Mini's WRC world rally return confirmed with the reveal of Kris Meeke's Prodrive Countryman
Mini confirmed its return to the World Rally Championship with the Countryman WRC car, unveiled at the 2010 Paris motor show. Its entry into the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship marks Mini’s return to a sport in which it has tasted great success in the past and Rally Sweden (February 10 2011) will see a Mini tackle a stage at rally’s top table in anger for the first time since 1968. The new Countryman SUV has proved a controversial choice as a base car but the new Mini WRC has been developed alongside the hugely successful Prodrive, which surely bodes well for the 2011 season. To be piloted by former Intercontinental Rally Champion (and Brit) Kris Meeke, the new car will use a 300bhp 1.6-litre, direct injection four-cylinder engine. Mini has thus far refused to make public any further technical details. The proud motorsport heritage of Mini means its return to the sport will be very welcome news to true rally aficionados. Extensive rallying success throughout the 1960s at the hands of drivers such as Paddy Hopkirk & John Cooper means Mini is still one of the most emotive brands in the business and it returns for selected rounds of the 2011 World Rally Championship with much expectation.
Read Henry Catchpole's Blog on who should get the second Mini WRC seat here
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Ring races[edit]
For quite a long period of time, Valery Gorban has acted in parallel both in rallying and in ring racing. In the Ukrainian championship, he started only twice, during 2006 – but even so, having won 4 races (two in each of the stages), he became the vice-champion of Ukraine in A3 class. However, most of Gorban's round starts took place at the German Nürburgring circuit as part of the German championship for many hours of VLN racing.
Debut in the endurance race fell in 2004. The debut starts for Honda Civic brought two wins in the class.
2005 did not bring catwalks in the class and next season Valery Gorban moves to the BMW M3 E46. Since 2006, Valeriy's partner has been Stanislav Gryazin for many years. In the three races of the season, an international blow has extracted one bronze and one silver in the class, and the finish in the top twenty has become common.
In 2007 comes the first joint victory in its class, a little later and the second, three finishes in the first ten of the absolute test showed the level of the crew, which 2008 starts with the next update of equipment, this time at the disposal of Valery and Stanislav Porsche 996 RSR, which allowed to fight for victories on the North loop. In 9 races of the season, the crew finishes 6 times in the top-10, once the crew was a step from the podium of the absolute standings, 4th place remained the highest achievement of Valery in the absolute standings of the VLN races.
In 2008 Valery Gorban took part in the cult race ADAC Zurich 24h Rennen, the international crew saw the finish in the tenth place of the absolute standings.
In 2009, joint performances could not be continued because of the refusal of the German Consulate to extend the visa to Stanislav Gryazin, Valeri Gorban only went on a start in the crew with Olexii Kikireshko and Ralph Wagner, but 2 in the class. remained the only and for today the last finish of Kiev in the endurance race.
Career in the World Rally Championship[edit]
For the first time at the World Championship, Valery Gorban started in 2009. The first attempt turned out to be quite successful: the Kyivan took the third place in the N4 class at the Polish rally. However, a full program of performances in the world championship was deployed two years later, in 2011. The Mentos Ascania Racing team entered the World Cup 2011 with three crews, the first pilots in which were Valery Gorban, Alexander Salyuk, Jr. and Alexey Kikireshko. All three participated in the Production WRC and took part in six stages of the series. Gorban began the season with confidence – with the fourth place in Sweden and the fifth in Portugal, but then the results somewhat deteriorated. Only once, in Australia, Valery managed to climb again to the fifth place. However, and at the same time Gorban became the best representative of the team in this draw of the championship, taking the 8th position in the PWRC standings.
Significantly better for Valery next season, during which he also took part in six stages of the Production WRC. In the first race in Argentina, the crew of Valery Gorban and Andrei Nikolaev climbed to the podium, and a few weeks later in Greece he managed to win his first victory in the World Cup. During the season, third place was added to this in Italy and two fourth in New Zealand and Spain, which in total allowed the crew to become the first Ukrainian athletes to become bronze medalists of the World Rally Championship.
Starting in 2013, Valeriy transplanted to the higher-class equipment, the Mini Cooper RRC car, thus taking part in the classification of the newly formed WRC 2. The significantly increased level of competition plus the necessary period of adaptation to the new car does not allow Gorban to show the same high results in the 2013 season.
2014 was a year of change. A new coloring in the colors Eurolamp, brings the prize in the team event 3 place, and in the personal classification the 10th.
In 2015, Valery again enjoys the prize champagne, the third place in the WRC-2 standings, was won in the rally of Sweden.
In 2016 Valery brought to the launch of the Mini John Cooper Works WRC. At the end of the season, the asset was 1 point and 25th place in the final classification.
2017god not pleased with success in the absolute standings, the best achievement was the 13th place in the rally of Mexico, but the new-old assistant Valeria, Sergei Larens, became an accomplice in four victories in the WRC-Trophy standings.
2008: Prime Rally Team[edit]
The 2008 season begins for Valery and his team with a change of image – the side of the cars is decorated with the logo of the new title sponsor, the alcohol brand Prime. By a strange coincidence, this season becomes the worst in Gorban's career – he manages to finish only twice in the races of the championship of Ukraine, never once taking the podium. Unsuccessfully things are going on and the team – for the first time in its history, it falls to the third place in the standings of collectives. As a result, cooperation with the vodka ceases, and in the new season, the people of Kiev are under a new brand.
2002—2007: MacCoffee Rally Team[edit]
The career of Valery Gorban is one of the few examples of what results can be achieved by coming to motor sport at a fairly mature age. For the first time in his life Valery sat behind the wheel of a sports car in 2002, at the age of 29, already being a businessman, creator and head of the racing team MacCoffee Rally Team. During the 2002 season in the Ukrainian Rally Championship, team colors were defended by Alexander Salyuk, Sr. and Alexander Salyuk, Jr .; Gorban joined them only at the final stage of the championship in Kherson.
Valeriy Gorban (Ukrainian: Валерій Горбань, born February 6, 1973) is a rally driver from Ukraine,master of sports of the international class of Ukraine, two-time absolute champion of Ukraine in rally, bronze medalist of the World Rally Championship in the standings Production WRC , pilot and head of the rally team Eurolamp WRT.
Valery Gorban is the champion among Ukrainian rallyists in the number of starts: for the period from 2002 to 2019 he took part in 185 national and international competitions.
The crew of Valery Gorban and Yevgeny Leonov is the owner of the record among Ukrainian crews by the number of races held together – for the period from 2003 to 2011 the pilots started together 86 times.
Runners-up[edit]
Wins[edit]
The Mini John Cooper Works WRC is a World Rally Car debuted by the Mini WRC Team during the 2011 World Rally Championship season. It is the first rally car to bear the Mini label in top-level rallying since the 1960s.[2] The car was entered in a limited campaign for 2011, with a view to a complete championship from 2012 and was run by Prodrive,[3] who previously had success with the Subaru Impreza WRC.
The WRC is based on the Mini Countryman and features a direct-injection 1.6 L turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine.[4] The WRC's engine was developed by BMW Motorsport for use in a variety of motorsport series, including the FIA World Touring Car Championship.[5]