And we are off to the races! The first day is always nerve-racking and it was no different this time around! Who gave in to the nerves and who withstood the tension and emerged victorious? Let's find out!

Starting from the bottom, we've got its mainstay (sorry), Lewsys, closing the day with the total rally time of 20:57.30. The Brazilian kicked off with a true banger... literally... High-octane, no-brakes, break-neck action gave us a spectacle, but sadly resulted in a poor time and sketchy service area situation right off the bat. Who knows, perhaps this is just smokescreen before the reveal of a true shocker!

Moving on, we have the newcomer, sBinnala, in the 8th place. His cumulative Day 1 time stands at 18:48.11. It's a huge leap over Lewsys, but is it a satisfying debut so far? Will it get better? We'll have to wait and see.

Coming in at 7th, it's none other than XsaraTorrada, who on this day amassed the time of 17:36.15. Once again, a significant advantage over his direct threat, but nonetheless only the 3rd worst result. The Peugeot 206 driver played it safe as usual, but maybe he has an offensive move in store for us later on?

So far we've had, let's say, uneventful happenings on the leaderboard, as everyone landed the exact same place on both stages and in the Day summary, but this time it's different! On Clocaenog Mid, Erwto bested Twajlot by roughly 8 seconds, but the two switched spots on the following SS, where the latter beat the former by slightly more than 6 seconds. Nevertheless, this means that Twajlot ultimately lost today, and with the joined time of 17:19.68, currently occupies the 6th place, while Erwto emerges 5th, having finished the day with 17:17.71 on the clock. This is one hell of a promising rivalry!

There was also a battle for the podium between Migger and SpartaRemixer. Migger completed the opening stage ahead of Remixer, but the favor was returned on Penmachno South. Unfortunately for the Subaru owner, his victory was miniscule in comparison to his preceding loss. In effect, SpartaRemixer is 4th in the ranking of Day 1 with the time of 16:45.32, and it's Migger, whose time amounts to 16:28.95, can celebrate the lowest step of the podium!

Everyone knew ahead of this contest that this is the pair to watch out for. Surprise, surprise, they tore through the competition! Of course, I'm talking about the respective arch nemeses, SpartaX18 and last year's victor, Linotrix. However, the excitement is yet to sky-rocket, as today there wasn't much of a fight between the two. Without a further ado...

The current leader of the Vauxhall Rally of Wales: SpartaX18! [Time: 15:25.62]

His eternal foe, Linotrix, garnered the time of 15:54.42, which isn't ideal, but the war has barely begun and we can expect a series of back-and-forth from these lads!

And this concludes the first day of the contest! With tons of fun and drama on the horizon, the party is about to be an absolute kicker! Stay tuned for Day 2!

The second day of the contest is now in the rear view, as we're inching towards the end of the Vauxhall Rally of Wales. Who mastered the difficult mix of gravel and snow, and who succumbed to lacking grip? Here is the answer:

Rather unsurprisingly, Lewsys remains the backdoor bodyguard, closing the leaderboard on both of today's stages. His current rally time stands at 49:37.53 and a miracle will have to happen to change his fate!

sBinnala, on the other hand, showed a claw today and scored a decent 6th place on the snowy Hafren. Unfortunately, Myherin wasn't nearly as successful for the freshman, because he only managed to beat Lewsys and lost over a minute to the 7th place. After 4 stages, his rally time is 44:23.52.

Twajlot and Erwto clashed once more and as it was the previous day, they got really close to each other! They traded adjacent ranks on today's races with minimal time differences and in the end, Erwto retained the upper hand over his main opponent, but fell down one place (we'll get to that in a bit), and currently resides in 6th with the rally time of 42:01.42. Twajlot, on the other hand got pushed down to 7th, his time being 42:08.90 - which of course, allows for an epic attack tommorow!

Now what do we have over here! Speaking of epic attacks - XsaraTorrada pulled a shocker today and after quite an impressive time achieved on Hafren, he managed to jump two places at the expense of the afore-mentioned Poles! He shouldn't take this as an encouragement to relax, though, as his advantage over Erwto is just short of 10 seconds - a false start worth of time! That being said, two tracks before the end of the rally, his clock is showing 41:51.53.

In a very similar fashion to the duo of Erwto and Twajlot, Migger and SpartaRemixer also continued their fierce melee on Myherin and Hafren, with Remixer prevailing on the former of the two routes, but Migger did something even better and astonishingly landed a 2nd place on Hafren!! Incredible performance, hands down! The time differences on the two stages were similar, however, which means the situation in the overall rally rankings stays as it was: SpartaRemixer and his time of 40:00.31 are the 4th best duo, while Migger's 39:47.25 secures him the 3rd spot on the table.

Ah shucks, here we go again. The big boys. Just another day in the office... at least for one of them... Why? Well, one of them dominated both SS's and the other... gave in to Migger on Hafren! Who is who? The answer will shock you! Or... not. Let me present to you:

The current leader of the Vauxhall Rally of Wales: SpartaX18! [Time: 37:30.84]

Yep, it was him again, who mercilessly demolished the competition! But... there is a caveat. He fell victim to a truly unfortunate accident on the 4th SS of the rally and suffered an unenviable amount of damage! This could be the perfect opening for Linotrix, who finishes the day with the overal rally time of 38:48.69. The time loss is pretty bad... or it would be, under normal circumstances! It seems that the leader will have to take a massive penalty tomorrow, so anything is possible!

With so much going on and our stay in Wales slowly coming to an end, tomorrow is certain to provide us with immense thrill! Until then!

Some will say these three days flew by, some will complain they dragged on like crazy, but one thing is for sure: the Vauxhall Rally of Wales is now officially behind us! But let's not get ahead of ourselves and let's take a look at the final results - and there is a lot to talk about, because of how bone-rattling the culmination of this rally turned out to be!

And we're kicking things off with something absolutely grand. Dyfi once again proved how deadly of a stage it is, taking its toll on not just one but two competitors! And the two unlucky fellows happened to be Lewsys and sBinnala. Interestingly, both suffered an identical fate - lights failing the inspection just before the final stage of the rally. Oh well... there is no use in crying over the spilt milk. They must accept the defeat (and 0 points) and quickly shift their focus onto the upcoming hexathlon!

Moving on from the semi-literal crash site, we've got Twajlot finishing the rally 7th with the total time of 01:07:16.42 and thus earning 3 points. Recalling his debut two years ago, it's not a result that could positively surprise, but we have to keep in mind he picked arguably the worst car out of everyone. The choice was conscious, though, so who's to blame is rather clear! It's also worth noting that despite the promising beginnings, his feud with Erwto sadly fizzled out, as he failed to overtake him on all of the final three stages.

Speak of the devil! After his personal best result (tied with Clocaenog Mid) so far - a 5th place - on Dyfi and a 6th on Gartheiniog, Erwto ended the rally in the already-occupied 6th spot with a final time of 01:06:49.53 - 4 points for this chap. Regrettably for him, he had to put up with some technical issues, which may or may not have screwed him out of an additional point. Pity!

If you go back to the Day 1 update, you'll find a line about a certain individual starting off modestly, but being expected to pick up the speed with each kilometer covered in Wales. Lo and behold, the prediction was fulfilled on Myherin and Hafren. In the 2nd update, he was advised to keep up the good work, as complacency could bring him down. He seems to really take what's written in these updates straight to heart, because keeping his foot on the gas pedal is exactly what he did! He scored his top performance thus far on Dyfi, where he was 4th, and followed it up with a 5th on Gartheiniog, which allowed him to secure the 5th place in the rally. Less-vaguely put, XsaraTorrada picks up 5 points for traveling across Wales in 01:06:27.11. Neatly done!

It's time to reveal the outcome of another scramble between two Polish speedsters: SpartaRemixer and Migger! This one was a legitimate blinder! To recap, the Subaru driver had a 13-second lead over the Peugeot pilot after their face-off on Myherin and Hafren. Migger had another impressive run on Gartheiniog, but so did his foe - in fact, a better one, by 3 seconds! Not only that, but SpartaRemixer also reached out for the stars on Dyfi and beat the SS in the 2nd best time! Sadly, for Migger, it wasn't him who led the pack there - he placed right behind his countrymate - largely due to a fatal mistake right at the end of the stage! So to conclude, Migger lost the battle (but not the war yet!) and the effort he showed on the Welsh roads leaves him with 6 points and the overall rally time of 01:03:15.77. SpartaRemixer managed to complete the Vauxhall Rally of Wales in 01:03:03.63 and for that, he gets rewarded with 7 points.

