2014 World Rally Championship: Wales Rally Great Britain

The 2014 Wales Rally Great Britain held this past weekend was the season-ender to another fantastic season of rally racing. This year Shell took on the title sponsorship for the World Raly Championship (WRC) series, marking the return for the brand to international rallying. Shell is also the Technical partner of the Hyundai Shell World Rally Team. Using the Shell liveried Hyundai i20 WRC, running with Shell Helix Ultra Motor Oil, the team, with drivers Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsol, took four podiums and a 1-2 finish in Rally Germany this past August, capping a banner year for the partnership of Shell and Hyundai.

Ari Vatanen, 1981 WRC world champion, was given the distinct honor of being the first official “Rally Legend”; this will be the first of many awards given by WRC annually to veterans of the sport.

“It is an honor to be the first person to be selected as ‘Rally Legend.’ It proves that the links I have with this event and this country are reciprocal. I have always been made to feel at home by the British fans and I hope when we competed (that) I always put on a good show,” said Vatanen.

2014 marks the 30th anniversary of of Vatanen’s victory along with his British co-driver Terry Harryman, on British soil. Ari Vatanen and his team, on board the iconic Peugeot 205 T16, along with Shell as its Technical Partner, took both the 1985 and 1986 Drivers and Manufacturers championship.