World Rally Catalunya 2005: OMV World Rally Team
Just one week after the Rally of Corsica the FIA World Rally Championship will continue with the 15th and next-to-last run in Spain. The Movistar Rally RACC Catalunya incidently is also the home rally of OMV driver Xavier Pons. Following his brilliant performance in Corsica (7th overall place) the 25-year-old Spaniard will strive for WRC points in his homeland, as well.
Continuing success run
All in all, the OMV World Rally Team could be rather satisfied with the World Championship season 2005. They were the best private team at half of all the runs. Altogether Manfred Stohl (Aut/16), Xavier Pons (Spa/2) and Juuso Pykälistö (Fin/1) gathered 19 WRC points. But now that he has gathered momentum, Xavier Pons wants to continue playing with the big guys.

The two points at Corsica were a premiere for the 25-year-old OMV driver and his co Carlos del Barrio. And the sequel shall be shot in Spain. Pons: “We have proved that we can be very fast on tarmac. Obviously, the Citroen Xsara WRC had been perfectly prepared by Kronos Racing. I`m sure that we will be able to keep up with the best in Spain, as well, even thought there are once again over 20 World Rally Car entrants.”

Unchartered territory reduces home advantage
Being Spaniards, Xavier Pons and Carlos del Barrio are obviously looking forward to the Movistar RallyRACC Catalunya. But the home advantage isn`t as big as they would wish for. Most parts of the stages at the 41st edition of the Rally of Spain have never been driven before. Even if, then that was long before the beginning of the OMV driver`s career.

Pons is confident, nevertheless: “The rally is surely going to be extremely fast and does possess the characteristics of a circuit. But that shouldn`t pose a problem to me if it stays dry. I`m also looking forward to greeting my fans, since I live only 200 kilometres from the rally centre Salou. Therefore a lot of people will come and visit me.”

358 special stage kilometres on 15 special stages
The Rally RACC Catalunya will commence on Thursday (27th of October) in Salou at 20.00 (local time). 15 special stages with a length of 358,10 kilometres are scheduled from Friday to Sunday (28th – 30th of October). The overall length measures exactly 1.321,20 kilometres. The finishing line will be crossed on Sunday (30th of October) at 13.23 (local time) in Salou.

This is Spain
Area: 504.782 sq km; Population: 40.217.500 inhabitants; Population density: 80 people per sq km; Capital: Madrid (5.100.000 inhabitants); Spain is a kingdom and has been independent since its foundation. At the end of October daytime temperatures average 14 degrees Celsius. The likelihood of rain is at about 25%.


Tags: omv, xavier-pons, manfred-stohl, citroen, xsara, catalunya, spain,