The final conflict may have begun a bit inconspicuously, but the plot thickened vastly after SpartaX18's major misstep yesterday. He made the decision to play the supreme gamble. Due to the terrible state of his car, he had to take a penalty, but he didn't take just any penalty. The future of the contest was what mattered to him more than a rally victory, so he opted to get rid of as much damage as possible, therefore dramatically decreasing his chances of topping the leaderboard. Linotrix, meanwhile, was in a much better position in terms of the state of his car and stuck to his slow-and-steady strategy. Because of this, he conquered Dyfi (although not by a lot - he triumphed over SpartaRemixer by merely a few seconds!), while SpartaX18 nearly scraped the bottom of the barrel thanks to the awful service area penalty. However, he struck right back on the closing stage, where he reached nearly 97% of the velocity of the current world record! And the Croat... One could say he was too careful there. His approach resulted in his grandest stage defeat yet - he lost by almost 45 seconds! Did that put the nail in the coffin for Linotrix, or did SpartaX18 shoot himself in the foot with the gamble at the service area? Who ultimately prevailed? Taking home 9 points after plowing through the Welsh forests in a sexy time of 01:01:11.10 is...





THE WINNER OF THE VAUXHALL RALLY OF WALES: SpartaX18!!





That's right! Despite the colossal slip-up, the Polish madlad asserted his dominance in Wales! Linotrix fought hard and well, though, and his time - 01:01:48.92 - is far from something to be sad about! There is still plenty of room for comeback and there is no chance in the world this man will not take advantage of it! For now, his balance will stand at 8 points, but the sweet "9" is a safe bet for him to pick up in the near future!

Phew! We are only 3 days and one rally into the contest, but the action is already through the roof! What is even better is that we can expect it to go even higher as we cover more British roads! Congratulations to the "top dogs" and see you at the mother of all rallies, the Pirelli International Rally!

Here we are, in the treacherous and neverending forests of the Pirelli International Rally! A fresh-ish start like this was sure to pump some new energy into our veins and the all-out war will only continue to escalate. And we're starting with one of the most difficult stages in the entire championship - Chirdonhead. Who was swallowed by the darkness and who dodged the logs like a pro? Let's get right into it!

We have some absolutely devastating news for the start. Our debutant, sBinnala had an undisclosed accident on his way to the starting line. Here is an excerpt from the announcement made earlier today: Link. We express our deepest condolences, but nevertheless are looking forward to the contest's brand new addition!

In much happier news, Lewsys survived today! Of course, he did not win anything... quite far from it... He achieved a time of 21:32.92... uh... Let's focus on the positive aspect, though - he is still in the game! ...For now...

Moving on, Twajlot laid low again and having beaten Chirdonhead in 18:51.25 currently occupies the 7th place. When will he carry out an offensive manuever - if at all? Remains to be seen...

One floor above we've got XsaraTorrada with the time of 18:24.54. Another humble start, but we know very well this guy can accelerate when the time is right. We can safely expect him not to be satisfied with this rank as far as the final rally standings are concerned!

Despite a rocky finish to the Vauxhall Rally of Wales, Erwto didn't lose his cool whatsoever and acquired a very decent 5th place after reaching the finish line in 18:09.53.

Next we have Migger, who held onto his 4th place from the previous rally on Chirdonhead. The Pole managed to cover the SS in 17:57.59 and thus not letting his arch rival from the previous rally forget about him...

...Because SpartaRemixer landed right above him in today's rankings, thanks to his slightly superior time: 17:49.30. These two lads are seemingly unseparable!

In the main event of today's show we saw... you know very well who. But it may come as a surprise, because The Champ of Wales went for a 40-second service area penalty, due to a still-unfavorable situation with his car. And what may come as an even bigger surprise... Get this, right:

The current leader of the Pirelli International Rally: SpartaX18! [Time: 17:24.09]

You read that correctly! He did it again! In spite of the handicap, Linotrix just couldn't quite top his nemesis. He did get very close - 17:32.67 being his result - but considering he had no such obstacles in his way, it may even come off as a bit disappointing! Nevertheless, it is what it is. Hopefully, this monopoly will end sooner rather than later - thrill is in high demand!

This concludes our first day of the longest rally of the entire championship. There are still plenty of kilometers ahead of us, so keep calm and don't miss any of the action!

So here we finally are: at the day number two of Pirelli International Rally! More precisely - the long awaited day has finally arrived! The Vauxhall Rally was coming to its end, Chirdonhead was on the way... but yet you could hear the "Falstone" keyword among the rally crews these days! What is so special about Falstone? Not only the stage itself is a 'carwrecker'; it's well known for The Bridge, for one of the ultimate championship-ending spots if the things go wrong for the driver!

A fact we need to keep in mind is that Falstone is taken relatively early into the championship, so... you might wonder: Has anyone ended their championship dreams... before the championship basically even began? The mystery is solved down here!

At the 8th position we have: Lewsys! His Impreza (at least its bodywork) was far from perfect - but what matters the most - he made it to the finish line! What is going to happen for him on Kershope - we don't know, but what we know is that it took him 17:33.83 minutes to complete the today's objective.

It is Twajlot who is the first of guys faster than Lewsys. Difference between the Impreza and the Lancer Evo IV drivers was quite noticeable: the Lancer driver was faster by more than a minute! 16:22.41 was enough for him to beat Lewsys... but it was not enough for more than the 7th place.

Coming up next... these two inseparable guys! Of course, we are talking about Erwto and XsaraTorrada! Yes, they were placed 6th and 5th respectively, but the gap between them wasn't really negligible! Erwto's 16:12.63 and Xsara's 15:24.31 means Xsara would've waited for more than half a minute at the finish line for Erwto to arrive, so... up to you to judge! Half a minute? Sounds like much. The amount of remaining Pirelli kilometers till the end? Also sounds like much! Therefore, anything can happen!
Long story short: Erwto is today's #6 and XsaraTorrada is today's #5!

Who was one position short of the podium? It was... Migger. This is indeed a good result for him, it's very pleasing to see him continuously bring on some good performances, subsequently showing us his Vauxhall & Chirdonhead runs weren't a coincidence! A perfect time of 15:04.00 settled him just... well, below the lowest podium spot, aka spot #4.

So who took the podium?
The aforementioned lowest podium spot, reserved for the 3rd fastest driver was taken by Linotrix. 14:49.37 means he could be happy with... the fact it was a sub-15 time, and pretty much nothing else. But podium is still a podium, right?

Lino had seemingly subscribed to #2 this season, but this time SpartaRemixer said 'No!'. To be more precise, if one second was equal to one 'no' - he told him 'no' 17 times! 14:32.33 was enough to safely take the 2nd place on this year's Falstone edition.

And finally, something we already got used to see: it's SpartaX18 who takes the winner's trophy! It took him 14:11.30 minutes to complete the Kielder forest run. Looks like there is nothing that can stop him, neither this time!

What you really wanted to know: Nope, nobody fell victim of The Bridge this year! Well done to everyone! About other mistakes... let's not worry about that now, right? These are going to be the drivers' worries at the Kershope service area, because nothing is the same after Falstone. It was never the same, this year not being an exception.

Do you ever feel like you're losing control, because time slips out of your hands before you can do anything of substance? Do you have those periods in your life, where you have to clench your fists, close your eyes and dive into the center of fate without much preparation? Regardless, this is just what Day 6 always is. With two gigantic courses behind and 3 (+ Riccarton) yet to come, a 13-minute service area is one hell of a problem. Whose time ran out and who revealed the powers of Chronos? Let's have a look!

17:28.35 on Kershope is only a time you can expect from one man. You have to feel sorry for the 7th Lewsys, though, as he had to endure nearly 30 kilometers with a broken engine, a worn-out turbo and an obliterated exhaust. Still, better than nothing! ...But with 56:35.10 on his Pirelli clock already, there isn't much more to hope for.

