FMSCI announces Rally Calendar for 2013 | INRC - IRC

INRC 2012 season was much criticized for a few reasons, like delayed & short season announcement & running, and mostly for the even shortened to just two rallies to finish the championship. But it looks like that the ASN [FMSCI] have woken up to the call of the needy to for the first time since a long time, to announce the upcoming season of the Indian National Rally Championship before the new-year party & even before christmas!

It is a welcome move from the ASN that the initiative atleast taken and news coming after the rescheduling of the final round [that was scheduled for last weekend itself], hence cutting short the 2012 season to just two events.

Here is below the official announcement from the official site.

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December 19, 2012: After a challenging couple of seasons, the FMSCI seeks to re-invigorate the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) with the announcement of an exciting eight round championship set to take off in March. In what has been a purple patch for Indian motorsport overall, the FMSCI looks set to create a bigger and better season of rallying in 2013.

The new season will also see the re-introduction of Tarmac stages with two rallies, one in Nashik and also September’s Cochin Rally running on sealed surfaces. The INRC will comprise of two major classes: the Group N 1601-2000cc cars and another class for cars upto 1600cc. The FMSCI homologation of new machinery this year will also mark the entry of Maruti SX4 and Volkswagen Polo to the national rallying arena for the first time.

Vicky Chandhok, President of the FMSCI was looking forward to a positive year ahead and said, “There’s no hiding from the fact that 2012’s INRC didn’t go to plan but all the clubs involved are putting in a solid effort to ensure we come back strong with heightened preparation for 2013. It’s also good to see more manufacturer interest and we look forward to seeing some new cars on the dirt in 2013.”

With an eye on identifying and further developing young rallying talent in the country, the Junior Indian National Rally Championship (JINRC) returns once again with drivers under 27 years of age eligible to contest for the Championship in Group N cars under 1600cc.

The Indian Rally Championship (IRC) is also set to return and is open to foreign participation in homologated Group N4 cars. The series for 2013 has received plenty of interest from Asia Zone drivers and will see drivers from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka battle it out for the silverware.

The INRC kicks off with the MMSC’s historic South India Rally in Chennai on the 22nd of March 2013.

IRC/INRC Calendar for 2013



Round 1: 22-24 March: MMSC Chennai (Gravel)


Round 2: 12-14 April: Northern Motorsports, Bhuj (Gravel)


Round 3: 17-19 May: Kolkata , RRPM (Gravel)


Round 4: 07-09 June: WISA, Nashik (Tarmac)

(TBC)
Round 5: 19-21 July : CASC, Coimbatore (Gravel) 


Round 6: 20-22 September: KASC , Cochin (Tarmac) (TBC)
Round 7: 25-27 October:  K1000, KMSC Bangalore (Gravel) 


Round 8: 29 Nov -01 Dec: MSCC, Chikmagalur (Gravel) 

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The good thing that happened from this [2012] season was the inclusion of the IRC for International Competitors to take part & fight for their own championship, which is a boon for both the Indian motorsports community as well as a good option for the potential competitors. However in this season, it was only a one car drive, a Subaru Impreza WRX STi that was rented driven by an Indian team TKM Motorsport entry after hiring a rally prepared car from Malaysian motorsports team, MRU Motorsports.

With more competition coming in the new IRC category & equally helping numbers for INRC, in the National Championship, the stage will be filled with competition. The ASN recently also had called up  for setting up the Technical Regulations for the upcoming season, there is likely to be a new category for faster cars or maybe a better for the existing categories with minor tweaks. So the new regulations should be out in a few days time, shortly.

The promises looks lucrative as the documents for the new season are published well in advance & looks promising.

Here are a few documents needed for the Rally Championships for 2013 as part of the documentation requirements.

