Who do you think has it this next year?

I think Loeb, Solberg and Gronholm all probably have the best shot. Martin has a posibility, if he finds a team and a new co-driver (RIP Beef). I also believe there is an outside chance that Duval, Galli or even possibly Atkinson stand a chance. Maybe McRae if he can drive a Skoda as well as he did in Australia.

 

While Loeb's car will essentially be the same, I wonder if he is going to have the same level of support that he did with Citroen. Gronholm is going to have to get used to a whole new car (which means a whole new series of excuses ) and a new team so he may not be as competitive in the early rallies. Subaru needs to keep the car in one piece and Petter needs to drive hard in the first rallies in order to take advantage of their competitors' learning curves. If they can build up a points lead early in the season, they stand a better chance of winning it in the end.

Hopefully Petter's bad luck from last season won't carry over this year. Regardless, it should be an interesting year.

 

So far it looks like a Gronholm/Loeb shoot-out, but if Howarth can get SWRC whipped into shape, we should be seeing more podiums from Petter and maybe even Chris.

Shaping up to be a good competative season so far, despite the only factory teams still in the game being Ford and Subaru

 

Subaru and ford has a new machine.other are 1year old.so I think Solberg will take the champion.my freind is going to see rally japan.
did you know that last years pcwrc champion Toshi Arai is going to drive aWR car?

 

from the way things look on the opening 4 stages, Loeb is still favored to win, however Gronholm in the Focus appears to be very strong .... Mikko Hirvenon has done extremely well on all the rallys (his biggest problem was his car breaking down 3 of the 4 rallies, he crashed one of them)

but the Xsara has been nearly indestructible ... and in the hand of Loeb who is also very consistant and fast .... they are almost unbeatable ....

the Impreza maybe a new car ... but it certainly doesn't seem it was built up to par when compared to the Focus or the Xsara .... more tech problems during the race ....

 

sur i would like Petter to win, but he's bot going to beat Loeb. He's just to good. Plus the subie's been having problems.

-rich

 

Loeb is untouchable for this season and perhaps even the next. The only way he'll start losing is:

1) the Citroen C4 sucks
2) He devotes time in other motorsport disciplines (LeMans, TC, etc)
3) He get's injured or extremely sick