If we don't count sBinnala's DNF, then Kershope was the worst experience for Erwto so far in the contest, because Lewsys is the only person he managed to beat, and consequently dropped to the 7th overall rally rank (total time so far growing to 48:53.13). There is, however, a reason behind his today's subpar time. You guessed it - the car just couldn't take it anymore, and decided to let go of one of the wheels two checkpoints before the finish line. It's easily one of the most annoying things that can happen, so Erwto might totally snap tomorrow! But will the rage be enough for him to regain the 6th position in the rally?

Following his best start to date, tied with two such instantces from the Vauxhall Rally of Wales - a 5th place on today's SS - Twajlot surpassed his enemy in Erwto, but 48:30.23 may not necessarily be a safe advantage over the Evo V driver, especially considering half of the rally is still ahead of us.

Very disappointingly (but understandably), Migger was yet another person who succumbed to the car state predicament, but unlike Erwto for example, he opted to fix the damages and get a penalty - a 50-second one, to be specific. His Kershope time is therefore not a surprise and he has a great oppurtunity to make up for it on Pundershaw, but nevertheless, he did fall down one rank because of it and his rally time currently stands at 47:12.06.

Can we officially start calling XsaraTorrada a professional climber now? He was 6th on Chirdonhead, 5th on Falstone and on Kershope - yes, 4th! His personal best, tied with Dyfi. As a result (and minding Migger's misfortune), he just achieved his highest rally rank yet: another no. 4. A good job, but 47:04.77 is not a leap away from Migger!

Linotrix just barely slipped below SpartaRemixer yesterday, but today the latter proved that he is a legitimate threat in Kielder and the Croat was trumped once more, this time by over 11 seconds! 45:18.95 still accounts to a great pace, but SpartaRemixer's pace is looking even better, as his Day 6 timestamp is a fantastic 45:07.40. Is this a sign of things to come? Can the Pole finally become the MFMI champion? Ha, it's way too early to tell... But there's no doubt he's hungrier than ever!

As you may have noticed, this leaves us with...

The current leader of the Pirelli International Rally: SpartaX18! [Time: 43:44.98]

Just another day in the office, eh? Surely, the advantage is considerable, but those who followed last year's RCXX will know that SpartaX18 isn't too keen on Pundershaw, which falls tomorrow. He's only human, after all.

With that being said, we're now halfway through the longest rally in the entire championship, but its longest stage will be tomorrow's challenge. With so much distance to cover in a single trip, it's advised to down a big coffee beforehand and buckle up tight!

We are slowly crawling our way to the end of the Pirelli International Rally, and as we're doing so, we are forced to make sacrifices at each step. The conditions are difficult, the damage and wear becomes highly troublesome and frustration is creeping in. Thankfully, the two giants of the Kielder Forest are now finally a thing of the past and the heavenly 40-minute service area is almost within our reach. But as far as today is concerned - who got lost in the thick fog of Pundershaw and who made the 42 kilometers seem like 4.2? We shall find out right now!

Sigh... Lewsys. Demolished car. 01:18:07.35. 8th. BUT HE'S STILL ALIVE!

Things are looking bleak for Erwto as well. He was 7th on Pundershaw and thus only worsened his situation. Truth be told, 01:06:10.75 is not a time that can realistically threaten sinking even lower, but he will have to scratch and claw if he wants to surpass...

...The #6: Twajlot. The difference between the two on Pundershaw wasn't large, but Twajlot is on the rise and now he is almost half a minute ahead of Erwto in terms of the overall rally time, standing at 01:05:41.79. As shown last year, the Evo IV pilot doesn't come off as a technical player, so Erwto could initiate his retribution arc on Riccarton and use the superior power of his Evo V to his advantage on Newcastleton, but these are just speculations. Reality likes to be nothing we expect it to be!

Revenge is sweet. How sweet? We should ask Migger, whose solid performance on Pundershaw allowed him to take back his 4th spot in the rankings at the expense of XsaraTorrada, who apparently had a worse day and lost over 50 seconds to the Polish driver on Pundershaw. His current rally time is 01:04:06.10. Migger's - 01:03:22.96. You do the math. Did Xsara just waste his chance for the 4th place on Pirelli? It's likely that a critical mistake from Migger is the Portuguese's only hope.

Today's podium shaped out quite interestingly. Just as we were getting used to SpartaX18 - SpartaRemixer - Linotrix, Pundershaw almost flipped it on its head. This time the Peugeot racer left the Poles in the dust, courtesy of his phenomenal run on the foggy giant, which was only 30 seconds slower than the world record.
In any event, this is what it looks like on the rally leaderboard: SpartaRemixer failed to hold onto the silver-coated rank and his rally time stands at 01:00:43.95 and, while it's merely inferior by 10 seconds to Linotrix's 01:00:33.56 and Remixer seems to fancy himself the penultimate stage, the latter can potentially dominate Newcastleton.
In any event, still...

The current leader of the Pirelli International Rally: SpartaX18! [Time: 59:10.89]

Is SpartaX18's Pirelli victory in the bag, though? Not really. His vehicle isn't in the best of shapes and despite the significant lead, there is no guarantee of a back-to-back win. Nonetheless, so far so good!

This about concludes Day 7! The air will clear for the 2nd time tomorrow as another batch of points will be awarded to everyone (aside from sBinnala <insert sad face here>). See you then!

At last, the dust has fallen on the unforgiving, endless roads of the Pirelli International Rally. The struggle was excruciatingly long and tough, but it's thankfully over. No more back-to-back 30km stages is a relief for many, especially those for whom the Kielder Forest wasn't very lucky. So, it's time to hand out some fresh points - who will hit the jackpot and who will go broke? Let's see!

It still hurts to say, but we cannot ignore what happened. It must be embraced that sBinnala depressingly ended his participation in the rally prematurely on the very first SS. This means he cannot be given any points. A huge blow to the debutant, but he will come back tomorrow, and... perhaps he'll come back stronger than ever!

Who's that, flying over the hill? Is it Lewsys? Is it Lewsyyys? Why yes, it is! And despite missing half of the car and smoke & fire coming from everywhere, he's launching himself straight into the 8th place in the rally, for which he gets 2 points! An improvement over Vauxhall, to be sure, but finishing Pirelli in 02:01:11.85 is... well... it's something!! P.S.: The Brazilian stuntman has to be loudly applauded for his time on Newcastleton. It was the first time in the contest so far that he landed higher than 8th... 5th in fact! What a shocker!

3 points is what, despite his best efforts and will, is Erwto's takeaway from Kielder. He was in a bad way before Riccarton & Newcastleton already, but matters got even worse. He set off in a ruin of a car today and that cost him a lot, especially on the shortest stage, where he placed only 7th. Newcastleton was a bit better - he even defeated his biggest foe, Twajlot, there - but far from enough to give him any better prize. 01:27:35.09 is his final Pirelli time.

We just mentioned him and it is that very individual, who's adding 4 points to his account. Who's that? It's Twajlot, of course. It's been up and (mostly) down for the Pole, but to his credit, he did extremely well on Riccarton, where he was 3rd (a new personal best). The last course was unfortunately another down to add to his resume, though. Ultimately, he finished the rally in 01:26:59.53, which is not that bad for an Evo IV run, but too little to place him higher than 6th. Nevertheless, it is actually an improvement over the Welsh rally.
Very interestingly, Twajlot and Erwto are thus tied in the contest rankings at 7 points each. A duel for the ages!

01:24:56.91 is almost 2 minutes less than what Twajlot achieved and it's a time that belongs to Migger. He kept up the good work on Riccarton, but dropped the ball completely at the grand finale and was the slowest there. Or, well, his car dropped the ball for him, to be honest. A myriad of technical difficulties could be said to have robbed him of the 4th place he had just fought back, but there is no turning back. 5 points is still a decent reward, one that allows him to stay 4th on the contest leaderboard... tied...

...With XsaraTorrada! The Peugeot driver pulled off an outrageous feat on Riccarton - he was the stage's runner-up, by far his top performance yet! And while that + a decent 4th place on Newcastleton didn't bring him any close to the rally podium, he did successfully overtake Migger with the final rally time of 01:24:21.62, and for that, he is granted 6 points.

