WRC official videogame – E3 teaser trailer

Offical World Rally Championship game arrives October 8

The release date for the first official FIA World Rally Championship game in five years has been announced as October 8th, 2010, when WRC hits the stores for Playstation 3, XBox 360 and PC.

The game has been developed by Milestone, and published by Black Bean Games – the same team behind the SBKX World Superbikes game.

It features all the cars, drivers and co-drivers from the current WRC season, along with the P-WRC, S-WRC and J-WRC support classes, plus 78 different rally stages and over 550km of roads from 13 countries.

You get a single-player career mode ‘Road to the WRC’ with 50 different trophies, plus ‘many online multiplayer game modes’.

In terms of graphics, there’s a full 3D in car view, plus car damage effects, and the tantalising opportunity for breakable objects on the trackside. Of course, this being rallying, you’ll have an in-game management system to repair the damage you may have encountered.

So if you fancy being Sebastien Loeb, Mikko Hirvonen or Daniel Sordo, here’s your chance.

As you’d expect, you can already place a pre-order from stores including Amazon: Pre-Order WRC – FIA World Rally Championship (2010)

And check out a 10-minute behind the scenes video of the making of WRC

WRC- behind the scenes of the official game

Real World Racing Round-Up: F1,BSB,WRC,etc

It’s been a big holiday weekend of racing, hence why this round-up is coming on a Monday, following the first British Superbikes meeting of 2010 on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit.

Tommy Hill took the first race win at the Kent circuit after following Japanese rider Ryuichi Kiyonari clear of the field and pouncing when Kyonari made a minor mistake after 22 laps. Several riders were fighting for the third spot on the podium, with James Ellison taking it from Alastair Seeley, Josh Brookes, Stuart Easton and Michael Rutter. The new Superbike Evo class was led by Steve Brogan on the Jentin Racing BMW.

The second race saw a victory for James Ellison, who got away from the start. Second went to race one winner Hill, followed by Alastair Seeley. Michael Laverty, Stuart Easton, Michael Rutter and John Laverty took the next few spots, with Steve Brogan again heading the Evo class.

Ryuichi Kiyonari was one of the main retirements in the second race, along with Josh Brookes and Yukio Kagayama. Returned former WSB champion Neil Hodgson failed to start either race after a big crash in the morning warm-up.

Sebastien Vettel  – image by rarye on Flickr (CC Licence).

In Formula One, Sunday saw a fantastic one-two victory for the Red Bull-Renault team, with Sebastien Vettel winning after passing team-mate and polesitter Mark Webber into the first turn and holding his advantage for the entire race (aside from during a pitstop). Nico Rosberg took third place in a race which saw Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher retire with mechanical problems. Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil took fourth and fifth, while Lewis Hamilton (6th), Felipe Massa (7th) and Jeson Button (8th) recovered from qualifying nightmares. Fernando Alonso also looked set to salvage something despite a downshift problem with his gearbox until his engine finally let go in the final few laps.

In World Rallying, business as normal saw a win from Sebastien Loeb ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala, and Petter Solberg continuing a great season so far with third ahead of the works Citroen of Dani Sordo. Mikko Hirvonen rolled in to finish 20th after a nightmare off on day 2. Former Formula One champ Kimi Raikkonen picked up his first WRC points with 8th.

In British Touring Cars, Fabrizio Gionvanardi picked up 2 out of 3 wins in the Vauxhall Vectra, heading Jason Plato (Chevrolet Cruze) and Mat Jackson (BMW 320si) in the first race, and Matt Neal (Honda Civic) and Paul O’Neill (Honda Integra) in the second. The third and final race went to the BMW of Steven Kane, taking his maiden win from Mat Jackson and Jason Plato.

Real World Racing Round-Up…

Another week, and another host of racing action in the real world, including a return to business as normal, as Sebastien Loeb has just claimed a win at Rally Mexico a few hours ago.

The French Citroen driver started the rally second on the road behind Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen, but the loose gravel surface favoured those further down the order as the top surface was cleared to reveal better traction below. So it was actually former champion Petter Solberg who led at the end of the first day as Hirvonen slipped right down the order.

Image by Yo_Ghurt on Flickr, used under CC Licence.

And although Loeb was back on unstoppable form, Solberg retained second place from fellow Citroen driver Sebastien Ogier. Hirvonen was the best-placed of the disapointing Ford challenge in fourth, heading Latvala and Henning Solberg.

Kimi Raikonnen continued his tough start to WRC by hitting a rock and damaging his car, before finally managing to clip a bank and barrel roll his way out of the race – luckily noone was hurt. And Youtube rally star Ken Block made an impressive debut by running in 10th place until a mistake under braking saw him slid into a rock face hard enough to destroy his suspension – but of the two debut drivers, it’s Block that looks most likely to break his way into the leaderboard so far.

In Formula One, discussion is mainly around the decision by the FIA to scrap refuelling.

On two wheels, Ryan Dungey has taken victory at the Atlanta Supercross, whilst on the roads, the build-up has started for the 2010 Isle of Man TT races, with the official launch on March 19 – one of the most interesting entrants will be Stephen Thompson, entering for thepeoplesbike.com team, which is funded by hundreds of supporters who pay £50, and as part of their return get their pictures featured on the bike.