Spain: Subaru RTS Rally Villa de Llanes preview

RALLY VILLA DE LLANES PREVIEW

The Spanish Rally Championship continues this weekend with its second date in the northern region of Asturias with the running of the 33th Rally Villa de Llanes. Among the teams entering the event will be the Subaru Rally Team Spain, present at Llanes with two KRS-prepared Impreza Prodrives for Enrique Garcia-Ojeda-Jordi Barrabes and Mario Ceballos-Borja Rozada.

The rally of the eastern side of Asturias, the eighth of the 2009 national tarmac series, means for the Subaru Rally Team Spain its second home rally, as the KRS team facilities are located in the Cantabrian village of Los Corrales de Buelna, just a few kilometres away from the area where the event will be run. It's, in fact, a very familiar rally for the KRS technical staff and its drivers, the current Spanish Champion, Enrique Garcia Ojeda, second here in 2005 and 2008, and Mario Ceballos who, in Llanes, will finally face a rally he already has some previous experience on. Both are going to Llanes strongly motivated, Quique looking for another podium finish that will keep him in the fight for the Spanish championship, currently being second in both the overall and the Group N standings, and Mario aiming to get his best result of the season so far, not having this time the handicap of experiencing totally new stages, as has been the case in all the previous events of his maiden year in the national series.

The Llanes 2009 presents few changes on route that is already a classic in the Spanish Championship, with stages where the changeable weather is usually an important factor. The possible presence of rain would be in favour of the Impreza Prodrives, prepared by KRS for the Subaru Rally Team Spain, as the excellent traction of the Subaru Group N cars means that, in this case, would be able to compensate for the advantage of the more powerful cars, like the GT and S2000, over the mostly fast stages of the Villa de Llanes.

With nine special stages and more than 160 timed kilometres the rally, based around the tourist location of the Asturian coast will be run on Saturday after the shakedown, scrutineering and start ceremony which will take place on Friday.

-credit: srts.es