We're now entering the top 3 and we are starting with someone, who actually stood a good chance of emerging as the runner-up of the Pirelli International Rally... until today happened. This man's time on Riccarton was only the 5th best (his worst stage rank yet!) and even though he improved on Newcastleton (#3), the loss to the no. 2 of that SS - his biggest rival, Linotrix - was a big one. This man is SpartaRemixer and he receives 7 points for the overall rally time amounting to 01:21:02.62. It is undoubtedly a shame he got everyone's hopes up only to end up failing miserably to land any higher, but you can't always get what you want. At least he strengthened his position in the contest ranking, so it's more likely now that he'll finish it on the podium, which is nice!

Do you remember SpartaX18's predicament mentioned yesterday? He was far and beyond ahead of everyone else in the rally, but a serious problem arose - in the service area, naturally. The damage shown to him before the final two tracks wasn't heart attack material per se, but it was quite sketchy. In the end, he chose to stick to his strategy and 'rather be safe than sorry'. He took yet another penalty, this time it being 1min 20s. This move put him at great risk of losing it all. If you recall, that's more or less how much ahead of Linotrix he was after Pundershaw. Everything came down to pure driving skill. Who came out victorious and who bit the dust? Without a further ado, here he is...:





THE WINNER OF THE PIRELLI INTERNATIONAL RALLY: SpartaX18!!





The Polish dominator obviously lost on stage #5, but if we don't count the penalty, then he was actually faster than Lino by over 14 seconds! Add to that a bonus, near-10-second advantage provided by his winning Newcastleton run and, despite the gamble, he prevailed on Pirelli with the overall time of 01:18:38.89 and another 9 points are his reward. Linotrix still put up a good fight and 01:19:05.32 wasn't so far off, but he must accept the 8 points for the 2nd place... for the 2nd time... in the 2nd rally... Can you guess what his favorite number is?!

Anyway, this settles the battle of the Pirelli International Rally, but the war goes on! It is time to move to Scotland, where much more action awaits. Catch y'all there!

And so we arrived in the land up north, the fabulous country of Scotland. There may be no men in kilts or bagpipes echoing through the forests, but there is some gravel to rally on and that's all we need! On our first day here we completed a 3-in-1 stage set and we began in the dark woods of Twiglees, progressed through a beautiful sunrise in Yair and capped the day off with a sunny and full-of-life Cardrona. Who didn't make it before dinner and who feasted to celebrate a good start? Let's answer this question!

Agh... Another rally, another bummer. Lewsys' real life struggles woefully precluded him from even completing the first day of the rally. Lack of time and abundance of work had him pinned down and he had no other choice, but to retire. We will see him back at the SEAT Jim Clark Memorial Rally, but for now we have to say goodbye. Poor chap.

Since Lewsys took a DNF, you can probably easily guess who did the worst today... by a country mile. Oh yes, it is none other than sBinnala StoneBerg (because he's substituting sBinnala, he will be referred to as sBinnala in the leaderboard). He somehow managed to almost reach the 9-minute mark on the opener with a brand new car and was the slowest on Cadrdona by a lot, too. Yair was slightly better, but nothing more than a consolation. His current rally time is 19:07.61 and off the bat it doesn't seem like he will fare well in Scotland at all...

Erwto had a much better start in comparison, but it wasn't great whatsoever in the grand scheme of things. He seems to have really lost his way and his efficiency has really dropped since Chirdonhead. He did just okay on Cardrona, but Twiglees was poorer and Yair - a travesty. Mechanical issues played a great part here, but it doesn't change the fact the cumulative time after the first three stages is a weak 17:40.01.

Next up we have a brand new feud that has just commenced between XsaraTorrada and Migger. The former kicked off the Scottish Rally decently, with a 5th place, where he beat the latter by 10 seconds. Then, on Yair, he added another 5 seconds to his advantage, but Cardrona was a whole different story. Migger shone and placed 4th, whereas Xsara got only 7th and lost to his adversary by a bit more than 18 seconds. If you passed first grade, you'll figure out that Migger won this sparring (with the time of 17:08.87), but XsaraTorrada creeped right behind him with his 17:11.97.

The abovementioned might become a three-way soon, as Twajlot couldn't escape far from the two. He commendably landed himself two #4's and one #5 and therefore ends the day 4th in the rally rankings. As stated two sentences ago, he must remain alert however, because 16:53.53 is not a time the pair from the previous paragraph can't catch up to!

The top 3 today panned out... a bit boringly, quite frankly. There isn't much use in hyping it up, because the proceedings were as straight-forward as they get. We shall first talk about SpartaRemixer, who got 3rd three times in a row... in the third rally, goddammit, is number 3 his favorite number?! Anyway... There is actually an exciting detail about this. He decisively fought off XsaraTorrada at Pirelli and was closer to being the runner-up, but this time around it looks like he might have to do his best to maintain the bronze rank! 16:28.04 isn't necessarily alarming yet, but his advantage over Twajlot on Yair was miniscule and on Cardrona he was merely 0.95s away from falling pray to Migger!

A dull trifecta was accomplished by the deadly duo of SpartaX18 and Linotrix as well. They both did exceedingly well, but only one of them scored a triple crown, and it was...

The current leader of the RSAC Scottish Rally: SpartaX18! [Time: 15:23.44]

*Yawn*. But somewhat excitingly, he had an absolutely incredible run on Twiglees, on which he was only less than 3 seconds slower than the then-WR! Linotrix, on the other hand, didn't get close to any records, but positioned himself relatively close to the leader, his time currently standing at 15:46.58. The remaining tracks are very troublesome due to the short service area times, which is a bad sign for SpartaX18, so it's likely that the pot will be stirred as early as tomorrow!

Our next stop is the infamous duet of Black Loch and Glentrool, which is preceded by an awfully short (shortest in the entire championship) service area - a hasty 11 minutes. It's about to get frantic!

Scotland is a wonderful place. It has magical sights which take breaths away with ease. We saw them yesterday, but there is one tiny problem. It isn't all sunshine and roses. There is a gloomy, daunting side to it as well. You may start noticing it when you're strolling down Black Loch, but Glentrool is the perfect example. Everything is gray, lifeless and straight up irritating. The miniature service area preceding the two tracks only adds to the displeasure. Who submitted to the bad aura and who remained strong? Let's take a look!

In terms of the last place (excluding the DNF'd Lewsys)... nihil novi. It's still sBinnala StoneBerg. He was defeated by everyone else on both stages and only buried himself deeper in the 8th place. Rally time: 41:49.97.

XsaraTorrada's performance from today cannot be called anything but a sorrow disappointment. An odd pattern started back at Cardrona. Since then he's only ever come 7th, losing minimally to the 6th driver each time. This systematic auto-destruction has already taken its toll and right now he sits at 38:51.97 in the 7th rank of the rally.

Letdowns don't end there, however. Twajlot didn't have a particularly successful day either. He followed up his positive first day in Scotland with something much less brilliant. Two #6's in a row almost allowed the doubly 5th today Erwto to overtake him. Their RSAC times as of now stand at 38:28.60 and 38:32.01, respectively, so Ae will be one heck of a battlefield to settle the score!

Conversely, Migger used his opponents' failures and crafted himself a success out of them. He finished 3rd on Black Loch and 4th on Glentrool and thanks to that jumped up one position in the rally overalls. His time after 5 out of 6 stages is a relatively safe 37:49.37.

Alas, there are no surprises on the podium. SpartaRemixer casually solidified his 3rd place in the Scottish Rally with classy, but not groundbreaking runs on both of today's courses. The sum of his five latest times is 37:13.88.

All the same, Linotrix added 2 more #2's to his collection, but it doesn't mean he can take the medium podium step in the entire Scottish Rally for granted. Not because it's in danger, but because in spite of all the #2's, his current rally time (35:50.39) doesn't make an attack at the top spot impossible. Alright, let's get this out of the way already.

The current leader of the RSAC Scottish Rally: SpartaX18! [Time: 35:17.31]

As you can see, the difference isn't so substantial if you take Ae's length into consideration. Moreover, the leader's car is in poor condition as always, so a cherry on top of the Scottish cake in the form of a sudden swerve is not off the table!

