Special Sub-Topic: 1997 WRC Season Authored by: Bruce D Sub-topic of: Rallies

Who was driver world champion?

Tommi Makinen. Makinen took his second title in a row, by only 1 point from Colin McRae.

Who was manufacture's champion?

Subaru. Subaru took the manufacturers title quite easily in the end, although Ford and Mitsubishi challanged during the middle of the season.

Who was Group N world champion?

Gustavo Trelles. Trelles took his second consecutive title by a huge margin from Stohl.

Who was F2 world champion?

SEAT. SEAT took their second title by a wide margin of 112 to 44 points from Skoda.

Who announced that they would be building a World Rally Car during 1997?

SEAT. SEAT announced at the post-rally press conference at the San Remo rally, that they would be building a world rally car for 1998.

Who was the first person to win a World Rally Championship event with a World Rally Car?

Piero Liatti. Liatti scored a sensational victory in Monte Carlo to become the first person in history to win a WRC round with a world rally car.

Who didn't build a World Rally Car for 1997?

Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi stuck to Group A because they could sell enough road car versions of the Lancer, to build the required amount.

Who won the Monte Carlo Rally?

Piero Liatti. Liatti won by 55 seconds to claim his one and only WRC win.

Who was Mitsubishi's works drivers to 1997?

Tommi Makinen, Richard Burns, Uwe Nittel. Uwe Nittel did selected tarmac events for Mitsubishi, while Burns did all the gravel events.

Who was fired from Ford after the Corsican rally?

Armin Schwarz. Ford were not impressed with Schwarz's results, even though he had finished all but one of the rallies,he entered, and was 5th in the championship at the time, with Sainz just 6 points ahead.

Who was the Ford replacement, after the firing of a driver?

Juha Kankkunen. Kankkunen stepped in at Rally Argentina and went on to finish 4th in the championship.

Who set the fastest stage time on the final stage of the Portugal Rally?

Gustavo Trelles. Amazingly, Trelles was so involved in a fight for the Group N win from Manfred Stohl that he set the fastest time overall on the final stage, taking 1 second off of Tommi Makinen!

Which F2 manufacturer caused an upset by being competitive on tarmac against the World Rally Cars?

Peugeot. Peugeot were competitive in Catalunya and Corsica, causing some upset faces in the WRC camps. Gilles Panizzi would take his 306 Maxi to 3rd overall on both events while Francios Delecour finished 4th in Corsica.

Who took the most stage wins on the Catalunya Rally?

Gilles Panizzi. Panizzi set 6 fastest stages time with the next best being Delecour and Makinen with 5.

What happened to Tommi Makinen on the Corsican Rally?

Hit a cow and crashed rolled down a mountain. Believe it or not Makinen crashed into a cow and rolled 120 feet down a drop, luckily with both crew ok.

Which manufacturer scored a 1-2 finish on the Acropolis rally?

Ford. Both Subarus of McRae and Eriksson were the quickest and led the event but both would crash due to steering failure, handing the victory to the Fords of Sainz and Kankkunen.

Where did Toyota debut the Corolla World Rally Car?

Rally Finland. Toyota finally arrived with their Corolla WRC for Rally Finland, and would lead the eventn with Marcus Gronholm driving.

Who were Toyota's two nominated drivers for their debut?

Marcus Gronholm, Didier Auriol. Future world champion Marcus Gronholm and former world champion Didier Auriol were the drivers for the Corolla's debut. Gronholm would lead the event from stage 3 to stage 7.

When did SEAT clinch the F2 manufacturer's championship?

San Remo. SEAT finally clinched the title at San Remo.

What was the time gap between 1st and 4th overall at the end of the San Remo Rally?

14 seconds. Amazingly there were only 14 seconds seperating Colin McRae in first and Carlos Sainz in fourth! The final positions were 1. McRae 4h08m25s, 2. Liatti + 6 sec, 3. Makinen + 12 sec, 4. Sainz + 14 sec.

Who finished 3rd on Rally Australia?

Didier Auriol. Didier Auriol gave Toyota and the new Corolla its best finish of the year with 3rd overall, just 21 seconds behind winner Colin McRae.

Where did Tommi Makinen have to finish to win the world championnship on the RAC Rally?

6th. Makinen went into the RAC Rally with a 10 point lead over Colin McRae, who would have more wins than him if the Scot won the rally. Therefore Makinen had to gain 1 point in order to make sure of the title.

Where did Makinen actually finish?

6th. Makinen could only manage 6th because he was suffering from heavy flu. McRae managed to win the rally and so Makinen only won the championship by 1 point.

What points system was used for the first time in 1997?

10,6,4,3,2,1. It was decided to change the points system to that used in F1, in order to keep the world championship easier to understand and keep the championship closer. In actual fact, the old system of 20,15,12,etc would have made this and many other championship to follow much closer, and would have made Carlos Sainz the 1998 world champion.

Who was the major driver change at the end of 1997?

Sainz moved to Toyota. Sainz left Ford at the end of the year to join Toyota, who he was supposed to join in 1996.