Andreas Aigner

Andreas Aigner [born 24 September 1984 in Leoben] is an Austrian rally driver. He won the Production World Rally Championship in the 2008 season.

Career

Aigner on his way to winning the P-WRC class at the 2008 Acropolis Rally.

Aigner made his World Rally Championship debut in 2005, finishing 19th on the Cyprus Rally driving a

In 2007 he began competing in the Production World Rally Championship (P-WRC), finishing 13th in the standings, driving a Red Bull-backed Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. In 2008 he won the P-WRC class on Rally Argentina (where he finished eighth overall), Acropolis Rally and Rally of Turkey, winning the P-WRC crown.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII. He competed in three further WRC events that year.[1] For 2006 he signed for Armin Schwarz's Red Bull Škoda team, with Harri Rovanperä as teammate, driving a Škoda Fabia on ten WRC rounds. He scored his first WRC points on Rallye Deutschland, with a sixth place finish.

Thierry Neuville

Thierry Neuville (born 16 June 1988 in St. Vith) is Belgian rally driver. He is currently competing in World Rally Championship. His co-driver was Nicolas Klinger from his debuts to the end of 2010. Klinger was replaced by Nicolas Gilsoul for the first 2011 IRC rally, Monte Carlo.

Neuville drove a self-entered Citroën C2 at the 2010 Junior World Rally Championship, collecting a win, a 3rd and three retirements to finish 7th in the standings. He also competed at six rounds of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge with a semi-works Peugeot 207 S2000, resulting 3rd at Ypres and 4th at Sardinia.

In 2010, Neuville competed full-time at the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, again driving a semi-works Peugeot 207 S2000. He took his first two victories in the Tour de Corse[1] and Sanremo, resulting 5th in the standings with further 2nd, 3rd and 4th race finishes.

Citroën signed Neuville for the 2012 World Rally Championship, driving all races on a Citroën DS3 WRC for the Citroën Junior Team except two for Qatar World Rally Team. The Belgian scored in five races, including a 4th at Alsace and two 5ths at Argentina and New Zealand, and finished 7th in the championship.

Neuville joined Qatar for the 2013, now driving a Ford Fiesta RS WRC. He retired for the third time in Rallye Monte-Carlo, after going off track on the third stage. He managed to get some good points in Rally Sweden, scoring a 5th place, in a surface where he is not very comfortable. Then, in Mexico, he was one of the men of the rally, getting his maiden podium finish (3rd place). Round 4, Portugal, was disappointing, since he finished out of the points, after returning to the rally in Rally 2 after retiring from 5th place. 5th place was again for Neuville, in Argentina. Then came a streak of podiums which turned Neuville into the surprise driver of the season: third place in Greece and second place in Italy, Finland, Germany and Australia.

At Rallye Deustchland, which Neuville considers his home rally, the Belgian was in second place during the second day, trailing Jari-Matti Latvala just for a few seconds. But in a surprise twist, Latvala left the road and Neuville did the same thing right after him. Thierry led the rally for a stage, but eventually, and in the second to last stage of the day, he lost the lead to Dani Sordo. The last stage of the day was canceled, so the drivers entered the final two stages separated by just 0.8 seconds. The second to last stage was won by Sordo, which left the Spaniard three seconds ahead of Neuville in the overall classification. Both gave everything in the PowerStage and Thierry eventually had a small off in the very last section of the stage, therefore losing the chance to win. He ended in second place, 53 seconds behind Sordo.

At Rallye Australia, Neuville was in third place, 25.2 seconds behind Mikko Hirvonen, before the PowerStage. With Sébastien Ogier comfortably in the lead, he needed to finish in second place overall and in the PowerStage in order to still have a mathematical chance at the title. Hirvonen punctured in the stage, allowing Thierry to finish in second overall and second in the PowerStage. After this dramatic finish, a frustrated Ogier and Neuville were the only ones still with a chance for the title, although Ogier only needed to score a single point in the remaining three rounds.

Jari-Matti Latvala

Jari-Matti Latvala (born April 3, 1985) is a Finnish rally driver competing in the World Rally Championship. His co-driver has been Miikka Anttila since the 2003 Rallye Deutschland. He is well known for his aggressive driving style, which earns him many plaudits, and comparisons to the late Colin McRae.

