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Auckland, New Zealand — Today twelve young men have started an intense weekend shootout competition to determine who will win Rally New Zealand’s inaugural Rising Stars Scholarship.

Competing in the Maramarua Forest south of Auckland, the young rally drivers are vying for a $50,000 prize package which includes professional mentoring and the use of a professionally-prepared rally car to contest the N3 category, or two-wheel-drive production car class, of the 2009 New Zealand Rally Championship, as well as Rally New Zealand 2009 from 21-23 August. more...

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Curitiba, Brazil — Peugeot UK driver Kris Meeke has claimed the lead after the opening day of the Curitiba Rally in Brazil, making a perfect start by winning all seven of the gravel special stages that were run as leg one. Meeke did not put a foot wrong from the very beginning, and he returns to parc ferme tonight at the Curitiba circuit - which also hosts the opening round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship this weekend - with a 48.6-second cushion over his nearest rival. more...

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Jahra, Kuwait — Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and his new Italian co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini held an unofficial 45-second lead after the first four special stages of the Kuwait International Rally on Friday. The Subaru driver was impressed with the accuracy of his new co-driver’s pace note reading and was fastest on each of the morning’s desert stages. more...

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Curitiba, Brazil — The reigning IRC champion, Nicolas Vouilloz, got the Rally Internacional de Curitiba off to an unusual beginning when he took the reigning FIA World Touring Car Champion, Yvan Muller, for a ride in his Peugeot 207 S2000 on the shakedown stage prior to the start of the event.

For the two French Champions, the short gravel stage on the outskirts of Curitiba was an interesting ride - although both admitted to feeling slightly nervous about the experience. more...

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Kuwait City, Kuwait — Kuwait Motor Sports Club (KMSC) president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Dawood Al-Sabah flagged the 30-strong entry away from the start of the 2009 Kuwait International Rally at the Kuwait Towers on Thursday afternoon. The ceremony marked an emotional return to the championship for Kuwait’s flagship motor sport event after an absence of 13 years. more...

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Kuwait City, Kuwait — The 2009 Kuwait International Rally, round two of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, got underway under the Kuwait Towers in Kuwait City on Thursday afternoon, marking the country’s return to hosting an international motor sport event after 13 years in the rallying wilderness. more...

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Calgary, Alberta —After finishing the 2008 Western Canada Rally Championship as Overall, Novice, and P4 champions, team Hardyboy Racing was ready to defend their title(s) at the opening round of the 2009 WCRC season, the Cochrane Winter Rally. And defend them they did, earning first Overall as well as first in the Production GT class! more...

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Auckland, New Zealand — Kiwi rally driver Mark Tapper has travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland, for his first official engagement in the inaugural Pirelli Star Driver programme. more...

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Peachland, BC, Canada — The new Prescribed Burn 2004 Subaru STI left its tarmac circuit racing history in the dust this weekend at its first rally, the Cochrane Regional Rally of the Ranchlands in Alberta. This year’s Cochrane Rally, the first round of the Western Canadian Championship, began as a pure snow and ice winter event, with some teams ending up in the snowbanks multiple times, and ended as a warm sunny spring rally with a great finish for the Prescribed Burn Rally Team. more...

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Barbados, West Indies — The Barbados Rally Club's (BRC) Mud Dogs Safari Championship gets under way on Saturday (March 7), with the ARMAG March Safari, which route-setter and reigning Champion Driver Leslie Alleyne says "won't be short of excitement".
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