Race of Champions

This weekend Wembley Stadium in London was turned into a motorsport-arena, for the Race of Champions. Finally Petter got the chance to attend, and together with his brother Henning he was defending the Norwegian flag in the nation’s cup. They beat France in the quarter-final but Finland were too strong in the semi-final, Marcus Grønholm and Heikki Kovalainen made it to the final were they met the German team. Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel won the nations cup.

Race of Champions is not only a fight between the nations, but also a chance for the best drivers to decide who is the champion of the champions. With identical cars under the same conditions they are competing until the grand finale decides who the champion is. Mattias Ekstrøm from Sweden won the final in 2006 and was crowned with the title Champion of the champions. Petter raced with David Coulthard in the 1/8 final and Henning towards Michael Schumacher. Unfortunately they didn’t make it to the quarterfinal. In the final heat Michael Schumacher was racing towards Mattias Ekstrøm – and the Race of Champions were won by Mattias Ekstrøm.

WRC calendars for 2009 and 2010

The World Motorsport Council met in Monaco today, and decided the new calendars for 2009 and 2010. Ireland will be hosting the first event in 2009, while Norway will do the second. From 2009 there will be only 12 events in one year, and 24 countries will organise one event each over a two year period. In 2009 Poland will be the only “new” country, but in 2010 we find Indonesia, Russia and Bulgaria – all new organisers.

2009 FIA World Rally Championship

1. Feb Ireland
15. Feb Norway
15. Mar Cyprus
5. Apr Portugal
26. Apr Argentina
24. May Italy
14. Jun Greece
28. Jun Poland
2. Aug Finland
6. Sep Australia
4. Okt Spain
25. Okt Wales

2010 FIA World Rally Championship

24. Jan Monte Carlo
14. Feb Sweden
7. Mar Mexico
11. Apr Jordan
25. Apr Tyrkey
16. May New Zealand
20. Jun Indonesia
18. Jul Russia
8. Aug Bulgaria
22. Aug Germany
12. Sep Japan
10. Oct France

Petter 5th in the 2007 WRC

The 2007 World Rally Championship is completed, with Petter in 5th place with 47 pts. For the 4th time, Sebastien Loeb is the champion with 116 pts. Loeb has been fighting with Markus Grønholm trough the season, but managed to get ahead of the fin with only 4 pts.

In the Manufactures Championship Citroen had to see Ford on the top, while Subaru managed to be 3rd, ahead of Stobart.

The 2008 championship starts again with Rally Monte Carlo, 24th – 27th of January 2008.

Drivers Standings – WRC 2007

1. Sebastien Loeb, France 116 pts
2. Markus Grønholm, Finland 112 pts
3. Mikko Hirvonen, Finland 99 pts
4. Dani Sordo, Spain 65 pts
5. Petter Solberg, Norway 47 pts
6. Henning Solberg, Norway 34 pts
7. Chris Atkinson, Australia 31 pts
8. Jari-Matti Latvala, Finland 30 pts