Rally Career

Latvala began driving when he was eight years old, after receiving a Ford Escort from his father Jari Latvala, also a rally driver and 1994 national champion in the Group N class. At the age of ten, Latvala started practicing with an Opel Ascona on a frozen lake.

 2000s

Latvala's first world rally was the 2002 Rally Great Britain at the age of 17. He finished in 17th position with a Mitsubish Lancer Evolution VI. In 2003, Latvala competed in four WRC events with a Ford Focus WRC, finishing tenth at the Acropolis Rally, 17th at the Rallye Deutschland, 14th at the Neste Oil Rally Finland and tenth at the Rally Great Britain.
In 2004, Latvala mostly competed with an S1600 class Junior World Rally Championship car. His best overall result in the World Rally Championship was 21st with a Group N Subaru Impreza WRX STI at the Tour de Corse. In the 2005 season, Latvala competed in nine world rallies; six with the Group N Impreza and three with a World Rally Car. His best overall result was 16th, which he managed three times; at the Swedish Rally with a Toyota Corolla WRC and at the Tour de Corse and the Rally d'Italia Sardegna with the Impreza.

2006–2007: Stobart Ford
Latvala driving his Ford Focus RS WRC 06 at the 2007 Rally GB.

In 2006, Latvala competed in 11 world rallies. He drove the Subaru Impreza WRX STI in six, a Ford Focus WRC in four and a Toyota Corolla WRC at his home event, the Neste Oil Rally Finland. His best results came in the last three rallies. At the Telstra Rally Australia, he won the Production Car World Rally Championship (PCWRC) class, and finished sixth overall. At the Propecia Rally New Zealand, he finished eighth overall and also won the PCWRC. With the Focus WRC, he recorded his career-best result by finishing fourth at the last event of the season, the Rally Great Britain. Points from these rallies then placed Latvala 13th overall in the drivers' championship.
In 2007, Latvala competed a full 16-event programme for Stobart M-Sport Ford with Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg as teammates. He started the season with retirements in Monte Carlo and Sweden. At the Rally Norway, Latvala was in contention for his first podium place, but had to settle for fifth after a 90 seconds time penalty. He did, however, take his first stage win on SS5. Latvala later took his first podium at the 2007 Rally Ireland. At the last rally of the season, Rally GB, he lost 10 minutes on the last stage of day one due to windscreen wiper failure, but went on to win ten of the remaining 11 stages under the SupeRally rules, finishing 10th overall.
2008: Ford's factory team
Latvala at the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.
Jari-Matti Latvala in official opening – Bulgaria 2010

In 2008, Latvala joined Ford's factory team as a number two driver, partnering Mikko Hirvonen and replacing Marcus Grönholm who had announced his retirement from the WRC at the end of 2007. The opening round of the season wasn't lucky for the young Finn – he suffered a puncture after cutting a corner too deep on the very first stage and lost even more time because of a non-fully operative pneumatic wrench. Latvala continued to fight and was ninth overall before SS12, but he made another mistake there and heavily damaged the front left suspension in his Focus, forcing himself to retire for good. At the second rally of the season, 2008 Swedish Rally, he had good pace from the beginning – he won all regular special stages on day one, pulling away from the runner-up spot slowly, but consistently. He later had some problems and wasn't the fastest on any of the remaining stages, but managed to keep his position throughout the rally. The 22-year-old therefore took his first WRC win to become the youngest winner in the history of the World Rally Championship. The previous record was held by Henri Toivonen who was 24 years and 86 days old when he won the 1980 RAC Rally. For his performance during the Swedish rally Latvala was given the Abu Dhabi Spirit Of The Rally award. At the first gravel event of the season, the 2008 Rally México, despite officially claiming no intentions to win the event, he was the fastest driver on the first two stages and was leading the rally throughout the first day, pulling out from the current World Rally Champion, Sébastien Loeb. Unfortunately for the young Finn, the turbo in his Ford Focus was malfunctioning during the second day, making his car uncompetitive. This, along with having to be the opening driver on the stages 9–16, having to sweep the track of the loose gravel, cost him a substantial amount of time and Latvala finished the rally third.

