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The 'World Rally Championship' (WRC) is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's championship and manufacturer's championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. This means, for example, that Petter Solberg driving for Subaru can win the driver's championship but Citroën can win the manufacturer's championship, which is what happened in 2003, and again in 2006 when Sébastien Loeb took his third consecutive WRC title but Ford won the manufacturer's championship. The competition first received the designation of WRC in 1973. The sport's commercial rights are administered by International Sportsworld Communicators.

Contents

Cars

Calendar

TV coverage

Points system

Results

Drivers' championship

Manufacturers and teams

Past seasons

Records

External links

Cars

Main articles: World Rally Car


The Championship currently features 16 rallies and production-based 2.0 L turbocharged four-wheel drive cars built to World Rally Car regulations racing across tarmac, gravel and snow. The power output has been limited to around 300 bhp (225 kW). Current cars in the championship include the Citroën C4, Ford Focus RS, Peugeot 307, Škoda Fabia, Subaru Impreza, and Mitsubishi Lancer WRC. Citroën, Peugeot, Škoda and Mitsubishi pulled out of the championship for 2006 and those cars, although in use by privateers, are not in further development. Citroën returned to WRC in 2007 using the C4. Suzuki plan to take part in 2008 using the SX4.
The WRC was formerly held for Group A and Group B rallycars. However, due to the increasing power, lack of reliability and the fatal accidents on the 1986 season, Group B was permanently banned. Later, in 1997, the Group A cars evolved into the WRC car spec, to ease the development of new cars and bring new makes to the competition.
The World Rally Championship also features classes called the Production Car World Rally Championship and the Junior World Rally Championship. However for 2007 the JWRC has no events outside Europe so is now know simply as the Junior Rally Championship, JRC.

Calendar

For 2004 through 2005, the championship rallies included Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, New Zealand, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Argentina, Finland, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Italy, France, Spain, and Australia. Japan and Mexico debuted in 2004.
The 2006 rallies were, in order, Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Spain, France, Argentina, Italy, Greece, Germany, Finland, Japan, Cyprus, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.
The 2007 season calendar includes 16 rallies, of which nine are driven mostly on gravel roads, five on tarmac and two, the Swedish Rally and Rally Norway, on snow. Norway is a new round introduced to the championship, along with Ireland and the re-introduction of Portugal. Cyprus and Turkey are the rounds to be replaced. The Rally Australia will not be run, but it will return in 2008 and will be relocated to the state of Queensland, reportedly through to 2011, after previously being held in the state of Western Australia since 1988.
'2007'

TV coverage

Eurosport show daily updates of each event after the day's stages have finished and the TV coverage has been processed. These daily highlight programs are around 30 minutes in duration and cover in depth the day's stages, with in-car footage as well as driver interviews. Before the rally there is also a Rally Preview that normally incorporates special driver, technical and team features as well as providing an overview of the upcoming rally's route. There is also a review program, which lasts approximately an hour, that summarises the rally and the big events that took place during the duration; the stages are not in such detail as the daily updates as it is a review program.
Also, an approximate 15-minute JRC/PWRC (depends on the event) review program airs, which also highlights the main events and dramas in the respective round.

Points system

Points are awarded at the end of each rally to the top 8 WRC/JRC/PWRC drivers that qualify for drivers are as follows: 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Despite how many drivers are in one team, constructors can only nominate 2 drivers to score points for the team as well as scoring for themselves.

Results

Main articles: World Rally Championship results

:''Current standings: 2007 World Rally Championship season
The current championship standings after round eleven, the Rally New Zealand, are as follows:

Drivers' championship

Manufacturers and teams

Past seasons

Main articles: List of World Rally Championship Drivers' Champions, List of World Rally Championship Constructors' Champions

Records

Main articles: List of World Rally Championship records

External links

★ World Rally Championship (official site)

★ Rally Guide (Rally Guide)

★ Rallystuff.net (Unofficial WRC News & Forum)

★ RallyBase

★ Rallye-Info.com (formerly WRC-Online.net)