2001 Race of Champions

The 2001 Race of Champions took place on December 7 to 9 at Gran Canaria. It was the 14th running of the event, and the 10th running at Gran Canaria. There was a slight format change for this year – The International Masters event was replaced by the Junior Masters event, open to rally drivers under the age of 30. Seeding for the main Race of Champions event was no longer awarded on the basis of having won a WRC title, but places were awarded for having posted the fastest times in the Nations Cup.

The vehicles used were the Peugeot 206 WRC, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI WRC, the SEAT Córdoba WRC, the Saab 93 Rallycross car and the ROC Buggy.

The individual competition was won by Harri Rovanpera, whilst the Nations Cup was won by Spain with Fernando Alonso, Jesús Puras and Rubén Xaus.

Participants edit

Race of Champions edit

Driver	Reason for Qualification
Marcus Grönholm	World Rally champion in 2000
Stig Blomqvist	Winner in the Legends Race
François Duval	Winner in the Junior Masters
Valentino Rossi	Invitation
Juha Kankkunen	Seeded
Armin Schwarz	Best times among Rally Drivers in Nations' Cup
Harri Rovanpera
Gilles Panizzi
Alister McRae
Jeff Gordon	Fastest Racing Driver in Nations' Cup
Rubén Xaus	Fastest Motorcycle Racer in Nations' Cup
Flavio Alonso	Winner in the Spanish Masters

Nations' Cup edit

Country	Racing Driver	Rally Driver	Motorcycle Racer
France	Paul Belmondo	Gilles Panizzi	Olivier Jacque
United States	Robby Gordon	Rhys Millen	Shaun Palmer
Great Britain	Johnny Herbert	Alister McRae	James Dobb
Finland	Heikki Kovalainen	Marcus Grönholm	Kari Tiainen
Spain	Fernando Alonso	Jesús Puras	Rubén Xaus
Italy	Emanuele Pirro	Miki Biasion	Valentino Rossi
Germany	Frank Biela	Armin Schwarz	Katja Poensgen
All-Stars	Tom Kristensen	Harri Rovanpera	Troy Bayliss

Legends Race edit

Antonio Zanini was a late substitute for Hannu Mikkola.

Group A

Driver	Wins	Losses	Best Time
Stig Blomqvist	2	0	1'59.88
Timo Salonen	1	1	1'59.82
Björn Waldegård	0	2	2'00.84

Group B

Driver	Wins	Losses	Best Time
Miki Biasion	2	1	2'09.65
Per Eklund	1	1	2'11.91
Antonio Zanini	0	2	2'13.13

Semi-finals		Final



Stig Blomqvist	2

Per Eklund	0
		Stig Blomqvist	2

		Timo Salonen	0
Miki Biasion	0

Timo Salonen	2

Junior Rally Masters edit

Driver	Wins	Losses	Best Time
François Duval	3	0	2'13.10
Sébastien Loeb	2	1	2'16.23
Gabriel Pozzo	1	2	2'16.69
Miguel Campos	0	3	2'15.80

	Final



	François Duval	1

	Sébastien Loeb	0

Race of Champions edit

Heat A

Driver	Wins	Losses	Best Time
Armin Schwarz	2	1	1'56.13
Harri Rovanpera	2	1	1'56.60
Juha Kankkunen	2	1	1'56.85
Fernando Alonso	0	3	1'56.69

Heat B

Driver	Wins	Losses	Best Time
Alister McRae	3	0	1'56.63
Jeff Gordon	2	1	1'55.21
Gilles Panizzi	1	2	1'56.82
Rubén Xaus	0	3	1'59.61

Quarter-finals		Semi-finals		Final



Marcus Grönholm	0

Harri Rovanpera	2
		Harri Rovanpera	2

		François Duval	1
Stig Blomqvist	0

François Duval	2
				Harri Rovanpera	2

				Armin Schwarz	1
Alister McRae	2

Valentino Rossi	0
		Alister McRae	0

		Armin Schwarz	2
Armin Schwarz	2

Jeff Gordon	0

Nations Cup edit

Group A

Team	Match Wins	Heat Wins	Best Total Time
	2	5	5'44.53
All-Star	2	4	5'46.17
UK	1	5	5'48.53
Italy	1	4	5'43.19

Group B

Team	Match Wins	Heat Wins	Best Total Time
USA	2	6	5'44.95
France	2	4	5'51.20
Finland	1	4	5'46.01
Germany	1	4	5'56.24

Semi-finals		Final



	3

France	1
			3

		All-Star	1
USA	0

All-Star	3

References edit

External links edit

https://web.archive.org/web/20020926050008/http://www.carreradecampeones.org/