2009 Season
Jari-Matti Latvala in SS7 "Lyubnitsa" – Rally Bulgaria 2010

For 2009 the expectation was for Latvala to progress in his performance as number two driver for Ford's factory team. However the start of the season became a big disappointment for the team, as Latvala went off the road in three of the first four rallies of the year. In Portugal, he and his co-driver Miikka Anttila were lucky to escape injury in the most serious crash in Latvala's career. They went off the road on a left-hand bend and rolled 17 times, 150m down a steep hill, and finally came to rest against a tree. Latvala had specifically been focusing to combat his driver weaknesses going into this rally, so the accident put some extra pressure on him for the future, although he also admitted that he would fully understand if the team did not require his services because of his erratic reputation. However, after a consistent, steady drive in Argentina, Latvala went on to take his second WRC win of his career on Rally Sardinia ahead of teammate Mikko Hirvonen. He led from beginning to end, hence driving as first car on the road on both day two and three.

2010 Season
Jari-Matti Latvala, winner of the Neste Oil Rally Finland 2010, driving his car in Muurame shakedown.

Latvala remained with the Ford factory team for 2010. Following his many crashes in 2009, he now had the official position of number two driver whereas in the previous year there was no official distinction between him and team mate Hirvonen. After Round 1 in Sweden, Latvala came 3rd. In Mexico, Jari-Matti came 5th and in Round 3 - Rally Jordan, he came 2nd. He crashed on stage 10 in Turkey and he took a dramatic win in New-Zealand. In Round 6, Rally of Portugal, he crashed out and in Bulgaria he was 6th. In this year's 8th round, the Finnish Rally, he claimed his second win of the season, while his team-mate Mikko Hirvonen crashed out. Latvala was now ahead of his team mate by 19 points in 4th. After his fourth place in Germany, the third place in Japan and the two fourth places in France and Spain, Latvala managed to finish the season on the podium in Wales. His third place brought him the second place in the overall classification behind record-champion Loeb.
2012 Season

For 2012 Latvala was promoted to Ford's number one after the departure of Hirvonen to Rival's Citroen Total. For the first round in Monte-Carlo Jari-Mati-Latvala took the first stages wins before going off the road at the last stage of day 1, without having rally 2 rules in the event(a.k.a. formidably known as superrally rules) he retired. Round 2 in Sweden and Latvala took his first win of the season and the first as Ford's number one. Mexico saw another retirement of Latvala, and it continued to round 4 in Vodafone Rally de Portugal. Recently Latvala was injured during the testing for the 5th round in Argentina, he is due to be replaced by Prodrive's Dani Sordo, but should be able to compete by the next round in Greece.
2013 Season and beyond

For 2013, Latvala signed a contract with the new Volkswagen WRC team, announced on Oct 17. No statement has been made as to whether Latvala or Ogier will be considered the No. 1 driver for the team, which will be significant given Ogier's recent tantrums about his position vs. Loeb's in the Citroen team. The day after the announcement, Ford announced the withdrawal of the factory WRC effort, which will leave M-Sport to continue as a private team. While Latvala discussed having offers from both Ford and VW for next year. earlier in the month Ford's decision to cut back their motorsport participation not only in the rally arena (but also in the Australian V8 competition) probably had some considerable bearing on his change of team.

Sébastien Ogier

Sébastien Ogier (born 17 December 1983) is a French rally driver for Volkswagen in the World Rally Championship. He won the Junior World Rally Championship in 2008 and previously drove for the Citroën World Rally Team alongside Sébastien Loeb in 2011. His co-driver is compatriot Julien Ingrassia. With 13 victories in the World Rally Championship, he is the third successful French driver after Sébastien Loeb and Didier Auriol. He is considered to be the successor to Sébastien Loeb, whom dominated the sport until his departure in 2013.

Rally Career

Ogier at the 2008 Tour de Corse

Ogier was born in Gap, Hautes-Alpes. He won the French Peugeot 206 Cup in 2007 and moved to compete a full Junior World Rally Championship programme in the 2008 season, driving a Super 1600 -class Citroën C2 for the Equipe de France FFSA team. Ogier debuted in the World Rally Championship at the 2008 Rally Mexico, winning the JWRC class. After home country's Ricardo Treviño was disqualified for using non-homologated driving gloves, Ogier became the first JWRC driver to take a WRC point and eighth place overall. Ogier went on to take further junior category victories in Jordan and Germany.

At the penultimate round of the championship, the 2008 Rally Catalunya, Ogier was leading and about to secure the JWRC title when he hit a bank and broke his C2 S1600's radiator, forcing him to retire. Ogier then clinched the title by placing second at his home event, the Tour de Corse. After winning the JWRC title, Ogier was rewarded with his first World Rally Car drive in a Citroën C4 for Rally GB. He surprised the more experienced drivers by winning the first stage and taking a shock lead, but crashed out from eighth place on day two.

