Lehdistötiedotteet - WRS3 Shakedown: Season Preview

WRS3 Shakedown: Season Preview

Season 40 in MRC will see the inaugural World Rally Series take to the calendar, and applications have come from far and wide to contest this new discipline, which has proven already to be highly popular, stacking a full field of 28 drivers!

Perhaps most significantly, this 0.6 rated series has attracted some VERY seasoned and skillful drivers, two of which are over and above 2,500.00 in rank! Which has ensured that the average rating across the top 5 is well over double, even triple, the industry standard for its rating, as evident in other feeder series:

WRS3 (0.6) - 1,992.00 (Average rating, Top 5 drivers)

Moto3 (0.7) - 428.00
NASC Canada (0.6) - 651.00
TCS Benelux (0.6) - 1064.00
F4 Alpine (0.6) - 925.00

However, that being said, much could still be to play for in such a diverse and challenging series, with several new and pivotal specialist skills for drivers to train allowing for the opportunity to compensate heavily for comparatively lower driving or mental skills, and single rallies held weekly can see stages of +20km in length demanding great discipline and concentration, and some rather lofty "mistakes" numbers making dramatic differences to stage times.

Although this could turn out to be a fight for "Best of the rest" after the top two drivers, it will surely add depth and intrigue across MRC in general to have a new discipline mixing up driver ranks.

Former NASC Canada champion, 21 year old Wynn Hunter is one such driver taking to the scenery in his Toyota Yaris to test the water. Off the back of three successful seasons in Canada, many would question why a manager would ship his driver around the world to potentially lose money, and rank, in a new untested series, opposed to staying put for another season and surely take silverware home in the now somewhat-diluted field:

"We always knew we would not be contesting in any open wheels..." said the Brit, "...we've (the team) been there, done that. WRS came along at the right time as we were looking to hone some specialist skills and settle in for the long haul. Sure this will be a transitional year, results may be a little scarce and we might spend most of next year eating bread on a skinny budget, but we are setting up for the (potential) arrival of WRS2 and WRS1 in the coming seasons".

As such, Hunter has effectively ensured that his focus on Rally skills will essentially make his F3 and Nations careers defunct, as a tail-happy Formula chassis is about as fast and useful as an upside down tortois...

WRS3 will set off in Monte Carlo on Day 2 of the season, and we will try to keep the wider community up to date with a shakedown review of each event as they happen!

Good luck for season 40!