Photo: Roy Dempster -www.roydempster.com

There is still hope that Ireland may stage a round of the World Rally Championship in the not to distant future.

It appears that the FIA would be willing to include some form of event rotation in the WRC calendar after rejecting North One Sport's draft proposal for 2011, based on only annual events.

World Rally Championship Commission president Morrie Chandler told autosport.com: "I know North One doesn't want rotation, but there are some obvious candidates. A year ago, I believed we had reached a solution that there would be seven or eight, maximum nine annual events and then eight which would rotate.

"The new events which joined the series, like Norway, Jordan and Ireland all said from day one that they would be happy to run every second year. This provides a bit of colour and allows you to tell a different story each year, while retaining your core events.

"I don't hold that rotation is the solution, but I do see a small portion of rotation as, perhaps, meeting the needs of some countries and adding variety. I've had this debate with North One and they've got good business reasons about why they don't want to do that and I can understand that."

Rally Ireland director John Naylor told the Belfast Telegrah: "It could mean the door is open for us again although I would not expect Rally Ireland to be included in any revised calendar for 2011 at this stage. But I am encouraged by the possibility we could be considered for 2012."

Interestingly, FIA president Jean Todt is believed to have asked Morrie Chandler to start exploring a merger between WRC and IRC.

If this was to happen surely the Circuit of Ireland Rally (an IRC Supporter event for 2010) would be in pole position to represent Ireland on the world stage.

Next year Rally Director Bobby Willis intends to run the event from Belfast to Dublin, which will meet the FIA's request to visit both capitals. Also, key members from the successful team who organised Rally Ireland in 2007/09 are now running the Circuit.

The Circuit of Ireland is the most prestigious motorsport brand in the country and funding is in place to run the rally, both commercially and politically, as a cross-border event.

The thick covering of snow which blanketed most of the Kielder Forest complex has at last (Mostly) melteda way enabling the Pirelli International Rally organisers to complete the route survey and check out the road book.

One benefit of the extended "Whiteout" is that the snow has protected the forest tracks from frost, leaving the roads in exceptionally good condition and super smooth. Another benefit of the winter is that there has been very little harvesting activity on the roads to be used, and only some very short sections will require regrading before the event on April 23/24th.

Amongst those who are extremely grateful for the smoothness of the stages are the members of the event's PR teamwho personally visit all the residents of the remote farms and cottages in the vast forest complex, informing them of the rallies route and schedule. As this is done in standard road cars, a smooth ride is very much appreciated.

The Pirelli International Rally will feature a format of 12 special stages, six in the Kielder complex and six over the Cumbrian Border in Kershope.

http://www.pirelliinternationalrally.co.uk/2010/

Amman, Jordan: A staggering reconstruction operation has put Jordan back on line to host a sparkling World Rally Championship (WRC) event from April 1-3.

The worst rains for 20 years decimated large parts of the rally route, rendering many roads impassible, but a joint national effort between the army, Government and Amman Municipality and co-ordinated by the organising committee over the last 10 days has put the Kingdom back on track.

“We still have a lot of work to do but the effort has been astonishing,” said Khaled Zakaria, Clerk of the Course. “The storms left us with an almighty challenge but it has been taken head on with 90 per cent of the work now complete. It has been an incredible team endeavour considering the damage that we faced.”

The route has required some fine-tuning, resulting in the iconic water splash next to the Dead Sea – popular for thousands of fans - no longer being included in the route. It has also meant the total special stages’ kilometres have been shaved back to 339. There was also severe damage to the Service Park which has also now been rectified.

Jordan’s problems are compounded by the fact that a majority of the stages run under sea level, meaning that rainwater continues to cascade down from the higher ground many days after the rain has stopped.

Remarkably, no stages have been cancelled meaning that the world’s best drivers will still tackle 21 of the toughest stages to be found anywhere on the calendar over three days of exhilarating action.