30 kilometers in rain with limited visibility on extremely narrow and hazardous roads is what awaits at the end of the RSAC Scottish Rally. Tune in tomorrow to see the product of it!

Everything eventually has to come to an end and, for the most part, we find it hard to say goodbye. Even if the journey was riddled with obstacles and drained all the energy we possessed, we often look back at it with a nostalgic sigh... but Ae is different. No one ever misses it, it's an absolute horror show impossible to remember fondly. Barely-alive cars + the overall awfulness of the track make for a fine dose of entertainment, though! It's high time we learned how well everyone ultimately fared on our trip to Scotland!

Of course, we must begin with Lewsys, who sadly had to stay at home due to personal business. Nonetheless, the show must go on, and so does he with no points being added to his tally.

Next on our list, scoring a two-pointer for his Scottish Rally participation, is none other than StoneBerg _(sBinnala) (rally time: 59:33.74). Another rally, another poor result. But hey, at least he didn't retire this time, and furthermore, he even placed 5th on the final SS - his new personal best! Here's to hoping this trend continues!

Our following entry was the slowest on Ae and after a disastrous second day in Scotland, it proved to be the nail in the coffin for him. This man is XsaraTorrada. It's quite sad how quickly - and how low - he sank from the waves he'd surfed on at the first two rallies. Achieving a final rally time of 57:30.26 only gives him 3 points.

This day was supposed to provide a thrilling contest between Twajlot and Erwto, but it turned out to be a formality. Erwto was insignificantly behind his opponent prior to Ae, but his loss was much clearer at the finale, and so, he caps off the RSAC tour with 56:54.50 and 4 points. Twajlot, on the other hand, gets 5 points for his 56:25.41.

We're on our way to the top 3, but before that, let's reveal who closed in at no. 4 with the time of 54:06.32 and is subsequently awarded 6 points. It is... Migger! No surprises here, a strong Ae result preceded by suchlike 5 others was more than enough to increase his total score to 17.

SpartaRemixer didn't stun the crowd either. He was the 3rd best on Ae, just like everywhere else in the RSAC Scottish Rally (minus Black Loch). This means that for the third time... You get the drill, he receives 7 points, backed up by the rally time equal to 53:25.70.

Far and away from the rest of the group we witnessed a true war for the Scottish Rally supremacy. SpartaX18 had high hopes to keep his slate clean after five straight wins, which gradually magnified his lead, but don't be fooled - in reality, the lead was never a secure one. Linotrix stayed on his tail until the very end and had no plans to let him go. A tremendous opportunity arose for the Croat due to the Pole's dire straits with his automobil. The Evo V's steering was severely damaged from the start and near the finish it started to outright refuse to steer right! This put him in the world of trouble and his confidence quickly faded. However, things didn't go down much better for his nemesis. While his vehicle didn't have any major problems, the driver himself couldn't avoid a few missteps. He landed on his roof twice, which tarnished what would've been a really great run. Spoiler alert: it was still vastly superior to SpartaX18's. But how much exactly? Was the preponderance sufficient? Here's another spoiler: the difference between the two after all six stages... - a measly 2.31 seconds. But enough talking. Ladies and gentlemen, here he is...:





THE WINNER OF THE RSAC SCOTTISH RALLY: SpartaX18!!





Hat trick, hat trick!!! It's a feat nobody had ever accomplished in the illustrious 3-year history of the Magnetic Fields Memorial Invitational! But will it extend to 4-in-a-row? The gap betwen him and Lino is slowly but surely decreasing with each rally. He might have the higher ground for now, but we are only halfway, so he had better not lift his foot off the gas pedal!
As for the minutia of the ruling duo's performance in the Scottish Rally, SpartaX18 pulled off a time amounting to 50:51.66, wheras Linotrix amassed 50:53.97 and, naturally, their rewards are 9 and 8 points, accordingly.

In terms of the general contest table, all previously existing ties have been broken, as Migger split from XsaraTorrada and positioned himself atop the Portuguese, while Twajlot ultimately overcame Erwto, but only with a sole point of advantage. A new tie came into existence, though - sBinnala/StoneBerg caught up to Lewsys and they now stand at 2 points apiece.

That's it as far as our Scotland visit is concerned! As per usual, plenty of shenanigans and agitating moments took place. Next up is the very concise - but not to be underestimated! - SEAT Jim Clark Memorial Rally. Don't blink or you might miss it - and you might miss a lot!

A new day has dawned upon us, and after a frightful night in Scotland, it's a fresh chance to strive for greatness anew. Who shot for the (moon and) stars and who made Jim Clark roll in his grave? Let's see!

And we're kicking off with a pair who dug a grave for themselves right off the bat... Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of them is sBinnala, who only passed the very first stage and got disqualified immediately after for his car's dilapidated suspension. Much more shockingly, he found a friend-in-misery in... Twajlot! The Evo IV owner must've been heartbroken, because he failed the inspection right before Whitchester - the last course of the day. It is the more lamentable if we take a look back at his initial contest trajectory. He finished 7th on Vauxhall, 6th on Pirelli, 5th on RSAC... but now, everything turned to dust! Horrible shame!

In more uplifting news, Lewsys successfully remained alive for a whole day! He was expectedly the slowest (but has to be commended for placing 5th on Moon and Star!), 13:57.89 being his current rally time.

Not far ahead at all, with the time of 13:39.85, we've got XsaraTorrada. Just like Lewsys, his best rank today was #5 (on Whitchester), but the remaining two runs were only #7-worthy, so he's second-to-last (if we don't count the DNF's) in the rally at the moment.

It appears we're having ourselves a new duel! Migger and Erwto are on a collision course; the former finishes the first day of the Jim Clark Memorial with 13:13.38, whereas the latter managed to be faster by less than a second! Namely, Erwto's combined time after the first half of the rally is 13:12.62. Moon and Star & Bothwell were his individual victories over Migger, but he was inferior on Whitchester, so perhaps his luck ran out early - we'll find out tomorrow. Moon and Star was remarkable for the Lancer driver, as he set his new personal best rank there - 4th. Good stuff!

There is very little point in dwelling on the top 3. Everything transpired as usual. SpartaRemixer was 3rd thrice, and so, currently occupies the 3rd place with the time of 12:19.23. Linotrix was the no. 2 at all of today's races and he's chasing the leader whilst his joint time stands at 12:00.21. This of course leaves us with:

The current leader of the SEAT Jim Clark Memorial Rally: SpartaX18! [Time: 11:41.22]

Surely a solid lead, but Linotrix favors himself the latter half of the rally, therefore a 4th conquest for SpartaX18 is not yet guaranteed. Stay tuned for the endgame!

The SEAT Jim Clark Memorial Rally is quite the breeze. It barely began and it's ending already! Everything about it is really short, including today's service area time. Like it was a few days ago, before Black Loch, only 11 minutes were given to the mechanics to restore the cars as much as possible. Who was taken to the finish line in warp-speed and who was competed against handicapped snails? By how much will everyone's overall contest score go up? The answer lies beneath...

Naturally, neither sBinnala, nor Twajlot can be given a single point, as they both failed to complete the rally. The newcomer's tally still shows just 2 points; Twajlot's - 12.

Up ahead, it is Lewsys in the 7th place, with the total rally time of 26:55.77, for which he's awarded 3 points. This means he has collected 5 points so far and thus stays 8th in the general contest table. Just as expected.

Next up, almost a full minute ahead of the Brazilian (his time being 25:56.32, to be precise), we've got... a bummer! Just as things started looking up after Whitchester, where he came in 4th, this man repeated his anti-feats from Moon and Star & Bothwell on Eccles and Fogo; those "anti-feats" being a 6th place. Worse yet, he ranked even lower (7th) on Langton. The participant in question is Migger. Alas, such an underwhelming showing only pays him with 4 points, but he retains his #4 spot in the MFMI leaderboard with 21 points in total.

XsaraTorrada's situation improved vastly from the RSAC Scottish Rally, as he finished the Jim Clark Memorial in 25:36.74, which gives him the 5th place. For that, he scores 5 points, which he can use to attack Migger's 4th spot in the competition, as currently he sports a grand total of 19 points. On a sidenote, the 206 owner has apparently fallen in love with the number 5 - rally rank and point reward aside, he also finished 5th on four consecutive stages: from Whitchester all the way to Fogo. Crazy!

