Driven to take it to the limit at all times

MOTOR SPORT: Keith Duggantalks to the five-time world rally champion ahead of next weekend's opening stage of the WRC in the north west of Ireland

THE DECISION to swap the jaded glamour of Monte Carlo for the raw and treacherous back roads of the north west as the canvas for the opening stage of the World Rally Championship next weekend was a glowing reflection of the success of the previous event held in Ireland.

Over a quarter of a million people showed up to see the Irish stage on a sodden June two summers ago, thrilling the WRC organisers and setting an extremely testing course for the drivers. The fans kept apologising for the terrible weather, assuring the technicians and officials that the weekend before had been glorious. But the spills and thrills caused by the mud and rain made for a fine television audience around the world, establishing viewing figures that were music to the ears of those in Fáilte Ireland.

IT IS NOT a race that Marcus Gronholm will remember fondly; the Danish man slid into a stone wall and was briefly hospitalised. On the footage taken from inside the car, he resigns himself to his mistake with a barely audible grunt and seconds later the car slams against the wall, damaging the rear axel.

Even Sebastian Loeb, who for the past five years has been the supreme exponent in the world rallying championship, found the conditions testing. The Frenchman ultimately won the event but even admits that the tricky surfaces and madcap bends were a handful.

“It is a bit similar to conditions I have sometimes driven in at home in the French champions,” he said when we met in Monaghan town, where he was testing for Citroen last week. When he walked into the Hillgrove Hotel, he was still wearing his red driver’s suit, festooned with Citroen logos. It was tea-time on a freezing January evening in Monaghan town and Loeb had put in a tough afternoon but he obligingly flopped down on a couch in the foyer to talk about his day.

The World Rally Championship visits plenty of exotic locations and opening the 2009 season on what has been a bitter January in Ireland makes for a different challenge. Loeb lives in Lausanne but has come to know the topography of west Ulster and north Connacht better since his first drive here in 2007.

“The Irish roads are very narrow, very fast. It is very complicated. I suppose it is not what I prefer because with all the muddiness, it is very easy to make a mistake. But it was so nice to see all those spectators along the road. We were impressed. It is not something that you see everywhere. You could see that people like to support the rally. The showed a lot of knowledge and it made for a nice atmosphere.”

Loeb walks a fine line between global stardom and relative privacy. Handsome in the conventional French way, he is friendly and casual about his success. Last year he was voted the most popular sportsman in France, a stunning accolade given the relatively hype-free nature of the World Rally Championship in comparison to other big sporting circuses. That public recognition was an acknowledgement of his brilliant consistency – Loeb has been the reigning WRC driver’s champion since 2003.

The success earned him an invitation to visit the French Premier, Nicholas Sarkozy. “Was okay,” he shrugs, sinking into a soft sofa and rubbing his eyes like a man who has spent two hours battling the commuter siege on the M50. “But that is not what I do this for – it is nice to have the acknowledgement but . . .” and he makes that universally beloved French gesture that, in any man’s language, translates as “puh.”

LOEB IS THE perfect icon for rallying, a sport that commands a staggering fan base while maintaining an independent spirit. It could be compared to Formula One’s grungier brother. The glitzy, shiny and ultra-technical world of F1 has the pedigree of glamour but the absurd running costs and the unashamed emphasis on money makes it a distant kind of spectacle – even those who attend the grand prix events are locked into the grandstands at a good remove from the action.

Loeb actually tested a Formula One car for Red Bull late last year and posted times that suggested he might be able to make the transition. But at 34, it is highly unlikely that he would entertain abandoning the sport in which he is a cult figure to embark upon an uncertain life in Formula One – particularly given the humbling re-evaluation of spending that all F1 teams have been forced to conduct in the past six months.

“I do look at F1 because I like all motor sports. The test I had was really exciting. But in rallying, there are different driving styles and different things to do. The roads differ so I like that variety. For me, for sure, it was great to be able to understand how Formula One works but it is all new and I have 10 years’ experience here.”

His years as champion have not cost him anything in humility. He had spent the afternoon racing the lanes on a loop of farmland outside the town in order to put the car brakes through the rigours they will experience next weekend. Few people knew about the test runs in the vicinity, people hearing the growls of the car engine must have spent the time scolding about boy racers.

