WRC 2012 - Wales Rally GB / APRC 2012 - Rally Hokkaido / IRC 2012 - Prime Yalta Rally Ukraine ..

Coming week must witness the most spectacular rallies in this year's Rally Calendar as the top level Championships of the Motor Rally World is going to celebrate in WRC, IRC as well as the APRC, which are going to hold events exactly on the same weekend at different countries across the planet. Personally not a big fan of the dates clashes as it misses the heat of every competition with the teams choosing to go to best of their own and eventually killing the fun! However it will be the top level event, Wales Rally GB that will be the most celebrated with its rich history and legacy behind the event held without any break for a long while.

WRC - 2012 : Round 10

Wales Rally GB

The history dates back to the RAC Rally from the Royal Automobile Club of Great Britain. In those days it was one of the prestigious clubs that hosted a real treat for the auto enthusiasts who merely conducted at not in the format that is held today, but more like the generous TSD format. After the WRC really evolved the trend changed and changed to the stage format of what we know it for a while from now. The best part must be the Welsh forest stages that is the celebrated part of the whole WRC community. Perhaps there is no one in this planet who is a fan of the WRC and doesn't like these flowing, undulating and scenic forest roads where the best of the best drivers and their machines are found making love with the natural roads.. Yes!! It is that good of a treat both for the competitors and the fans. No doubt!

Last season, it was the most anticipated and closely monitored by the fans as it proved to be the last round of the 2011 season and would eventually the winner was supposed to pick up the Championship title. Mikko Hirvonen and Sebastien Loeb were merely 8 points away as the latter was leading with those numbers and the winner would have had the opportunity to pick up the World Driver's Title. Dramatically, Mikko crashed on the SS7, Day 2's 4th stage of the second day to retire [after limping through the stage] due to extensive damages to his car, which was beyond the scope of the service crew to even manage to make it under Super Rally format. So that was how Loeb managed pick up his 8th World title to his crown, unbeaten successively since 2004.

In this season, the rally is not the season ender [which is the tradition in almost every round of WRC, season after season around November] but has been moved a few rounds earlier to make it a drier event, as usually it is held during the rainy days of the Welsh countryside. Now, [again] Loeb is in a very comfortable lead in the championship and it still makes the event a still to be watched round, for above stated obvious reasons..

IRC - 2012 : Round 10

Prime Yalta Rally Ukraine

Tenth round in the IRC calendar for this season is going live at Prime Yalta Rally Ukraine in about 6 days from now. It is a asphalt-based event which uses the roads for stages over the mountains that overlook the Black Sea city of Yalta in Ukraine’s Crimea region. It is a compact rally was newly introduced in IRC last season, where as it has been a long-term fixture in the country’s national rally championship.

Since the Skoda top drivers will be a part of the VW WRC team, we haven't seen their entries at the event this year, which was very much expected! Entry list can be seen here, and beautifully prepared stage maps are here. The complete details of the event can be found in the Official site.

APRC - 2012 : Round 5

Rally Hokkaido

2012 season has seen so many changes in the competition with Team MRF Tyres turning into the S2000 category cars from its traditional GroupN/R4 Mitsubishi's that used to rally for them. The change in the cars have also bought some changes in the drivers lineup for both MRF as well as Proton Motorsports as Chris Atkinson had moved from Proton to MRF. As Atko [Atkinson] has moved to Mini WRC outfit to the top-level flavour, it brings a big change in the driver line up again. However it is funny to know that both the entry for Atko is both up at Wales Rally GB as well as in APRC Rally Hokkaido. For the question 'which one would it be?' it is most obvious that he would be at the wheel of the Mini WRC, yet still better to wait and watch! More details at the Official site.

The Championship is lead by the Chris Atkinson, followed by Alistair McRae [with a big margin of 45 points down the leader]. So, even if McRae wins the event, Atko will be in lead of the championship and he can return to the last round to claim the championship if he can still keep the numbers high. That is a very good advantage for him this time.

However, that doesn't mean that there would be little heat in the competition, as Indian driver Gaurav Gill has the speed and experience to win the event [last season, he narrowly missed out the championship behind the wheel of Evo-X from Team MRF Tyres.

All the news and reviews of the competition will be hot on our three channels, Ralli Heart - WRC, Ralli Heart - IRC & Ralli Heart - APRC. Stay tuned for more..