It's impossible to talk about rally sport without mentioning Subaru, one of the most competitive teams in the WRC. Despite a challenging season the blue and yellow team, now with Mitsubishi expatriot Mäkinen on board, isn't about to go anywhere but up the standings. Other rally teams include Ford, Hyundai, plus Volkswagen owned Seat and Skoda, Citroen and now seemingly unstoppable Peugeot.
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But the question remains, will auto manufacturers continue to support motorsport with such enthusiasm over the long haul? The risk to some series, especially F1, is that big players such as Jaguar and BMW may not stick around if they don't get wins. With the smaller teams getting pushed out due to an inability to attract big sponsors needed for rising costs, who will be left to race when the corporate execs decide they've eaten enough Ferrari fumes? That's difficult to speculate, but for more than 50 years now players have been willing to come up to bat, swing and either hit home runs, be content with base hits or simply strike out over and over again. Hopefully the new F1 regulations will help the weaker teams survive. Then again, automotive giant Hyundai, popular in WRC, might be the next F1 entrant. Who knows? All that can be said is there are plenty who want the glory and Monday's sales to go with it.
