[Nick Koan]

http://www.wrc.com/page/News/Breakin...794060,00.html

Not drivers market news, but the rumors of David Lapworth leaving the Prodrive part of SWRT were in fact true.

The Subaru World Rally Team announced today a shift in its management structure. David Lapworth is stepping down and will be replaced by Paul Howarth, who is now responsible for the operation and tehcnical aspect of the team. Lapworth will now take over a new position within Prodrive, working on a new project.

"I have worked with Subaru for a long time in the WRC and have been fortunate to be involved in many World Championship successes. I have very much enjoyed myself and it will not be easy to move from the Team, however I am confident that I am leaving a very strong technical team who will take Subaru forward to further success in the future. Personally I am looking forward to the challenge of my new role within the Prodrive organisation", said Lapworth.

Richard Taylor, SWRT's Managing Director added: "As one of the founding members of the team, David's contribution to its success over the past 17 years has been invaluable and we owe him a big debt of gratitude. In advance of this move, the team has, over the last four months, made a number of management and organisational changes, including significantly increasing the level of technical collaboration with Subaru in Japan. More and more effort is being devoted to the parallel development of Subaru road cars and the World Rally Car and we will see the benefits of this on both stage and road in the coming months and years. We have a formidable team of people and are very confident that we are fully equipped for the challenges ahead".

This announcement came only a week before the Corona Rally México, where last year's winner was Subaru ace Petter Solberg.