Official Young Guns (updated)

[pettersolberg29]

And that's a good picture to sum up my comment...

[A.F.F.]

I personally want to hear news from Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and eastern europe.

[Fly]

I personally want to hear news from Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and eastern europe.

Fiesta trophy newcomer, winner of the Ford Contest, Thierry Neuville, 18, is quite promising but it's way too early to make any prediction.
Cedric Cherain and Alexandre Romain showed some speed for 2 or 3 years now but probably not enough for the top level.

[bluuford]

Well, Personally I just got astonished by one young Estonian. He just won group N in Tallinn rally.. and it was his second event in 4wd car and 1 event with new S14 :-) And he was faster than the current Estonian champion, faster than four times Estonian champion and faster than Toni Klemets and Aki Teiskonen and just missed out the overall win for Jukka Hiltunen (12.4 seconds). Hiltunen is driving Focus WRC03 by the way.
His name is Ott Tänak.
He has also done good job with 2wd until this year.

[DonJippo]

If it is up to backers then Jussi Tiippana has to be noted here. He is supported by KKK and Juha Repo so good advices should be available...

http://www.tiippana.com

[ST205GT4]

I think Don Jippo is on the right track.

No backer no ride.

We won't see anyone out of Australia again in a hurry.

I read an interesting article the other day in some motorsport magazine, where the author questioned just how good the "best of the best" in motorsport really are because they come from such a small pool of people.

His example was to compare football with motorsport. If you make it to the top level in football you must be good because the pool of players that you msut compete against to get to that level is huge due to the low cost of competition. Compare that with motorsport where for you to shine you MUST have decent equipment and already you've pared away a large portion of the population through cost alone. As you go higher the cost of competition becomes higher and higher resulting in even more finanical selection. So you end up with the best of a much smaller sample of the population.

Who knows perhaps there are thousands of Loebs out there!

[A.F.F.]

Who knows perhaps there are thousands of Loebs out there!

Sometimes it feels there are thousand of Loebs in this forum alone

[Roy]

Pretty unlikely till some 10 years ago, but there's been quite a shift in the support of Dutch rallydrivers on higher levels. There's the KNAF Talent First team in JWRC, but my hopes are up for Peter van Merksteijn Jr. (son of Sr. of course, known for his WRC outings in the Focus). This year, he drives several rounds of the Dutch championship in a Focus and WRC rallies in a Lancer, with Duval's very experienced codriver Eddy Chevaillier. He only started rallying last year I think, but he has shown great pace for a rookie.

We might see him in action in form of an M2 team next year.

Peter Jr in M2 next year? I heard the same last year. Do you have info, source, or do you gamble? I doubt that would happen. But he has a lot of money, that will help.

[ShiftingGears]

Sometimes it feels there are thousand of Loebs in this forum alone

Come on, we aren't that scruffy...

[Josti]

Peter Jr in M2 next year? I heard the same last year. Do you have info, source, or do you gamble? I doubt that would happen. But he has a lot of money, that will help.

Well, I don't gamble. The team (van Merksteijn Motorsport) has high ambitions for Junior, let alone Jr. himself. This year he will drive several WRC rallies with the Evo along with Chevaillier, which isn't just a regular choise of codriver. Plus he's learning the Focus in national rallies. If it all goes well, I wouldn't be surprised to see them performing as an M2 team next year, but then again, nothing is certain at this moment. Money ain't the problem for sure.