Well how good does it feel to be back at the end of stages on the WRC?  I can tell you it’s the greatest feeling in the World.  As I’m sure some of you are aware, I had to miss the rallies in Argentina and Sardinia.  It was very difficult sitting at home listening to Becs and the guys doing such a great job without me.  And I missed some tremendous action, particularly in Sardinia where JML took a well deserved win and Nasser fought tenaciously to grab victory on the very final stage in PWRC.  Great stuff all round and once again confirmation that our championship truly is the best in the world.

Before I tell you all about my week in Greece I’d just like to say a huge thank you to all of you who sent  me messages of support and encouragement  during what was a very difficult time for me.  Being told you have cancer is never going to be easy, but in some ways I’ve been incredibly lucky.  From my perspective, things were quite grim for a while, but the great news is that what I have is very treatable and once they’ve zapped me with their very clever radiotherapy techniques, I should be absolutely fine.  I still have that to look forward to and might have to miss one or two more rallies, but that’s nothing compared to what many others have had to go through.  If proof were needed that we have someone looking over us in times of difficulty, for me, I truly believe this is it.  I believe that my prayers and the prayers of so many of my friends and my family have been answered, and for that I will eternally grateful and thankful. 

As I write this blog I’m sitting by the sea in Loutraki enjoying the hospitality of this amazing little town and in particular the hospitality of Lambros Athananassoulas and his family.  What a week it’s been for them.  The first time that Lambros has driven a rally car in twelve months and he dominates the PWRC  round of his home event.  This is not some rich kid who plays at being a a rally driver.  The Anthanasoulas family work incredibly hard at their beach club next door to Rally HQ, and rallying is their passion.  It was one of the most emotional moments that I have ever experienced in the championship when Lambros came into the final time control.  He could hardly speak as the tears flowed, and in a magical moment, he took his helmet of, walked ten metres back up the stage to find some solitude, and with tears streaming down his face, appeared to offer up his thanks to the mystical Greek Gods in the mountains that dominate the skyline around this little seaside town.  I cried with him.

The Acropolis really did live up to it’s reputation as being perhaps the toughest rally in the current championship.  You just have to ask Seb how punishing it is.  He rarely makes mistakes, but this was a huge one.  It was huge in that Seb’s C4 was completely destroyed, and it was huge in that it once again opens up both the drivers and manufacturers championships.  From Ford’s point of view and that of the neutral fan that’s great news.  From Citroen’s point of view they will struggle to remember a more difficult weekend, particularly with what happened to Dani and following on from a disappointing Sardinia.  

 I still believe that Seb will win the drivers title, but I’m not sure that Citroen will have it all their own way in the manufacturers race.  The big advantage they have this year compared to last is that they have the Citroen Junior Team to help them out.  In Sardinia, Connie the Zim was somewhat mysteriously retired during the final service.  Nothing odd there you might say, but look at the consequences.  Dani Sordo picked up one extra manufacturer point and salvaged something from a very difficult rally.  Becs has come up with a new word me for this weekend.  She’s been referring to me as the “conspiratologist” of the WRC.  In other words, I like the odd conspiracy theory.  Well it doesn’t take a conspiratologist to work out what was going on with young Novikov on Sunday.  Quiet clearly he had a problem on Saturday, but Sundays charade was a little too obvious for my liking.  The upshot of all his stops and starts was that once again, a Citroen Junior driver fell behind Sordo on the final day, so salvaging a precious manufacturer point for the Big Boys team.  I have absolutely no problems at all with tactics, and actually enjoy the extra uncertainty and intrigue it brings.  I just cant help thinking back to Olivier’s indignant outbursts last year whenever Ford pulled similar tricks.  I suppose that was the best part of a year ago, and a year’s a very long time in rallying!  For the rest of the season, and with honours so important to both manufacturers, I guess it’s anything goes.  I can’t wait!

I have a few more observations from Greece particularly about JML and Petter that I promise to share with you in my pre Poland blog.  But for now with the sun shining and the beautiful Mediterranean sea calling, I’m off to continue my convalescence in style.

Cyprus was memorable for me because of two things.  Firstly the genius that is Sebastian Loeb secured his 50^th win in the WRC in an astonishingly short seven years.  We’ll come back to this later.   But for me the story of the weekends was Petter Solberg’s first podium in anything other than a Subaru. 

It’s truly sensational that he managed to take his own car from what looked like a pretty hopeless position at the end of Day One and make up over a minute and a half on Dani Sordo to claim the first podium for a genuine private team in over fifteen years.  He was the quickest driver on gravel for two days, even taking time out of Seb.  And he comprehensively beat Mikko and in particular he destroyed Dani. 

What does this say about a driver who many were writing off in the recent dark years with Subaru?  Well it says to me that he never lost the ability, and he certainly never lost the desire to be the best.   Subaru underperformed for too many years, and some at the top in Prodrive looked for every excuse possible to justify their lack of competitiveness.  And let’s face it, Petter was an easy target.  His passion, drive and constant desire to see Subaru back where it should have been at the very top, sometimes worked to his determent.  He cried a lot, he got angry very often and you might say he moaned too much.  But as I’ve already said, this all stemmed for a genuine burning desire to put Subaru back in its rightful place.  Rather than harnessing Petter’s passion and using it in a positive way, there were those at Prodrive who chose to use what some might consider personal frailties to suggest that he had lost it and was therefore the reason for the team’s lack of success.  A convenient way of selectively ignoring the performance inadequacies of their car and blaming their driver for something that was miles off the pace, you might surmise.  By the way, this explanation also wrote of the prodigious abilities of Chris Atkinson, an undoubted talent and potential World Champion of the future.