Driver/Co-Driver License for National Championship (applicable for INRC competition only)

or

Driver/Co-Driver License for International Championship (applicable for IRC competition only)

and

Individual Entrant - National / International (applicable for both INRC & IRC competitions)
or
Team Entrant - National / International (applicable for both INRC & IRC competitions)

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Info for interested International Competitors

Stay & Transportation can be availed at best prices across various & spread international quality services at all of the competitive rounds published above. Service backup is also immensely present which are proven teams, like Kari Sports, Chettinad Racing, Red Rooster Racing, FRK Racing, SpeedSport & many others who have more than adequate experience in providing the services. For more info & support, we are available to assist you happily anytime. We can be contacted at our Facebook Page or on Twitter, or on email. 

A glimpse of the past couple of seasons action.

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Hyundai i20 WRC - ADAC Tests | Yes! It is for real..

Hyundai's i20 WRC car has finally conducted a test in Europe for real. With all the initial hype and sudden disappearance from the rest of the world, and with a commitment to return in World Rally Championship in 2014. Not only that, but it also held a first test run outside its territory, i.e., in Europe.

So far Hyundai i20 WRC was exclusively produced in South Korea without any much details or news that was first unveiled in September, but they decided to make a overseas test run, in Europe, so landed into Germany for two days of and display at ADAC test center, near Frankfurt early last week.

Only a selected few journalists were invited to witness the event of i20 WRC show car. Work on the actual World Rally Car will be getting underway soon, with the company absolutely committed to starting at the 2014 WRC.

Hyundai will be announcing at the Geneva show in March of the upcoming major developments for the new i20 WRC, an effort not tried since 2003.

A spokesman from the firm says: "We wanted to keep the story moving. We realised there was nothing since Paris, which is why we wanted to organise everything to fly the car into Europe to show what we have done and the direction we are moving in. This is a way of showing our commitment to the World Rally Championship."

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Norwegian Prime Minister calls Petter Solberg | WRC - 2013

Shortly after Petter Solberg announced his no-season-WRC-2013-for-me, that he got a phone call from his country's prime minister.

Norway’s premier Jens Stoltenberg has been a keen supporter of Rally Norway in the past - so the minister decided to call Solberg after learning that the 2003 world champion wouldn’t be competing in the WRC next year.

Speaking to Motorsport News, Solberg, who enjoys a huge profile in his homeland and equally throughout the world, said: “When the news came out that I wasn’t competing next year, the whole of Norway was on its roof! The Prime Minister called me and we talked for 10 minutes.”

Although Solberg received no firm offers from him either for a ride in the WRC in 2013, but plans to be busy next year, maybe in another motorsport discipline.

He says, “Except for rallying and Formula One I think I’ve had offers from every other sort of motorsport where I won’t have to put money in and I will have the chance top fight for the win. Fighting at the front is really important for me in whatever I do next year. I need to think about things, I won’t make any decisions yet.”

So, hope is still there!?

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Race Of Champions - 2012 | Romain Grosjean - Champion of Champions

Race of Champions, is a knockout tournament where the world’s greatest drivers battle to prove they’re the fastest on Earth. Through a series of head-to-head races in identical cars on a parallel track, the stars fight it out to prove they have what it takes to be crowned ‘Champion of Champions’. 

The event starts with a group stage to ensure fans get to see plenty of action from every driver. The racers face up to each of the other drivers in their group, with cars swapped round between heats so they all have to prove themselves in a variety of machinery. The most successful drivers move on to the quarter-finals. 

From there it’s back to a head-to-head, no second chances, knockout competition to get to the semi-finals and then the Grand Final. Just as with all the world’s great cup competitions, the tension builds all the way through to this best-of-three shootout where there can be only one ‘Champion of Champions’. 

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Reigning 'Champion of Champions'

French rally ace Sébastien Ogier defeated Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen to take the prestigious title in 2011 while superstars including F1 world champions Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button were knocked out in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

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25th Edition of the RoC-2012

The 25th Edition of the RoC-2012 was held in the Rajamangala Stadium at Bangkok, Thailand this weekend.

Friday's action began with ROC Thailand, a four-way battle between drivers from the host country. The competition started with a group stage involving Charoensukawattana, Sritrai, Nattapon Horthongkum and drift guru Sak 'Kiki' Nana. N Charoensukawattana winning the event against T Sritrai in the finals. The best timing [by the winner] was 1:21.087.