Ogier at the 2009 Monte Carlo Rally

In January 2009, Ogier made a one-off appearance in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, contesting the Monte Carlo Rally in a Peugeot 207 S2000. He took the lead when Škoda's Juho Hänninen picked up a puncture, and went on to win the event ahead of the 207s of Freddy Loix and Stéphane Sarrazin. For the 2009 WRC season, Ogier was signed by the debuting Citroën Junior Team, a satellite team of the Citroën Total works squad. He started his season with a career-best sixth place in Ireland and took his second points-finish with seventh in Argentina. At the Acropolis Rally, Ogier drove to his first podium place, finishing second to Ford's Mikko Hirvonen. This result also marked the first-ever podium for a non-works Citroën C4 WRC.

Ogier at the 2010 Rally Finland

In the 2010 season, Ogier continued in the Citroën Junior Team with the 2007 Formula One world champion Kimi Räikkönen as his new teammate. Ogier took his second podium in Mexico, completing a Citroën 1–2–3 by finishing narrowly behind Sébastien Loeb and Petter Solberg. At the Rally New Zealand, he led from Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala by 6.2 seconds before the final stage, but spun three corners before the finish and lost the win to Latvala by 2.4 seconds. Ogier went on to take his debut WRC victory in the next event, the Rally de Portugal, by leading from stage four to the end and finishing 7.9 seconds ahead of Loeb. Citroën then promoted Ogier to the factory team for the remaining three gravel rounds of the series. Subsequently, Dani Sordo replaced Ogier in the manufacturer's junior team, and after 2010 went on to leave Citroen to join the Mini WRC Team.

Ogier at the 2011 Acropolis Rally

Ogier was given a drive with Citroën's factory team for the full 2011 season and started off by finishing fourth in Sweden. He finished as the highest Citroën driver behind the Fords of Mikko Hirvonen, Mads Østberg and Jari-Matti Latvala, and became the first driver to win a Power Stage. After retiring in Mexico Ogier went on to win the next two rallies at Portugal and Jordan, with podiums at Argentina and Finland coming either side of a victory on the Acropolis Rally. Then, Ogier went on to claim victory in Germany. This was Ogier's maiden tarmac success in the WRC and the first time that his team mate Sébastien Loeb had been beaten in Germany.

Following a season in which relations between the two drivers deteriorated significantly, Ogier departed Citroën at the end of the 2011 campaign. He subsequently signed up to spearhead Volkswagen's WRC assault and contested the 2012 championship in a Škoda Fabia S2000 whilst developing the new Polo R WRC, before competing in the Polo R full-time in 2013. In December 2011, Ogier debuted in the Race of Champions at the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany. He took the top step of the podium in the finals against Tom Kristensen, winning both heats and becoming the fourth Frenchman to win the title Champions of Champions.

In the 2013 season, Ogier became the second non-Nordic driver to win the Rally Sweden, after Loeb's victory in 2004. His win in Sweden was also the maiden win for the Polo R WRC.

In April 2013 Ogier won the Rally of Portugal, extending his lead at the top of the world championship standings.

Gilles Panizzi

Gilles Panizzi (born September 19, 1965) is a French rally driver on the World Rally Championship circuit.

Gilles was born in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Alpes-Maritimes. Like many of his fellow rally racing countrymen, Gilles spent a great deal of his developmental driving years participating in asphalt rally events throughout his native land.
Panizzi driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution at the 2005 Cyprus Rally.

In 1996 and 1997, Gilles won the French Championship title in a Peugeot-backed (funded) 306 kit car. It was at that point that he was nominated to drive for Peugeot as their resident asphalt (tarmac/sealed-surface) expert.

Between 1999 and 2003 Panizzi had great success in his role as Peugeots tarmac expert. He won a total of seven World Rally Championship rounds in this period - all on tarmac. However, Panizzi's inability to match his rivals pace on gravel precluded him from challenging for the world title while at Peugeot.

He is the only WRC driver to do a (famous) 360 spin at the 2002 Rally Catalunya. He was leading by around 45 seconds and decided to give the fans a little treat.