 I say Solberg never lost it.  He was awesome in Cyprus in a car that is nearly eight years old.  OK, the nature of the gravel stages suited the Xsara but let’s not take anything away from Solberg, Mills and the whole of the Petter Solberg World Rally Team.  In an era where manufacturer teams and manufacturer supported teams dominate the higher echelons of all motorsport, this was a truly remarkable achievement.  And here’s another thing to think about.  You know what it’s like when you a hire a car.  You can thrash the pants off it and not really worry about the consequences.  But do you drive like that in your own car?  No?  I didn’t so.  Now put yourself in Solberg’s shoes.  He knows that if he bends that car, or even worse, totals it, then that could be the end of his season.  With sponsors to satisfy it’s imperative that he completes every rally he enters.  How much might this be tempering his speed and commitment?  The performance in Cyprus suggests not at all, but I think it has to.  I firmly believe that we haven’t seen the best of Petter Solberg yet.  That will come when he rightly claims his seat in a competitive manufacturer team once again.  Let’s hope that day is not too far in coming.

 Now back to Seb.   What an incredible performance from him.  Not necessarily in Cyprus, but in particular over the last seven years.  He is now twenty rallies more successful than the next best man.  You just can’t ignore that kind of statistic when arguing whether or not Seb is the greatest drive of all time.  Colin was flamboyant, but had obvious shortcomings.  Carlos was reliable, but maybe not the quickest and Marcus is brilliant, but prone to mistakes.  And by the way, Seb has dominated all these drivers.  Five times World Champion and now fifty wins under his belt.  He may well win every rally this year.  What will he have to do to convince his doubters?  I think he will continue to win rallies until he decides to stop and is already the greatest driver we have ever seen.  So what if all those wins come with Citroen?  Loeb, Elena and Citroen have worked tirelessly to perfect the package, and my God, it’s impressive!  Seb isn’t just quick.  He isn’t just intelligent.  He doesn’t just have a good car.  He certainly isn’t just lucky.  He is all of these things and that is a rare and unique talent that should be appreciated and applauded.  I feel privileged to have been present at many of Seb’s history making moments.  He is great champion and a great man and long may we enjoy his exceptional talents.

Two rallies gone and maximum points for Mr Loeb.  The question now is “Who’s going to stop him winning all twelve this year?”

Well if you ask me, the only person who can stop Seb is himself.  If his car continues to be as bullet proof as it appears, and barring any “Conrad’s” then I honestly don’t see him being beaten.  His proved again in Norway that leading from the front is not a concern and that will be crucial as we head towards a series of gravel events.

  His victory in Ireland was to be expected, but at the end of the first stage, with Latvala leading, it looked as if he might have to fight for it.  Come the end of the day however and normal service had been resumed.  From then on his victory was a formality.

 Norway was different though.  I really did think that JML would be the man to beat, with perhaps Mikko pushing him.  It didn’t turn out that way though.  I was a bit disappointed by the lack of pace from Jari-Matti on the first day and then the morning of the second day.  By Saturday afternoon he was showing us what might have been, but by then it was very much a case of too little too late.  And as for Mikko, well maybe he can learn something from Seb’s  front running abilities.  I really do think that his intentional time loss in stage nine was a mistake.  If anything, it fired Seb up to push even harder through the final two days of the rally.  A winner needs to be able to lead from the front, and right now, the only driver who can do that is Seb. 

 I do think though that we have had a great start to the season with a number of notable highlights already.  Day one in Ireland was incredible with the extreme weather and an unpredictable leader board.  I almost wrenched my shoulders out of their sockets punching the air in delight at JML’s time through stage one, only to bang my head in frustration at his mistake on stage two.

 Urmo’s debut in the Focus was incredible, but he seemed to really struggle for confidence in Norway.  Its disappointing to hear that he has budget problems that may keep him out for the rest of the season, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for him because he really is one of the most exciting talents out there.

 And we can’t talk about Ireland without mention the stunning debut of the Proton S2000 in the championship.  OK, it only lasted two stages, but Niall McShea  was awesomely committed in the treacherous conditions and gave us a glimpse of the what the future holds for our championship. 

 But my highlight of the season so far has to be Petter’s triumphant return to Norway.  The atmosphere at the super special in Oslo when Petter came through with the fastest time was like nothing else that I’ve experienced in rallying.  The passion that this man brings to the sport is unique and contagious.  We need a successful Solberg in our sport and I firmly believe we will see that again.  Maybe not this year, but with the S2000 regulations now looking like the way forward, that will be the opportunity for Solberg’s start  to rise once again.  From a marketing and a sporting point of view, every new manufacturer looking to come into the WRC will have Solberg pretty close to the top of their wish lists.  They would be foolish not to!

 Another highlight was my ability to talk my way out of a 700euro fine in the Norwegian countryside.  It required at great deal of charm, persuasion and outright flirting with the local constabulary (policewomen) to walk away with a stern telling off, but my wallet firmly closed. 

I’d have to say I’m very much looking forward to Rally Cyprus this week.  It was a bit touch and go as to whether I’d be there or not because the latest addition to the Clark household was due to arrive on the Saturday of the rally.  I’m pleased to say though that the wee man has arrived conveniently early for me to make the trip to Cyprus.  As you would expect, he’s remarkably handsome, meltingly cute and bright as a button but as yet without a name.  It’s a big responsibility and you can’t rush these things!

 Becs and I will be joined in Cyprus by Chris, who we’ve let out of the studio for the week.  So fingers crossed you’ll be able to follow every stage live this week on Rally Radio.  I can’t wait.

 Foto at the top by Ben Groeneveld Facebook Fanclub