The event gets underway with a ceremonial start in the Roman provincial city of Jerash to the north of Amman on April 1, before snaking its way through the Jordan Valley towards the Dead Sea on Day One. Day Two and Three will see action sweep through the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea areas before a podium finish in the Service Park.

Jordan is round three of the 2010 WRC, with current world champion Sebastien Loeb leading the standings following his second place finish in Sweden and victory in Mexico last week.

Footage from recent testing ahead of the 2010 IRC Rally Argentina.

Drivers in the clips include: Federico Villagra (Ford Fiesta S2000), Nasser Al-Attiyah (Skoda Fabia S2000) and Jan Kopecky (Skoda Fabia S2000).

Commenting after his first drive in the Fiesta yesterday, Munchi's WRT driver Federico Villagra said: “The car has a really fantastic chassis, which allows you to turn and stop impeccably. There is a substantial difference in power to the World Rally Car but it handles excellently although I had to work hard to get used to the gearbox. It will be challenging but we will look for the highest step of the podium.”

Speaking ahead of Rally Argentina, Nasser Al-Attiyah told autosport.com: "I'm scheduled to do seven rounds of the IRC this year and it would be fantastic if we could win it on seven rallies. But, we have budget to do more rallies, we can do the 10 rallies remaining [in the IRC calendar] if we need to.

"Meeke is going to be tough [to beat in Argentina]. He comes to the event having won in Brazil, so his confidence will be good. He drove well last year and knows the car. But I love this event in Argentina, it's one of my favourite races. It will be great going back to this country after I finished second in Dakar in January," he added.

video clips supplied by http://rallyazores.blogspot.com/

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Former FIA African Rally Champion Conrad Rautenbach will return to the World Rally Championship next season - but will spend this season at home in Africa contesting up to 16 rallies as he gets to grips with his new Ford Fiesta Super 2000 car.

The 24-year-old, who drove for the Citroen Junior Team last season, says returning to his homeland is the best way for him to prepare for the next generation of World Rally Cars coming to the sport in 2011.

He said: “The new cars are going to be based on current Super 2000 cars, so the best way for me to get ready for the 2011 World Rally Championship is to spend as much time as possible learning about Super 2000 cars and finding my way around the chassis. I did one rally in a Peugeot last year, but I really don’t have much experience of these cars - and that’s what this year is all about for me.

“Going home to Africa means I’ll be doing a lot of rallies in the Fiesta and I can also do loads of testing. There are some great forest and gravel roads in Zimbabwe, you know we can actually put together a 20-kilometer test road, that’s pretty much unheard of in Europe. I realise it could be seen as a backward step, but in reality, it’s taking one backward step to take two going forward to next season.”

Because his programme came together late, Rautenbach used Prodrive’s development Group N Subaru Impreza WRX on the opening round of the South African Championship, the Total Tour of Natal. He finished fourth in the car and is now looking forward to making his Fiesta debut on the Cape Town Rally next weekend.

For more information, visit www.wrc.com

Codemasters Vice President of Development, Gavin Cheshire, has confirmed that there will be a Colin McRae: DiRT 3 game.

"There's some great stuff coming from Birmingham that's going into DiRT 3," the executive said to EDGE magazine.

"DiRT was a complete reboot - we threw away what was going on and redid it completely - and then we rebooted GRID because it wasn't top gun, and then we rebooted DiRT 2. I'm not saying we're throwing all the codebase away, but we're throwing the thoughts away and coming out with something fresh and new. Because if you don't innovate, you're dead," he added.

Cheshire stated that DiRT 3 is likely to be a more British affair than DiRT 2.

"I guess in today's world, every day you're dealing with people from all over the world. So it's a British company and the last bastion of British publishing, and there is some pride in that, but it doesn't take control of your life.

"It's about the culture we've created and making the best games you can. DiRT 2: brilliant game but it's all American accents, so maybe we're a little over the top with those. Maybe we should fly the flag a bit more," he said.

Colin McRae: DiRT 2 proved to be a huge commercial success for Codemasters folowing its release in September 2009.