In 2004, Mitsubishi Motorsports recruited Gilles and his co-driver and brother, Hervé, to lead the company's charge back in the World Rally Championship.

In the 2005 season, Gilles was replaced in the lead car by Harri Rovanperä, and guested in the second car with Gianluigi Galli. He finished 3rd at the Monaco rally, the first event of the season, but only scored points in one other event.

In 2006, he was signed by the semi-privateer Red Bull Skoda team. Despite a strong performance in the opening rally of the season in Monte Carlo, he expressed his dissatisfaction at the performance of his car, and after a disappointing showing in Spain, he announced his departure from the team, and was replaced by his former Peugeot teammate Harri Rovanpera.

N. Leelakrishnan

N. Leelakrishnan, also known as Leela in Indian motorsport circles, is a six-time INRC Motor Rally Champion and one time Formula 3 (India) champion from Coimbatore, India. He is also a Rally and Race car tuner and is currently the Chief Technical Director of Red rooster racing.^[1] His rally tuned cars have won 15 National Championship titles driven by himself, V. R. Naren Kumar and Vikram Mathias, thus winning the tuners trophy several times.

Early career

N. Leelakrishnan was born in Coimbatore and did his education in Coimbatore. His family had an engineering firm involved in manufacturing electric motors. N. Leelakrishnan having keen interest in motorsports during his school days, started his career as a race car tuner even while in college, preparing Mopeds, Premier Padmini’s, Sipani Dolphins for the All India Grand Prix races held at Sholavaram and other motorsport events in Coimbatore. He was also one of the principle tuners for S. Karivardhan’s Team Super Speeds in late 80’s. He also participated in some of the Dirt and track events between years 1983 and 1988.^[2]

Rallying career

Popular Rally Team

In 1987, N. Leelakrishnan was a tuner for the Cochin based Popular Rally Team, owned by Popular Automobiles, Cochin. For the Coffee 500 rally in Chikmagalur, N. Leelakrishnan substituted the regular driver Upendra Narayanan who had fallen ill and won that event. In the same year he also entered and won the Charminar Challenge Rally in Hyderabad. After a hiatus in 1988, he entered the McDowell Rally D ’Endurance and won a second place after a terrific duel with the then reigning INRC champion (newly introduced in 1988).

MRF years

For 1989, N.Leelakrishnan quit Super Speeds team as tuner and joined MRF Racing with a deal to set up his own rally team for MRF racing, while another unit of MRF Rally team was set up by J. Anand, who would also tune and prepare the Rally Car for Leela’s rallying rival Farad Bathena. Leela’s first championship title came in 1990 and continued till 1993, winning 4 consecutive titles with the former two-time champion Farad Bathena as runner-up.

From 1994 to 1997, JK Tyres in partnership with S. Karivardhan set up the JK Rally team and with Hari Singh as their principal driver won four consecutive titles. During these years FMSCI outlawed the then highly modified Group II (A) IND category due to high speeds and cost budgets and reverted to Group (A) IND category. Also till then both MRF and JK Tyres were running on Tuned Electronic Fuel Injection, which had earlier replaced the multiple Webber and SU carburetors, when EFI were not available in any of the vehicles manufactured in India at that time.

With the introduction of Group (A) IND in 1996, most teams switched from Maruti Gypsy’s to Maruti Esteem. In 1995 V. R. Naren Kumar joined Leela’s unit of MRF Rally team. Leelakrishnan won his fifth title in 1998 in a Group A Maruti Esteem and won his sixth and last title in 2001 in a Group A Honda City 1.4 litre V-TEC. During the MRF years Leela also won the tuners trophy 11 times when his Rally tuned cars won 4 titles for V. R. Naren Kumar and Vikram Mathias, and himself winning the title 6 times.

JK Rallying years

For the 2005 season Leelakrishnan and his outfit quit MRF Rallying to help restart JK Rally team which had earlier quit in 2000 and ran the JK Rally team winning 2 more titles for V. R. Naren Kumar in a Group A Maruti Baleno.^[3][4]

Racing career

Tough Leelakrishnan is widely associated with Rallying, Leela’s motorsport career started with Racing and is also notable for engine and suspension tuning for competition events.

Super Speed years

Leelakrishnan worked for S. Karivardhan’s team Super Speeds in late eighties, tunning Formula Maruti and Formula McDowell 1000 two seater racing cars.