Completing the rally in the 4th fastest time - 24:53.55 - and as a result, setting his new personal best, is Erwto! The Pole was consistently strong throughout the 6-pack, but the last stage went remarkably well for him. In yet another PB, he stood on the lowest step of the podium on Fogo! Thanks to the 6 points he gets for this performance, he overtakes his no. 1 foe in Twajlot and jumps on XsaraTorrada's tail, as his current contest score is 17 points. Way to go!

Now, for the most boring entry... SpartaRemixer: 24:03.49, 7 points, 28 points in total. Enough said.

Thankfully, the clash between SpartaX18 and Linotrix was much more captivating. To recap, the MFMI leader emerged victorious on each of yesterday's tracks, but none of these wins were dominant. Linotrix was only 19 seconds behind and we all know this much can be made up surprisingly easily in this game. That was exactly the plan that Lino had in mind heading into today's stages. He triumphed somewhat convincingly on Eccles and Langton, but Fogo... Fogo was a barn burner! Both guys climbed to the top of their abilities and... they ended up with the same time! Well, almost. SpartaX18 was 0.35s faster, which is probably the tiniest difference between two times we've had so far! In any event, was this comeback enough for the Croat, or will the Pole drink champagne once more? You might be disappointed, because...





THE WINNER OF THE SEAT JIM CLARK MEMORIAL RALLY: SpartaX18!!





That is right, no upsets here! The speed devil behind the wheel of the Evo V adds another 9 points to his score, which now amounts to 36. He completed the rally in 22:53.64, which is shockingly nearly a minute quicker than last year's top time. The Peugeot driver, on the other hand, gathered a time equal to 23:03.10 and moves on with 8 points for the 4th time in our journey. His tournament tally: 32 points.

If this is not the amount of excitiment you were hoping for, then you shall frown no more, because tomorrow we will be kicking off the fan-favorite - Stena Line Ulster Rally! If there is any chance left for Linotrix to successfuly defend his championship from last year, this is it. All or nothing. The intensity is about to be dialed all the way up to 11, so don't go anywhere!

Wales, England, Scotland... there are still two locations written down on the rally crews' 'to-do' lists: the first one being Northern Ireland! After a short-but-tricky Seat Jim Clark Memorial Rally we are moving onto the less tri- ...or actually, equally tricky... or perhaps even more tricky Ulster roads! Kicking off at the rainy Hamilton's Folly and followed by "treacherous" Tyrones Ditches, let's see how the Stena Line standings are shaping up after Day #14 of MFMI 2020!

At the back we have... unfortunately, you can guess it. But! Was it sBinnala or Lewsys? If we take Lewsys' improvements over last year into consideration... then you could say: he was the faster one.
Well, if you did assume that - you were correct. Lewsys' 08:33.16 over sBinnala's 08:45.56 on HF means the Brazilian had already built some advantage over the neverlucky Pole. However, sBinnala fought back on Tyrones Ditches... and actually won that battle, by less than two seconds! The Perfect 10:20.00 didn't make for a 'perfect' result for Lewsys, as sBinnala's 10:18.75 was... well, just faster than 10:20, right? Quick maths. Anyway, it took sBinnala and Lewsys 19:04.31 and 18:53.16 minutes respectively to complete the first Ulster day.

Erwto finds himself in no man's land after today's routes. 17:39.16 tells us he doesn't have to worry about Lewsys and sBinnala (...or does he?), but still, XsaraTorrada with the time summary of 16:52.66 isn't really on Erwto's horizon either. Now that we started comparing these two... Xsara was about 10 seconds faster on HF (07:36.91 vs. 07:46.78)... but if you feel like that was somewhat of a massive gap - what to say about over half-a-minute difference on Tyrones? Erwto made it in slightly under 10 minutes (09:52.38), while Xsara was closer to finishing it in nine (09:15.75).

"Boring, boring..."? Well - fasten your seatbelts now!
If the morning shows how the day will be - we will have a TRIPLE fight for the Ulster podium (its lowest step, to be clear)! Migger, SpartaRemixer and Twajlot find themselves packed within something minimally more than 7 SECONDS! But somebody had to be the slowest and somebody had to be the fastest, right?
It took Migger the longest from HF's starting line to TD's finish line (16.42.20). Since Parkanaur is yet to be taken, where anything can happen, we can say Remixer's 16:35.28 is much of an advantage. But then - can Twajlot's 16:35.07 be noted down as a non-trivial lead over Remixer? Absolutely not. But it should've been an 'absolute yes', since it actually took Twajlot 15:50.07 minutes to complete the day, but the Stena Line Ulster Rally officials noticed some "irregularities" from the Lancer Evo IV "garage", and therefore they handed "a few seconds" of penalty which additionally spiced up this rally!
Remixer (07:25.76) and Twajlot (07:24.35) almost mirror-copied their HF times, but as it has been already mentioned - the officials had their say on Twajlot, so we register 07:49.35 for him. Migger? 07:34.31, no REAL DRAMA here. Tyrones Ditches, though... alright, there is no "though", they did the same exact thing there. 09:07.89, 09:09.52 and 09:10.72 were Migger's, Remixer's and Twajlot's results, accordingly. What a wild threesome!

This leaves us with the age-old rivals. It goes without saying that the Stena Line Ulster Rally is undoubtedly Linotrix's yard. But, is it really? Let's start with Hamilton's Folly, where not only did he fall short of the 1st place by 4+ seconds, but just like in Twajlot's case, the officials had to chime in and penalize him for some "irregularities" of his own! How scandalous!
As if that wasn't enough, he was once again beaten on Tyrones Ditches, this time by nearly 6 seconds. Obviously then,

The current leader of the Stena Line Ulster Rally: SpartaX18! [Time: 15:20.92]

If we add up all the shortcomings and whatnot, we'll get Lino's 15:46.36, which is fine, but undeniably not at all what the Croat was prepared for. Happily for him, Day 15 contains two of his favorite stages in the entire game, where no matter what happens, he always finds a way to leave the spectators speechless at his performance. Will we finally see a change in the leader position or will the upsets continue? Only one way to find out - make sure to catch all of the action tomorrow!

As the age-old saying goes: ask and you shall receive. You were promised a high-octane show today and we delivered! Not convinced? Well then, let us not waste any more time and get right into it!

It is a well-known fact that Stena Line is no joke, and that it has some of the most hazardous tracks in the entire game - yesterday's Tyrones Ditches and today's Parkanaur in particular spring to mind. The former might have just proved how dangerous it is in the form sBinnala being forced into retirement after Feeney - very likely due to damage sustained at TD. It's the fourth DNF he has had out of five possible. Somebody up there must have a vendetta against this guy!
Then, we also had Parkanaur reminding us of the peril it brings. Lewsys felt it the most. While he was successful in reaching the finish line, he simply found himself in inescapable jeopardy at the following service area. There is literally no way for him to move onto the last day in Northern Ireland, so we may as well write him off right now. So long, friend [for the nth time]!

Now, for someone who did survive, Erwto repeated the 7th place from Tyrones Ditches on both of today's courses and only sank deeper in his misery. 36:53.96 is a time that will probably need an enormous mistake from one of the higher places if Erwto wants to avoid 3 points for the rally.

In terms of the midfield - it's still the Xsara-Migger-Twajlot trio. Since Erwto couldn't maintain his Seat JC Rally pace here, in Northern Ireland, it is quite safe to say positions number 4, number 5 and number 6 will be taken by the abovementioned three drivers. But, in which order?
Very likely, #6 will be taken by XsaraTorrada. He finished 6th on both Feeney and Parkanaur; he was only about 1.5 seconds off the 5th place on Parkanaur (which was taken by Migger), but he didn't really threaten the two Poles on Feeney; unless something changes drastically - 6th position is in his hands. His Stena Line Ulster Rally clock shows 35:44.36 after Parkanaur, which is quite a bit behind Migger's 35:17.76. As already mentioned, he beat Xsara by 1.5 seconds on Parkanaur, but the 15-second gap (in Migger's favour) between them on Feeney might have secured... Migger's 5th place?
Not at all. Well - not because of Xsara. It is because of Twajlot. Twajlot's 35:13.53 means he only has a 4-second lead over Migger, which is quite fascinating; it is indeed nice to see the slowest car doing so well against the A8 "giants", but also, let's not forget Twajlot is a very decent driver and seeing him at the 4th place wouldn't be a surprise if he was driving one of those "giant" cars. But oh well. The Lancer Evo IV might not be the most powerful car out there... but may he earn a promotion in the Mitsubishi hierarchy next year? We all know which manufacturer owns the fastest Championship car...

