The 73rd Wales Rally GB takes place this coming weekend - the twelfth round out of sixteen in the 2005
FIA World Rally Championship.
Wales will also play host to the sixth round in the 2005 FIA Production WRC.
The event comprises 354.22 competitive kilometres and 17 stages - two less than 2004. It also sees the FIA World Rally Championship return to gravel, after last month's asphalt event in Germany.
Special notes:
This classic rally is run through the forests of south Wales, with Rally HQ based in the cosmopolitan Welsh capital, Cardiff, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary as the principal town of Wales, and its centenary year as a city.
The service park is located some 70km to the west of Cardiff, at Felindre near Swansea.
The event, often billed as one of the greatest motorsport challenges in the world, is famed for its punishing forest stages and changeable weather.
For the second consecutive year Rally GB will be held in September with crews expecting anything from warm sunshine and blue skies to lashing rain and fog. Such unpredictable conditions can really affect the road surfaces.
FIA World Rally Championship news:
Sebastien Loeb can mathematically sew up the Drivers' championship this weekend if;
- he collects at least 8 points;
- if Marcus Gronholm fails to score;
- and if
Petter Solberg doesn't win.
Loeb leads the Gronholm by 32 points with just five rounds to go including the Rally GB.
