If you don’t follow the World Rally Championship religiously, then you might not realise that the series is still going, and that 2020 will probably see a brand new champion.
This year has been a disaster for motorsport at just about all levels, and the WRC is no exception.
Locally, the biggest impact was the cancellation of Rally New Zealand, but in Europe they’ve suffered even more.
After a six month hiatus, the championship returned in early September and since then three rallies have been run, in Estonia, Turkey and Italy. But things have turned sour again.
The upcoming Ypres Rally in Belgian has been axed because of Coronavirus running rampant again, and next month’s finale in Monza is also under serious threat.
Amidst it all though, it is appearing likely that a Welshman will win the World Rally Championship for the first time.
31-year old Elfyn Evans may have only won three WRC rallies from his 92 starts, but importantly, two of those have been in 2020, and as a result he holds a 14-point lead, ahead of his Toyota team-mate, Sebastien Ogier, and Hyundai pair Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak.
Nevertheless, he’s not too pleased that events are being cancelled again.
“It’s such a shame as I know the Belgian organisers had put in a massive effort to get their event onto the WRC calendar and we were really looking forward to the special challenges of rallying on the rural roads around Ypres,” he said.
“We will now keep working as much as possible in readiness for Monza.”
Should Evans win the World Rally Championship, he’ll be just the third British driver to lift the prized title. Colin McRae was the first 25 years ago, and Richard Burns the second six years later in 2001.
In my mind, Evans would be a worthy champion. No other driver has won twice this year, and is yet to finish outside the top four.
If you go on those stats alone, he’s at the head of the pack for a reason.
It means a sold result in Monza would give him the title, but on the flip side, if he has problems, the championship would be as good as gone.
“You can look at it both ways,” he pointed out.
“If I had an issue with two rounds left, there would still have been one remaining rally to make up any lost ground. Now, should anything go wrong in Italy, the job is probably finished – there will be no opportunity to claw back points.
“In one way, of course, the title is closer, but in reality things are still open and anything can still happen in the one remaining round… and that assumes that Monza will run to a full itinerary and full points will be awarded, as we currently expect.”
Either way, the title should go to a Toyota driver, with the Hyundai stars seemingly too far back to challenge unless something extraordinary takes place.
In a season like 2020 though, we shouldn’t be counting our chickens before they hatch, and anything could (and probably will) happen.
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