You know what's coming now and you love it.
Gasp...
SpartaRemixer + 2*3rd = 34:33.32 = another 7-pointer seemingly set in stone.

At last, here we are. The crème de la crème. SpartaX18 vs Linotrix. Let's recap how they've fared in Ulster up to this point. Mitsubishi's no. 1 driver defeated Peugeot's top player on both Hamilton's Folly and Tyrones Ditches and, in spite of the insignifact time differences, Linotrix ended the day fairly far behind his nemesis. It was due to the hefty penalty he was given and that very penalty undoubtedly made what was expected to be a formality turn into a struggle to score a full stack of points in the Stena Line Ulster Rally. Today's results shall speak for themselves. The Croat handily disposed of the Pole on Parkanaur and emerged victorious on Feeney, albeit with a time superior merely by a single second. So then, Was this as much as he needed to finally dethrone the leader for the first time in the entire contest? Yes! But also no. Remember the penalty? If we didn't take it into account, his rally time would now be standing at 32:03.84... but it's not. We must respect the rules, and so the recognized time is in fact 32:28.84. You know where this is going...

The current leader of the Stena Line Ulster Rally: SpartaX18! [Time: 32:04.24]

Just think how much SpartaX18 would be fuming right now for losing the leadership by 0.4 seconds! But once again, unlike Lino, he piously followed the regulations and he's being rewarded for it. However, he should do anything but let up right now. The Irish finale will be extremely intense. They are equally great on the last two stages, so the tiniest errors will probably be the deciding factor in who will ultimately prevail. As always, stay tuned - you do not want to miss out on this!

Today we took our way out of Northern Ireland through Lisnamuck and Tardree. These two are widely considered to be a godsend of a breather after a quartet of grueling, unforgiving and perfidious stages. The worst is now officially behind us. Nevertheless, there was no slowing down today - quite the opposite - as multiple grudges were slated to be settled today. Who was the personification of the Tardree highways and who will progress to the grand finale beaten to a pulp? Let's get down to it!

As the tradition goes, we first have to dismiss those who couldn't finish in one piece with 0 points. This 'honor' shockingly goes to sBinnala and Lewsys. Neither of them can now under any possible circumstance even dream about a 7th place in the contest (let alone anything higher), but sBinnala still has a chance to trade ranks with Lewsys. The condition - he would have to finish the Sony Manx International Rally 4 places above the Brazilian (or 3 if he fails to complete it).

Next up we've got Erwto, who has just had his worst rally performance since Pirelli - a 7th place. Beating Twajlot (and only him) on Lisnamuck didn't bring him any close to salvation at all. He was the slowest on Tardree and, in the end, in the entire rally as well: 51:26.68. 3 points is all he can get, so it is very unlikely that he will end up higher than 6th in the championship; his tally is showing 20.

Almost a whopping 90 seconds ahead, with the time of 50:03.09 it is XsaraTorrada. This gentleman had two very strong outings today (#4 twice), but they weren't decisive enough for him to climb from the 6th position. His Stena Line prize is 4 points, which updates his contest score to 23 points.

Numbers 4 and 5 turned out really interesting. The better man's timer at the end of the rally showed 49:46.10, while the other's... 49:27.16. How could that be? Is that an error? No, not really. Just scroll up a little if you're confused. If you can't be bothered, here's the explanation: Migger is the no 4. and Twajlot is the one with the "superior" time. But, the latter's actual, valid time is 49:52.16, due to the massive penalty he was given at the very beginning of the rally. And to think he would've easily gotten 6 points if it hadn't been for a very silly mistake. Instead, he gets 5 points, while Migger can indulge in schadenfraude with a 6-point bonus. It's not like that point really matters for Twajlot in the grand scheme of things, though. He stands at a low total score of 17 and can only truly compete with Erwto now. Migger, on the other hand, sports 27 points, but the bronze medal is pretty much out of his reach as well.

SpartaRemixer. Literally all you need to know. Rally time: 48:29.66; total score: 35.

Last, but not least, it's high time to reveal the conclusion to the most ferocious duel yet. These two absolutely wrecked the competition. Even Remixer was around 3 minutes slower than them. As you may or may not recall, SpartaX18 retained the leader spot yesterday, but if there were never any penalties, then Linotrix would have set off today from the #1 position. Unfortunately, the punishments are very real indeed, so the Croat had to perform at 110% today. And his runs were obviously top-notch, as you'd expect. There can only be one winner, and that person was also victorious on Lisnamuck and Tardree. That person scored 4 wins in the Northern Ireland overall. It it the Ulster favorite, or did the Pole pull off the upset of the century? Oh dear... Loud ovations, please, for...





THE WINNER OF THE STENA LINE ULSTER RALLY: SpartaX18!!





Good God. 5 in a row. He slayed the undisputed overlord of the Northern Irish roads on his own yard. Not only that... He did it fair and square. What does that mean? The stopwatch stopped for him at 45:05.30. For Linotrix - at 45:21.62. And lest we forget about his penalty. 45:36.62 is therefore his officially recognized time. A truly historic moment. No words. Endless kudos to SpartaX18, as he did the seemingly impossible. Naturally, 9 points is his reward and he now possesses a still-perfect sum of 45 points. And Lino... 8 points & total score of 40 only further reassure us about his unbreakable connection to the number #2. At this point, he may only pray that his arch rival's car breaks down amidst Sony Manx. Or that he gets abducted by aliens, or something.

Anyway, this sums up our tour of Northern Ireland. Another instant classic in the books... but one more is still yet to come! Stick with us for just two more days and you will experience the culmination of this amazing tournament. See you tomorrow!

The endgame is here. We have arrived at the grand finale of the Magnetic Fields Memorial Invitational: the SONY Manx International Rally. Our last chapter started with three pages, namely: the quick and hot Port Soderick, the sketchy Ballagyr and a Lisnamuck-esque blend of tarmac and gravel in the form of Curraghs. For whom was the beginning of the end the end? And whose fighting spirit lit up as we entered the closing challenge?

The delightful news is that nobody was disqualified! If it remains like this then we will witness the first (and last) rally without any DNFs. But is it even feasible with such reckless drivers as Lewsys? Turns out yes! Probably... The Brazilian daredevil astonishingly called it a day with 23:54.01 on the clock and minimal damage! Still, he was by far the slowest today. The humongous penalty he took at the service area put him way in the back of Port Soderick - over 2 minutes behind the second-to-last Twajlot. He was once again inferior to the Polish Evo IV owner on Ballagyr, but commendably bested him on Curraghs (nonetheless, he was only 8th there).
And speaking of Twajlot... Disappointingly, he is today's no. 8. A trifecta of below-average runs ranging between the places 7th & 9th, and the joint time of 21:23.70 merely allow him to conceivably compete against the 7th...
...sBinnala! That's right! Neither did sBinnala retire, nor was he the first- or second-to-last after the opening three stages. Truth be told, the double #7 and single #8 he got today aren't quite his new personal bests, but it is looking like he might score his best rally rank in the entire contest. His time stands at 20:58.22 as of now.

30 seconds and 11 centiseconds ahead (at 20:28.11), we have XsaraTorrada, who was pretty consistent today, and following two #6s and a #5, closes the day in the 6th position. Not great, not terrible. Just what he's got us used to.

The next two entries have battled before and they went back at it again today. 20:06.77 and 20:04.67 are times that belong to Migger and Erwto, respectively. The former had an impressive showing on Port Soderick, where he was 3rd, but fared worse on the other two tracks (#6 and #5). His adversary showed more consistency in a 5th rank on the opener and two subsequent #4's. This duo is sure to provide us with a decently exciting bout, but their MFMI ranks are highly unlikely to change.