MRF Track Racing

During his MRF years, apart from his successes in Rallying events, Leela won a few races in McDowell 1000 races in the All India Grand Prix at Sholavaram and also won the Formula 3 title in 1992 in a Dallara Mugen Honda with stiff competition from J. Anand, R. Gopinath and Akbar Ibrahim who were all one time title winners.

JK Track Racing

With the introduction of Formula Rolon to the JK National Racing Championship series in 2006, Leela partnered with Vicky Chandok’s WSRF racing team, now listed as “Team WSRF with Leela” to help win the first Formula Rolon title for Gaurav Gill. Leelakrishnan continued his race car setup and tuning activities for Formula LGBas well as Formula LGB Hyundai.

Red Rooster Racing

In 2007 Leela’s outfit merged with the newly created Red Rooster Racing in Bangalore by Dinesh Reddy. Leelakrishan and his team of engineers and crew relocated from Coimbatore to Bangalore, and with help win two more INRC titles for Vikram Mathias in 2008 and V. R. Naren Kumar in 2010 and one Championship title in Formula Rolon for Gaurav Dalal in 2008.^[5] In 2010 Red Rooster Racing pulled out from all form of motor racing (citing lack of sponsorship) and focused on tuning production cars and performance kit development.^[6] Currently they have partnered with Toyota Racing Development in India for Toyotas Motorsport activities.^[7][8]

V. R. Naren Kumar

V. R. Naren Kumar is a seven-time INRCRallyChampion and Two time runner-up and Asia Zone Champion from Coimbatore, India.

Kumar started his career as a privateer in 1993 and was quickly picked-up by Team MRF, operated by another Rally driver N. Leelakrishnan. Naren Kumar is also the first Indian from India to compete in the WRC championship (in Groun N Category) driving a factory supported works Subaru Impreza World Rally Car for Team Sidvin India (supported by Four time WRC Rally Champion Tommi Makinen. After a 4 year gap he entered the 2010 INRC championship in its second season and winning his last title. He announced his retirement from Rallying in 2011.

National Championship

In India, he won four championships for Team MRF,including an Asia Zone Championship in Honda Civic then switched to Team JK, who themselves reappeared into the rallying scene after a seven-year gap, just to sponsor Naren and won another two championships. Yet Naren won the 2005 crown for JK in a rally tyre pulled out of their old stock.

He won the National Championships in the years 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 and Runner-up in 2001 and 2004 which was mainly due APRC Commitments.International Championships

Asia Pacific

Currently (2007) Naren is participating in the 2007 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship, and is within top 5 places. His entry as a privateer with part support from Sidvin and Red Rooster Racing made him the top title contender among the other privateers, while all his close rivals are factory teams. He however finished fourth in the championships and with a podium (Second overall) and by the end of the season he was invited for a test drive by Subaru World Rally Team.

World Rally Championship

Team Abarth offer

In 2005 the Italian team and Fiat/Lancia tuning specialist Abarth offered a drive for Naren. But he could not raise the required sponsorship at that time and opted for APRC.

Subaru WRC Testing

During the end of 2007 APRC season where Team Subaru impressed with his driving skills offered him a test drive session .The early month of October 2007 saw Naren in Wales, England testing for the new Subaru Impreza Group N World Rally for Subaru World Rally Team.[1]

Production Car World Rally Championship (P-WRC)

In Early February 2008,Team Sidvin was launched technical and vehicle support from four-time world rally champion Tommi Makinen's Racity Oy Limited. Naren Kumar will start in the Production Car World Rally Championship (P-WRC) series run alongside the regular WRC series. Naren Kumar will be driving a Subaru Impreza.His main sponsor will be the Bangaluru based oil and gas company Sidvin Core-Tech. During mid-season Naren was replaced by Gaurav Gill from India who added more Did-Not-Finish to the team.

Return to Indian National Rally Championship (INRC)

After a 2 year hiatus Naren returned to a full season of INRC in the newly formed team Red Rooster racing. Tuned by ace tuner and rallyist N.Leela Krishnan, Naren actually joined the second rally in the season and easily winning the 2010 title, thus making him the most successful Four Wheeler Rally champion in India.

Retirement

For the 2011 season Team Red Rooster Racing withdrew from motorsports,thus leaving only team MRF and some privateers in the title bid. Naren Kumar on 22 July 2011, finally announced his retirement from Rallying just few days short of his 37th birthday.