At the 23rd annual Autosport Awards ceremony the MINI John Cooper Works WRC (Rallyman) took the Rally Car of the Year award. Since its maiden outing in Italy last May, the newcomer has twice finished on the podium and claimed six fastest stage times. The car, which made its World Rally Championship debut this year, beat off competition from the Citroen DS3 WRC, Ford Fiesta WRC, Skoda Fabia S2000, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X and Subaru Impreza WRX to win the award. It is the first time since 2007 that a manufacturer other than Citroen has won the prize. David Richards, whose Prodrive concern runs the Mini operation, accepted the award from two-time World Rally champion Carlos Sainz. "It's been a great start, seeing the Mini name up at the front again after almost 50 years," he said. "It's something very special. It's Monte Carlo in only seven weeks' time though, so we're hard at work getting preparations underway for that." The Mini name had been an irrelevance at world level since the mid 1960s, a golden period for the original version of the car that included a European Rally Championship for Rauno Aaltonen in 1965 and various Monte Carlo, Acropolis and 1000 Lakes successes. That changed in 2010 when Prodrive, the organisation that took Subaru to three drivers' and three manufacturers' world titles, announced that it would run a pair of cars in the WRC on a full-time basis from 2012, and in a partial campaign this year. The John Cooper Works WRC, to give the car its full name, is based on the Mini Countryman road car and powered by a BMW 1.6-litre turbocharged engine. It made its WRC debut in Italy this year with Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke behind the wheel. Sordo surprised many by finishing sixth on that event, and then impressively put the car on the podium in third place in Germany on what was only the car's third appearance. Even better was to come, with Sordo leading for large chunks of the following event in France, and only missing out on victory to Sebastien Ogier's Citroen by 6.3 seconds. Despite its status as a development entry in 2011, which left it ineligible to score points in the manufacturers' championship, Sordo and Meeke made it to eighth and 11th in the drivers' points. This was despite the team taking part in less than half the season.
Wow, stunning when all things are considered!!! Congratulations Prodrive/Mini/BMW for a job well done!!! .....now remember that this doesn't mean one dang thing this coming season, not worth one second in a Rally...
Wait a minute Mark. Are you saying that the red paint and this award isn't going to mean additional HP? :lol: Jim
..it means I don't want them to sit on this award and last season instead of working even harder on the upcoming one. They still have much work to do to actually win a Rally much less a Championship which is the award their eyes should be set upon! Case in point: Denny Hamlin after winning races and leading the points, finished the season second in the Sprint Cup Championship last year. Still most including me expected him to be one of the main players and a favorite to win this years championship. But alas, apparently he and his team sat on the success from the season before, and wound up not being much more than a side note to this seasons championship race, not even making the chase for it. Some success can sometimes ruin a otherwise great team. I want MINI to WIN!
I agree completely Mark. That was my attempting to be humorous, which I have been told many times I should refrain from doing. Jim
Prodrive know how to do it and will keep moving ahead if they can. What worries me is I've read a couple articles saying Richards is fighting with the folks at corporate for the funding they need to stick to the original plan and continue to develop and move forward. One article even said the team were considering running another abbreviated schedule in 2012... I don't expect that but, though Mark's point is valid, complacency isn't the only reason a team can end up standing still, running in place.
Thanks Steve. Don't like the sounds that Corporate might be backing down on the original funding plan, it is not like sales have been down. Make no mistake about it though, a full season is much harder than running a few select races, all resources are divided more in every way. ....and the suits in Corporate tend not to understand that it's not a linear equation... ;(
They also need more than just adequate cash to run the full season. Part of the reason for running an abbreviated schedule in 2011 was to learn where the car needs work and therefore where to push development heading into 2012. Fingers crossed they sorted all this out because there are only six weeks left before they need to be ready to hit the ground running in Monte Carlo. There's no time to waste, NOW is the time to spend resources on development.