SpartaRemixer was 4th on Soderick, but everything else was the same old stuff. 19:04.55.

Regrettably, it seems like we won't have much of a thrill at the front of the pack, either. If anything, we can cheer for Linotrix to retain his current 2nd place, due to the abundance of damage he has sustained over the course of the championship, and which is truly taking its toll right now. The sum of his three results of today's is 18:46.33, which is relatively distant from...

The current leader of the SONY Manx International Rally: SpartaX18! [Time: 18:15.15]

The Mitsubishi dominator effortlessly demolished all of his opponents yet again with three consecutive triumphs. The state of his car may not be ideal, but it's greatly probable we're in for a flawless [contest] victory.

For the very last time, don't forget to tune into tomorrow's results, as they will conclude MFMI 2020. Ciao!

This is the end... my only friend, the end. That is the cruel reality. The Magnetic Fields Memorial Invitational 2020 is officially in the books. But let us not grieve the end. Instead, we shall cherish the sweet (and sour) moments it created... and hey, we still need to find out how it all ended! So then, whom will we we calling "Champ" for the next 12 months? And who will be remembered as the MFMI 2020 chump? For this one last time [this year], let's unveil the results!

Many - if not all - of us were curious what an impact would our newest addition, sBinnala, make in this year's competition. Some of us expected him to be the dark horse, but sadly, that couldn't have been further from the truth. Despite a few better performances here and there, he normally wouldn't ever place higher than 8th. The only driver he had any chances against was Lewsys (who, as we know, likes to kill his potential with rash driving). And even then, his lack of experience in the A8 Championship only added to his misfortune. To be specific, it was his service area inspection fails that solidified his demise; he only managed to complete 2 out of 6 rallies. He saved the best for last and it was the Sony Manx International Rally that was his best start in the entire contest. Mainly thanks to the 5th place on Tholt-y-Will, he finished 6th in the rally, with the time of 45:11.85. 4 points can only be taken as a consolation prize for the debutant, though, as his contest tally shows just 6 points at the end of our journey and therefore, he is dead-last. Better luck next year!

We briefly mentioned him in the previous paragraph and it should come as anything but a surprise that Lewsys places 8th in MFMI 2020 with 7 points in total. As you see, it's barely a sole point above sBinnala. The Brazilian survived half of the rallies and, had he not survived this one, he would be in the Pole's position (pun not intended). Naturally, he was the slowest on "Manx" by a long shot (47:29.06), but the 2 points he received for it were enough to save him from the bottom of the barrel. He must be fuming over the penalty he had to take ahead of the rally, though, because his times weren't so bad otherwise. In fact, he set a new personal best rank on Tholt-y-Will - a #4 - and it's possible he would've come in at 6th in the rally (at the expense of sBinnala) if he never got penalized. Well, mistakes are to be paid for.

Now this man... he didn't impress at first, but he improved with each rally, slowly climbing in the rankings. And then, the Jim Clark Memorial Rally happened. His car was in too bad of a state for the officials to let him make it to the end. That completely ruined his underdog story and, in spite of the perfectly decent 5th place he finished the Ulster rally in, for the rest of the tournament, he never really got close to improving his eventual final standing: 7th. Still, kudos for his ever-present will to fight. Astoundingly, he landed a podium spot on Injerbreck (his best, tied with Riccarton) and a no. 4 on Cringle, but the remaining 4 stages were forgettable at best. 45:32.56 is the time Twajlot set in the SONY Manx rally. 3 points is his reward and 20 points - his final tally.

It's time to talk about a pair who battled on-and-off with one another over the course of the contest. The first person we'll discuss is Erwto. This individual fared mostly... poorly. 6th on Vauxhall, 7th on Pirelli, 6th on RSAC, 7th on Stena. Interesting pattern, for sure. But what's even more interesting are his Jim Clark Memorial and SONY Manx performances. On the former, he placed 4th, which had to feel delightful for him. But get this... It was not his best rally rank - "Manx" was! It was very promising from the get-go, but he overdelivered on the final day! Incredibly, he repeated his PB from Fogo - a 3rd place - on two of today's tracks! This plucky showing granted him the 3rd place in the final rally (total time: 41:54.45), and as a consequence of this, he takes home 7 points! After adding everything up, his score displays 27 points. Is this enough for him to advance in the contest table at the last moment?
The other person from the aforementioned pair, XsaraTorrada, would have had to finish the SONY Manx International Rally no higher than 7th for that to happen. However, we know already that Twajlot took that spot... So at best, the two could've tied. Or... could they? Not really, actually. After all, sBinnala was 6th. But wait, Lewsys was the slowest... Twajlot was 7th... Xsara must be 8th then! Before we reveal the truth, let's recap the Portuguese's adventures up to this point. He's had his better and worse moments, but his rally ranks average out at around #5. At "Manx", it was slightly different. Two #7s, two #6s... and just a single #5. As bizarre as it may sound, he ranked 5th in the grand finale! Moreover, the 44:28.75 he gathered wasn't even relatively in danger of being beaten by the 6th sBinnala. Of course, this means he scores 5 points and in the end, he retains his central position in the contest table with 28 points. Well done! ...But what a pity for Erwto!

One place short of the MFMI podium, with the combined score of 33 points... following a 6-points-worth 43:14.56 in the SONY Manx International Rally... it is... Migger! The Peugeot 206 representative proved his bonafides in this year's edition of the Magnetic Fields Memorial Invitational with strong showings rally after rally (maybe except the Jim Clark Memorial Rally, where he was 6th). It's great to see this gentleman utilizing more and more of his potential each year; who knows, maybe he will reach the coveted podium next year? Fingers crossed!

It is time for everyone's favorite part. The top 3 shaped up remarkably captivating. Hold tight, because you're in for one hell of a rollercoaster! Again, let's look at each of the top trio's performances throughout the event.
And we shall begin with the eternally-third SpartaRemixer. Literally "eternally"... Kind of. Every single rally so far has looked like this: SpartaX18 wins, Linotrix a bit behind and Remixer far away in the third place. But! The finale... oh boy, was it different. The Subaru driver finished it in 39:46.88... and... it was the second best time! You read that correctly: SpartaRemixer was not third!! Unbelievable, isn't it? There is a certain reason behind this, and you will find it out very shortly...
...As we move onto the number-2-phile himself, Linotrix. Copy & paste Remixer's story, just change all the 3's to 2's. Except for one detail. You see, the tournament finale... was also the finale of his hopes and dreams. At the very start of the event, he promised himself one thing: he shall complete the entire championship without a single service area penalty. He succeeded, even excelled at his goal... Until the final day. He set off unsure whether he would see the "Stage complete" text for the 36th time. The truth is... heartbreaking. Perhaps it was that pressure, that uncertainty, which (somewhat ironically) made him commit critical mistakes on the penultimate SS... mistakes, that ultimately led to... his car failing the inspection just before Cringle. This actually is what happened. No kidding. 0 points for one of the all-time greats. And as a result... having accumulated 40 points in total...





Linotrix is the bronze medalist of the Magnetic Fields Memorial Invitational 2020!





...And... with the final score of 43 points...





SpartaRemixer is the runner-up of the Magnetic Fields Memorial Invitational 2020!





You know very well what you're about to see.
Ladies and gentlemen... Children and elders... Animals, aliens, mythical creatures, and whoever else might be reading this right now...
With the flawless score of 54 points... following six straight rally victories, the most recent of which: a brutal domination in the SONY Manx International Rally (37:48.11)... Standing ovations, please, for...





THE WINNER OF THE MAGNETIC FIELDS MEMORIAL INVITATIONAL 2020: SpartaX18!!!





Viva le champion!! An absolutely legendary performance. No. Words.

It was a phenomenal and historic 18 days, but this epic saga has unfortunately come to an end. The memories it created will forever remain in our minds and our hearts, though. With that being said, we shall forget all the hardships it brought, not regret the missed oppurtunities and the errors we made, and simply celebrate the most important takeaway from it: the fun. After all, this is what makes the event so special; what makes us miss it for 12 months, beginning with the very day it is over. Long live the fun, long live the memory of Magnetic Fields, and long live Rally Championship 2000. Hasta la vista! Until the next year!!