WRC Rally GB: Now The Epilogue

You would have thought the drama ended with Sebastien Loeb's eighth straight WRC championship but the hits just kept on coming days after Rally Great Britain and, indeed, the season was over. Talk about Silly Season!

WRC Rally GB: Now The Epilogue

By Bill Wood

Like a great sunset, the Wales Rally Great Britain is continuing long after the event is over. The quick headline is this: Ford driver Jari-Matti latvala won the battle in Wales and Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb won the 2011 World Rally Championship. It was Loeb's eighth straight. Think about that for a minute.  There'll be a quiz later.

Without question Latvala was among the fastest if not the fastest in the championship at the end of the season. We talked about a three act drama in the last three events of the year in France, Spain and Great Britain. Latvala had as much to do with the results in all three events as anyone else even though he only won in Great Britain. He surrendered podium spots in France and Spain to teammate Mikko Hirvonen who was battling Loeb for the title. Finishing issues earlier in the season hammered his title hopes. Laatvala received only ten points from four mid-season events in Sardegna, Argentina, Greece and Germany.  There are only 13 events on the calendar so throwing away a third of the season makes it hard to fight for a title at the end of the season. Think about that for a minute. There'll be a quiz later.

But what really shocked the WRC community on Wednesday at the Citroen year ending news conference had been rumored for weeks. Citroen announced that Mikko Hirvonen and his co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen would be joining the big red machines in 2012 and 2013. To me this is from the "If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em Department." Hirvonen and Lehtinen lost the WRC title to Loeb and  his co-driver daniel Elena in 2009 and, now, 2011. Neither was pretty. Hirvonen, in fact, lost the 2009 championship by ONE point after leading the championship at the last event in Great Britain. To make matters worse, the loss was helped by a  hood pin that came loose blocking Hirvonen's vision and giving the rally's next to last stage win to Loeb. On the last stage Loeb turned up the wick and took the title from Mikko's mits. It wasn't pretty. That was in 2009.

This year was different. Hirvonen needed to make up eight points in the UK. And  you might argue he was on his way when a sway off course allowed a tree limb to puncture the radiator on Hirvonen's Ford Fiesta. He got to the end of the stage but had to retire on the morning of the second day in the four day event. With Hirvonen gone, the title was Loeb. But on the morning of the last day, while Sebastien was trying to keep up with the blazing pace from Latvala, he ran into a spectator who was driving on the wrong side of the narrow road being used to travel from one stage to the next. The head-on collision took Loeb out of the event giving Latvala a near four minute victory. Now, imagine if Hirvonen was still in it when Loeb had to retire. No matter what Latvala did, Mikko would have been sipping the champagne at rally's end and not Sebastien. On such twists of fate is history usually written.

Here's one of your quiz questions: Does this mean Loeb is vulnerable as he goes after a NINTH straight title next year?  Let's pause for a minute here. American race fans are all agog over Jimmie Johnson's Five-in-a-Row streak in NASCAR Sprint Cup. That's amazing to be sure but Johnson does his business on basically one kind of track in one kind of country in the best of atmospheric conditions.  Loeb, on the other hand, competes on all kinds of tracks in all kinds of countries in all kinds of atmospheric conditions. He must  even compete in conditions where the road itself changes from car to car. The guy who's first on the road sees a different road than the guy who's second, second sees something different than third and so on.

If I would have told you that the man Mikko Hirvonen chased  for the WRC title in 2009 AND 2011 would be his teammate next year, you'd still be laughing. But you'd have to apologize because that came true this week.

At the end of  the year, though, the fastest man chasing Sebastien Loeb was Hirvonen's teammate Jari-Matti Latvala who strapped something on and ruled Rally Great Britain. Ford thinks he's ready for a title chase of his own next year.