Nooooooooooos :(

Subaru and Suzuki to stop with immediate effect in the wrc, RIP WRC :'



[www.autosport.com]




Subaru pulls out of the WRC

By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, December 16th 2008, 09:28 GMT

SubaruSubaru has made a shock announcement that it will pull out of the World Rally Championship with immediate effect.

Just 24 hours after Suzuki quit the series, Subaru cited the worldwide financial economic crisis as to why it will also not continue.

David Richards, the boss of the Prodrive company that runs Subaru's efforts in the WRC, was saddened by the decision which brings to an end a 20-year association.

"Subaru's departure from the World Rally Championship is a great loss as it is one of the sport's icons," said Richards, who helped Prodrive win six WRC titles.

"The Subaru World Rally Team has created true champions such as Colin McRae and Richard Burns and its absence will be felt by many the world over. Although this decision closes a significant chapter in Prodrive's history, our focus now turns to the future."

Richards said Prodrive would look to redeploy their WRC workforce elsewhere in the company - having also confirmed that their customer rally teams will continue.

A statement from Prodrive suggested that they were looking for a swift return to the WRC, especially with new regulations are set to come into force in 2010.

"Looking ahead, 2010 will see the introduction of new World Rally Championship technical regulations, which provide Prodrive with an opportunity to prepare for re-entering the championship with a new team and build on its 24 years of World Rally Championship experience and success," said the statement.

Subaru has struggled to find form with the Impreza in recent years. The last victory was in September 2005, when Petter Solberg took victory in the Rally GB after Sebastien Loeb chose not to triumph following the death of Michael Park. The last win on merit was the Rally Mexico in March 2005.

The long-awaited new Impreza was introduced in the Acropolis Rally in May and, although its performance was originally encouraging with Solberg finishing second in Greece, it was never able to genuinely challenge Citroen or Ford for victories.

The team were hoping to push ahead with the development of the car ahead of next season and were planning to run four cars in 2009.

The withdrawal of Subaru and Suzuki in the last 24 hours leaves just two manufacturers in the sport - Citroen and Ford.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2008 11:45AM by Iceman-Kimi.

not good for rallying at all, especially as citroen are rumoured to be stopping in the next few years

hopefully atkinson and solberg gets another drive somewhere

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X (@ed24f1)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2008 01:44PM by SchueyFan.

Cant really comment but I heard the rules were getting abit silly??

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Subaru haven't been competitive for a couple years, perhaps they just needed time off to get themselves in order, or the folks in Japan a la Honda thought they were wasting money and getting no results.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

The new car was promising though.

Really Bad for Chris Atkinson

The WRC Should go to Group N Rules for a few Years to sort it self out

The Thunder from Downunder

Wow! I wonder if Citroen/Peugeot do go to F1 and Citroen pull out I wonder if Ford will then too, to save money since there are no other manufacters to race against anyways. But WRC hasn't been that great the last few years anyways. Some say that the carmakes ruin racing, but I think they make it, whats WRC if Ford and Citroen leave too.

WRC died years ago. No night stages, canceled for bad weather, no long stages, repeat stages, driver aids. Yawn.

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there will still be a big subaru team in wrc there just wont be a factory backed team. but didnt subaru specifically make their new shape for wrc, the weight distribution over they back wheels or summin like that


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They will still sell the cars to privateers and make money, i just think its a decision based on not wanting to fund a factory team...citreon have told us about the advertising in WRC.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

It's a pity it looks like WRC is about to fade away. I was at the Irish Rally a year ago, and it was savage. But there was a feeling around that it had arrived too late, it had missed the heyday of WRC popularity in this country by about 4 years...WRC was on TV then, the Playstation games were great and everybody played them and it was even looking more popular than Formula 1. Now, casual fans can name all the F1 drivers again, and nobody has a clue who's in WRC. That's just how I perceive it in this country. Having said that, I think all motorsports have taken a hit in Ireland recently. I suppose I should blame it on Jordan dropping out of F1, but I'm gonna blame it all on Fiat Punto Abarth racing.

The_Ozz_Man Wrote:
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> Really Bad for Chris Atkinson

it looks like he will enter at least some rallies with Citroen next year

[www.foxsports.com.au]

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X (@ed24f1)