The entry list has 80 participating vehicles from 28 different countries, including 20 Spanish teams.


Total Kms : 1299.13 km
Liaison : 945.51 km
SS Kms : 353.62 km
Special Stages : 18

Friday 02.10 > 6 stages (131.76 km)
Saturday 03.10 > 6 stages (127.98 km)
Sunday 04.10 > 6 stages (93.88 km)

Home Page > http://www.rallyracc.com/2009/ingles/index.html
Itinerary > http://www.rallyracc.com/2009/descargas/itinerario.pdf
Entry List > http://www.rallyracc.com/2009/descargas/inscritos.pdf
Rally Guide > http://www.rallyracc.com/2009/descargas/rg1.pdf

Citroen preview > http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=346754&FS=WRC
Ford preview > http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=346751&FS=WRC
Citroen Jr preview > http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=346756&FS=WRC
Stobart preview > http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=346753&FS=WRC
Munchi's preview > http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=346750&FS=WRC

Championship Standings

1. Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) > 78
2. Sébastien Loeb (F) > 73
3. Daniel Sordo (E) > 50
4. Jari Matti Latvala (FIN) > 36
5. Henning Solberg (N) > 29
6. Petter Solberg (N) > 25
7. Matthew Wilson (GB) > 23
8. Sébastien Ogier (F) > 20
9. Federico Villagra (RA) > 15
10. Conrad Rautenbach (ZW) > 8