Freddy Loix: Surprise of the season
Who would have thought that one of top performers in international rallying this year would be Freddy Loix?
At 39 years old, and more than six years after he departed the World Rally Championship, the Belgian was, many believed, well past his best and headed for retirement.
Rather than hang up his helmet though, the Belgian has burst back onto the scene, astounding his critics by taking three wins from three starts in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the most recent coming on Rally Zlin last weekend.
The Skoda driver's victory, which added to his triumphs in Madeira and Ypres earlier in the year, made him the most successful driver in IRC history with six wins.
It also helped Skoda to become manufacturers' champion on its home event. A more popular man in Mlada Boleslav you wouldn't find last weekend, especially after local hero Jan Kopecky crashed out of the lead with just two stages to go.
Loix, one of only two men to have won IRC events for two different manufacturers (the other being his team-mate Juho Hanninen), has used his speed on the asphalt events to good use; not only is he now third in the championship, but he has also risen up 77 places in the Castrol Rankings this week to an all-time high 158th place.
His success is in contrast to constant disappointment during his World Rally Championship days as a manufacturer driver.
After scoring three impressive podium finishes in privateer Toyota machinery - including a second place in Portugal in 1997 and another in Spain the following year - he was poached by Mitsubishi's manufacturer squad amid high expectations.
Unfortunately for Loix, the British-based team had ceased development of the Group A Lancer Evolution in which Tommi Makinen had won the previous three world titles, and switched its focus to what turned out to be the disastrous Lancer WRC.
Three poor years followed by an two even worse campaigns with Hyundai - including a leg-breaking shunt early in the 2002 season, although a sixth place finish on Rally GB in 2003 in a one-off outing for Peugeot did restore some pride as he subbed for the ill Richard Burns.
It was to be his last outing in a full factory car, although that performance did net him a five-rally programme in a semi-works 307 WRC the following year backed by Marlboro Belgium, and he justified it too with points in three events.
His figures of three podiums in 89 WRC starts - and 34 fastest stage times - look respectable enough given the machinery he had to work with. But there were too few signs of the 'Fast Freddy' that had broken through in 1993 as the Belgian Formula 2 rally champion.
After a couple of years competing in the European Rally Championship, Loix's talent truly re-emerged internationally when Peugeot Belgium opted to back an IRC campaign in 2008.
Three wins that year went some way to re-establishing his credentials as a top-line rally driver. Three more this year - including a record sixth Ypres Rally victory - has given him an outside shot at the championship if he chooses to increase his schedule. The question is; Will he?
