Junior World Rally Championship

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The FIA Junior World Rally Championship (also known as the Junior WRC) is a complementary series to the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and is specifically aimed at offering young drivers a chance to gain experience and notoriety at an affordable cost. The category has been a stepping stone in the career of many current WRC drivers including Sébastien Loeb, Dani Sordo, Sébastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Thierry Neuville.

History

The championship was first held in 2001 as the FIA Super 1600 Drivers' Championship, and included six events in Europe. Sébastien Loeb became the series' first champion, driving a Super 1600-class Citroën Saxo. The series became the Junior World Rally Championship the following year.

In 2007, the championship did not include events outside Europe, and was known as the FIA Junior Rally Championship (JRC) for one season only. In 2011, the FIA replaced the Junior WRC with WRC Academy, a single specification championship running Ford Fiesta R2 vehicles. In September 2012 [1] it was announced by the FIA that the WRC Academy would be re-named the FIA Junior WRC Championship.

Rules

The Junior WRC is open to drivers under the age of twenty-six have not competed as a Priority 1 (P1) driver in an FIA World Rally Championship event. Competitors drive identical Ford Fiesta R2 prepared and maintained by British rally team M-Sport. Based on the Ford Fiesta sport model, the 2WD cars are built from a standard conversion kit with a 165hp engine, upgraded to enhance performance. A full safety cage, five-speed sequential gearbox with limited slip differential, AP brakes and Reiger suspension complete the build. To further encourage equal competition and showcase the ability of each individual competitor, every Fiesta will be fitted with control tyres.

The point-scoring system is the same as in the WRC, WRC-2 and WRC-3 championships, with points allocated to the top ten classified finshers as follows:

Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th 
Points 25 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1

Unlike the other categories however, Junior WRC competitors score championship bonus points for each stage win during the season.

Champions

P-G Andersson and Suzuki celebrating JWRC class victory at the 2004 Rally Finland.
Year Series name Driver Car
2013 Junior World Rally Championship Sweden Pontus Tidemand Ford Fiesta R2
2012 WRC Academy United Kingdom Elfyn Evans Ford Fiesta R2
2011 Republic of Ireland Craig Breen Ford Fiesta R2
2010 Junior World Rally Championship Germany Aaron Burkart Suzuki Swift S1600
2009 Czech Republic Martin Prokop Citroën C2 S1600
2008 France Sébastien Ogier Citroën C2 S1600
2007 FIA Junior Rally Championship Sweden Per-Gunnar Andersson Suzuki Swift S1600
2006 Junior World Rally Championship Sweden Patrik Sandell Renault Clio S1600
2005 Spain Dani Sordo Citroën C2 S1600
2004 Sweden Per-Gunnar Andersson Suzuki Ignis S1600
2003 France Brice Tirabassi Renault Clio S1600
2002 Spain Daniel Solà Citroën Saxo VTS S1600
2001 FIA Cup for Super 1600 Drivers France Sébastien Loeb Citroën Saxo VTS S1600

The 2011 and 2012 championships were run as the FIA WRC Academy.

The 2007 championship was run as the FIA Junior Rally Championship.

The 2001 championship was run as the FIA Cup for Super 1600 Drivers.

Wins

Event wins
Driver Total
1 Czech Republic Martin Prokop 9
2 Sweden Per-Gunnar Andersson 8
3 France Sébastien Loeb 5
4 United Kingdom Guy Wilks 5
5 Spain Dani Sordo 4
6 France Brice Tirabassi 4
7 United Kingdom Elfyn Evans 4
8 Spain Dani Solà 3
9 France Sébastien Ogier 3
10 Poland Michał Kościuszko 3
11 Estonia Egon Kaur 3
12 Italy Andrea Dallavilla 2
13 San Marino Mirco Baldacci 2
14 Estonia Urmo Aava 2
15 Sweden Daniel Carlsson 2
16 France Nicolas Bernardi 2
17 United Kingdom Kris Meeke 2
18 Sweden Patrik Sandell 2
19 Germany Aaron Burkart 2
20 Netherlands Kevin Abbring 2
21 Netherlands Hans Weijs, Jr. 2
22 Republic of Ireland Craig Breen 2
23 United Kingdom Alastair Fisher 2
24 Spain José Antonio Suárez 2
25 Belgium François Duval 1
26 Finland Kosti Katajamäki 1
27 Estonia Jaan Mölder jr. 1
28 Spain Yeray Lemes 1
29 Belgium Thierry Neuville 1
30 France Jérémi Ancian 1
31 Sweden Pontus Tidemand 1

Wins by cars
Car Total
1 France Citroën C2 S1600 21
2 Japan Suzuki Swift S1600 15
3 United Kingdom Ford Fiesta R2 14*
4 France Citroën Saxo S1600 8
5 France Renault Clio S1600 7
6 Japan Suzuki Ignis S1600 7
7 Italy Fiat Punto S1600 3
8 France Renault Clio R3 3
9 France Citroën Saxo Kit Car 2
10 United Kingdom Ford Puma S1600 1
12 Germany Volkswagen Polo S1600 1

Gallery

See also

  • Production World Rally Championship
  • Super 2000 World Rally Championship

References

  1. "Exciting changes for 2013 WRC". WRC.com. WRC Official Website. 21 September 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2012. 

External links

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