McRae rejected

[evolutionmovement]

From BBC:

Subaru have decided not to offer Colin McRae a drive in next year's World Rally Championship.
McRae had been hotly tipped to return to Subaru to partner world champion Petter Solberg after Richard Burns was found to have a brain tumour.

But the team have decided not to take back the 35-year-old Scot, who won the title with them in 1995.

McRae told the Autosport website: "I've never been more disappointed in my entire time in the championship."

Subaru's decision almost certainly means McRae will be forced to sit out next year's world rally series after he was dropped by Citroen after a disappointing year in 2003.

He added: "This deal was not about the money, it was about me being in a team that could have given me one more crack at the World Rally Championship.

"Subaru could have had a cracking team with Petter and myself."

McRae to race in desert rally
McRae's only confirmed drive next year is with Nissan in the trans-Saharan Dakar Rally.

World Rally commercial boss David Richards, whose Prodrive company runs the Subaru team, said he was disappointed not to have McRae in the series.

"Some sports have iconic figures and Colin is one of them," Richards said.

"It was Colin that helped put Subaru on the map. I don't think some people understand the impact of not having him in the car."

Autosport said Finn Mikko Hirvonen was favourite to be named in the Subaru team when an announcement was made next week.

Driver profile: Mikko Hirvonen
Hirvonen drove for Ford in this year's world rally series.

[Brat4by4]

Hmmm, can't remember where i read it, but they were saying he was over-the-hill and had a destructive balls-out driving style.

*Disclaimer* - All Second-Hand Info! - *Disclaimer*

[evolutionmovement]

Man, you're on a roll today.

Steve

[Brat4by4]

http://rally.racing-live.com/en/

Mikko Hirvonen is the second driver.

The Impreza WRC2004 is expected to make its debut on the third round of the 2004 Championship, Rally Mexico

Interesting. Anyone going to this, it should be the bomb if it is a debut event, too.

[Grant]

I plan on going. I have a feeling there is going to be a strangely large amount of tickets from the US to central Mexico this year. I wonder if there is any cheap way to get from Cancun to the city the rally is in. It's always cheap to fly to the coast of Mexico, but from my research so far, somewhat expensive to fly inland. Hoping my Spring Break coincides with that weekend. It's kind of rough to miss classes now that I'm in my senior year of college.

[Polskino]

ya im not a fan of mcrae. but subaru does need some more skillful drivers if they ever want to win the manufactures championship. I mean they have solberg they need alteast 1 more amazing driver or 2 alright drivers

[evolutionmovement]

The rules have changed for next year. Supposedly to reduce costs as they're expanding the series by (I think) two races, they've reduced the number of cars a team can run to two (this should help Subaru as they were usually fighting the four-car onslaughts of Citroen, Peugeot, and sometimes Ford). This is why McRae's out of a job - Citroen kept Loeb and Sainz (good choices IMO) and there wasn't room for anyone else. I think they can't have two older (or is it ex-champion) drivers or something like that either, but I'm not sure about that.

Steve

[Polskino]

ya that use to piss me off when subaru struggles with keeping 2 cars in a rally, while soem of the other teams had like 3-4 cars. it was almost impossible for those teams not to win the manufacturers championship