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RoC Asia held later on Friday, for the Asia Pacific countries in which 4 nations, India, Japan, China, and host Thailand competed against each other.

Team India's Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok are celebrating tonight after they took glory in the inaugural ROC Asia competition, the first night of action of the 2012 Race Of Champions weekend.

On a hot evening at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium, Karthikeyan and Chandhok joined forces for Team India as both made their ROC debuts. The Indian duo topped the group stage with four wins out of six to go into the final as favourites.

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Saturday was the action packed RoC Nations Cup race, where the reigning Nations Cup champions, Team Germany took their sixth consecutive win, with Michael Schumacher & Sebastien Vettel over-running everyone to take the cup back home.

The German duo defeated Team France's Romain Grosjean and Sébastien Ogier by two heats to nil in the Grand Final. Team All Stars (Jorge Lorenzo and Tom Kristensen) and Team Australia (Jamie Whincup and Mick Doohan) reached the semi-finals. However, it was disappointment for Team India despite being there to race for the first time. Following their triumph in yesterday's ROC Asia, Team India's Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok failed to make it beyond the group stages this time. They took a win apiece but it wasn't enough against the might of Germany and Australia.

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The final race for 2012 edition of Champion of Champions was held today, just a few hours ago from now. In the thrilling battle with the reigning champion and the Formula 1 top drivers yielded into a spectacular fashion of fight between them.

Sebastien Ogier won all the three races in his Group A qualifiers, so as Vettel & Schumacher did the same and took off to the Quarter Finals. Quarter Finals & Semi-Finals is the brutal knockout game, where there are no second chances.

Dramatically, it was Tom Kristensen & David Coulthard, and Romain Grosjean & Michael Schumacher who made it to the Semi-Finals and the battlefield was a nail-biting moments both to the competitors and the audience. But it was the Semi's which was even more exicting being Kristenen & Grosjean took victory against their rivals in the Semi-Finals and securing their positions for the Finals.

Finals of 'Champion of Champions' was a three round battle for the duo, where they did go 'Gung-Ho' with their cars and it was Romain Grosjean who emerged victorious beating Tom Kristenen with a straight 2-0 win in the first two round of the finals.

Champion of Champions for RoC-2012

The 26 year young  Romain Grosjean!

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'Thierry Neuville' Joins Qatar M-Sport WRT for 2013, along with Evgeny Novikov

M-Sport has made an announcement that Thierry Neuville, who drove for Citroen Junior WRT in the Citroen DS3 WRC for 2012 season, will be joining Qatar M-Sport WRT for the upcoming 2013 WRC season. He will be sitting behind the wheel of the Ford Fiesta RS WRC for all the 13 rounds along with Nasser himself and so does the young Russian gun Evgeny Novikov, who drove for M-Sport WRT for 2012.

Thierry Neuville is not new to M-Sport, as he had piloted a Ford Fiesta in the 2008 WRC season, though in a 2-wheel drive version of the car, and says, “It is a great honour for me to represent Qatar and M-Sport on all 13 rounds of next season’s championship. Thanks to a great ‘learning’ year in the WRC, I am confident that I will be able to achieve some great results alongside M-Sport and my new team mates.

I would especially like to thank Malcolm [Wilson] for his confidence in me, and also my friend Nasser [Al-Attiyah] for his fantastic support. I am now focussed on preparing for Rally Monte-Carlo and really looking forward to the start of this new adventure.”

Evgeny Novikov present at the moment was equally thrilled about the news of his seat for the new season, and quipped, “I am very glad to be representing Qatar and M-Sport next year. I would like to express huge gratitude to all those who supported me and believed in me: my mentor Mikhail Lepekhov, Malcolm Wilson, my family and my fans.

In 2013 we will fight at the top level and do our best to please those who have supported us all these years.”

Thierry's new challenge also revealed that the Citroen Racing boss Yves Matton was also keen in offering him a seat in for atleast 8 rounds for the 2013 season.

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