P-WRC: Champion Araujo begins his title defence

Reigning Production Car World Rally Champion Armindo Araujo will begin the defence of his title on Rally Sweden next week, when the Portuguese driver is hoping to find the same form he showed on the 2009 season’s winter fixture in Norway.

On that occasion Araujo finished second, losing out by more than two minutes to the Super 2000 Skoda Fabia of Patrik Sandell. This year, however, with the P-WRC competition once again restricted to ’traditional’ Group N cars like the Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Lancer, Araujo starts the event as favourite to take victory.

Armed with the latest spec Lancer EvoX - the car he drove to a class win in Rally GB last year - Araujo will go up against six other P-WRC drivers in Sweden who have also nominated the winter rally as the opening round of their 2010 programmes.

With four Scandinavian drivers in the field, Araujo will need to hold his nerve or he may be playing catch-up on the second round in Mexico. Anders Grondal (NOR) for one will be out to snatch the victory. Already having racked-up two wins in the Norwegian Rally Championship, Grondal, sitting alongside Veronica Engan, the only female co-driver in 2010’s P-WRC, is looking to assert his new Prodrive-built N2010 Impreza on the world stage.

Swedes Patrik Flodin and Joakim Nyman taking to the road in Mitsubishis won’t let him streak to victory without a fight. Seasoned World Rally driver Flodin, and Nyman, in his first World Championship Rally, are both looking to top the field in their home country.

Martin Semerad (CZR) may be the dark horse of the 2010 P-WRC. A 2009 Pirelli Star Driver who also entered the P-WRC, ultimately coming 15th, this year he is again the youngest P-WRC competitor, starting the season aged only 19.

Italian Gianluca Linari is back in a Subaru Impreza and is looking to set the record straight after a miserable Rally Sweden in 2008, when he was plagued with a fever, before retiring in the penultimate stage with broken suspension.

The opening rally of the nine-round competition also features entries from Fabio Frisiero (ITA), Reijo Muhonen (FIN), Ott Tanak (EST) and Paulo Nobre (BRA)