It is a strange fact that the Frenchman is more of a god to many teenage lads living around the borderlands of Ulster than the best Gaelic footballers or rock star. The car-parks of many of the provincial towns that the WRC will pass through next weekend are used as informal rally bases on most Saturday nights by kids who invest their wages and their free time in jazzing up their cars beyond recognition.

GROWING UP IN Alsace, Loeb started much the same way. There was little tradition of rallying where he was from, although he has a distinct memory of attending one event with his father.

“I was not even 10 years old so it made an impression. I remembered it! It happened to be close to where I lived because normally you would have to travel 100 miles to see a rally. But that was it. The next rally I saw, I was competing in it.”

Speed was the initial attraction and it remains the core appeal of rallying – the skill and daring of pushing the car to extreme limits along roads where the average speed is set by a day-dreaming farmer in an uncovered Massey Ferguson.

Next week’s rally will cover terrain in Fermanagh, Tyrone, Roscommon, Donegal, Sligo, Derry and Leitrim and the route takes in roads that are considered obscure even by locals. The closing stage, on Sunday, will feature televised circuits around the streets of Donegal town. And the closeness of the spectator to the car is at the heart of the visceral thrill: one second you are leaning over a damp hedge on a chilly afternoon and then, in a sudden on-rush of revving and braking and a blur of colour, Loeb or Daniel Sordo have passed within two feet of you. There is no other sport in the world where you can get so close to the action.

“What I like is just the driving to my limits. What is special in rallying is that you can practise and practise the same corner but you can slide, there are different interfaces, you must adapt your driving to the track.

“It is more complicated, I suppose. And it is exciting. Particularly when you are fighting for a lead and to make the best time.”

He has also displayed unorthodox pragmatism to match the driving. The other classic contrast between F1 and rallying is that the slightest malfunction can render a grand prix car useless while rally drivers will happily persevere on a wing and a prayer.

Loeb has established a long and successful partnership with his co-driver Daniel Elena and perhaps their most unusual stunt was to continue in the Mexico Rally despite having lost a rear wheel on the driver’s side. Elena simply rolled down the window and hung his body out to shift the weight of the car over to the left and keep it upright. It is not a manoeuvre to be found in any rallying handbook.

“Well, Daniel likes that,” Loeb protests, brightening at the memory. “He was happy to do that. It was not so important for us to continue but he wanted to. So, why not?”

It wasn’t long before the sight of Elena hanging out a three-wheeled racing car weaving its way at over 100 miles an hour through traffic on a dual carriageway attracted the attention of the Mexican police. They say anything goes in Mexico, but there are limits. Apart from anything else, the damaged axel was ripping up the road surface. Elena tried his best to argue their case in Spanish, memorably pointing out: “We did this in Turkey as well.”

Loeb looks vexed as he recounts his conversation with the incredulous Mexican officials.

“We tried to explain what we were doing,” he declares. “We had already done over 80 kilometres so it was not a problem for us to drive safely like this. When the wheel came off, we had two more stations to do. So they took the decision to let us continue into town with three wheels and once there, the chief said to let us go but they had two police motorcycles follow us. It was fine, though.”

POLICE IN THE northwest of Ireland have heard every excuse in the book from would-be young rally drivers out for the weekend. It might be a relief to turn the roads over to the professionals next weekend.

Loeb – and the signature Citroen car – will be among the star attractions. For all the dare-devilry, the eagerness and concentration that set him apart as he stormed through the driver’s rankings are still in tact.

“It is never inevitable,” he says of winning. “You cannot win before you finish. When I started this in 2003, it was a big pressure because I knew that other drivers had the same car as me and I thought: ‘well, now we will see what I am able to do’.

“After I won the first world championship, it did seem easier. There was less pressure. But still, always, you can just drive and do your best and hope to win.”

And with icy weather forecast, the Irish rally will test the best driver in the world to the limit. Nonetheless, it will be a major surprise if he is not leading when the fast cars circle the Diamond in Donegal town next Sunday.

““The Irish roads are very narrow, very fast. It is very complicated. I suppose it is not what I prefer because with all the muddiness, it is very easy to make a mistake. But it was so nice to see all those spectators along the road. We were impressed.

Sebastien Loeb Factfile

Born:February 26th, 1974, in Haguenau, Bas Rhine, France.

Residence:Lausane, Switzerland.

Family:Wife Severine, daughter Valentine.

Honours:WRC drivers' champion: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.

2003:WR vice champion.

2002:first win in German WRC stage.

2001:Super 1600 world champion, driving Citroen Saxo.