First news on 2009 Schedule:
http://www.crash.net/motorsport/wrc/news/156414-0/wrc_calendar_for_2009_leaked.html

LEAKED: 2009 FIA World Rally Championship calendar.

6-8 Feb Rally Norway
6-8 Mar Rally Mexico
10-12 Apr Rally Argentina
24-26 Apr Rally de Portugal
8-10 May Rally Italia-Sardinia
29 May-31 May Acropolis Rally of Greece
19-21 June Rally Poland
31 July-2 Aug Rally Finland
21-23 Aug Cyprus Rally
11-13 Sept Rally Australia
2-4 Oct Rallye de France - Tour de Corse
16-18 Nov Rally Ireland

Several important, long standing events are missing.  Monte Carlo (a former HUGE prestige event in times past), Wales, and others.  It seems they now have a rotating schedule and only 12 events per year, so:
"Rally New Zealand is also left off, as is the Swedish Rally, the Jordan Rally, the Rallye Deutschland, the Rallye de Espana, the Rally Japan and the Rally of Turkey - assumingly all would be run in 2010, as part of the plan to rotate events and reduce the number per year to 12" . . .

Thanks for reminding me of that.
Rally America's schedule:
Sno*Drift Rally
-- January 30 - 31  Atlanta, MI
100 Acre Wood
-- February 27 - 28  Salem, MO
Olympus Rally
-- April 25 - 26  Olympia, WA
Oregon Trail Rally
-- May 15 - 17  Portland, OR
Susquehannock Trail
-- June 5 - 6  Wellsboro, PA
New England Forest
-- July 17 - 18  Bethel, ME
Ojibwe Forests Rally
-- August 28 - 29  Bemidji, MN
Rally Colorado
-- September 19 - 20  Steamboat Springs, CO
Lake Superior Rally
-- October 16 - 17  Houghton, MI

Looks like 2 less teams for the 09 season.

One of them is a HUGE shock and a major drop.
http://www.swrt.com/news/latest_news.html?id=1590

The other is a new team, not a huge short-term loss, but a bad sign:
http://www.globalsuzuki.com/globalnews/2008/1215.html


Good bye Subaru and Suzuki . . .
You will both be missed.

(Heck of a time to start following WRC.  Now, we have Citroen and THREE Ford teams . . . kinda sucks.)
http://www.wrc.com/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=600

Used to do time/distance rallys many years ago with the local MG car club.  It was a blast.  It's the only time I've gotten a car airborne.

If the WRC survives, I have a "sneaky suspicion" that Subaru will return some day, probably not to distantly either.

Quick question, who happens to KNOW (not looking it up) why Subaru uses blue and yellow as their rally hues?
(Just a quick trivia quiz.  Yes, there IS a reason and I DO know why.)


--Edit:
Oh, and JUST to prove I am not BSing on the above . . .
If you MUST "cheat," go ahead and read the below:
http://www.rallye-info.com/carspecs.asp?car=156
The answer is IN that.  If you don't know, just read that.  I'm curious as to who DOES know off the top of their head.

Edit 2:
OK . . .
It is more blunt here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_World_Rally_Team

To make my point on blue and yellow . . . a pict of one of their 1991 cars:

See any yellow, or even blue?  It looks almost like RED was their main corporate shade . . .
The blue and yellow came BECAUSE of their WRC success in creating the "Subaru glory era."  Now, the official Subaru color is blue . . .

Very cool, I've always wondered why they chose that color scheme.

For those who haven't figured it out . . .
The Impreza-based WRC car, which spawned the WRX, was introduced for the 1993 season.  Backing came from the eastern European cigarette 555.  Those are the same brand that was the "other" part of the zipper on the 1999 BAR F1 cars . . . (along with the Lucky Strike).


Though the 555 brand was illegal to be displayed in most of western Europe, it was shown in certain eastern European and other nations.  As they couldn't put 555 on the car, they made a variation of the Subaru logo or a rather coy rendition of shapes that mimicked 555.

They became more "Subaru" over time.

That is the "Pig" car, by the way . . .  I am VERY glad Subaru abandoned that "design feature!"

The color scheme became SO famous and associated with Subaru (and also the "555" wasn't really seen that much, so less general association baggage between the blue and yellow and the Subaru.  The scheme more and more became Subaru's own scheme.  Now, Subaru has adopted elements of it into the corporate branding.
In essence, the 555-sponsored (but "Subaru" decaled) blue/yellow WRC cars became so associated with the Subaru brand and were so successful for 15 years that their "aura" just "flowed over" into the road/street examples, even non-WRXs or even Imprezas.  Many now believe that blue and yellow IS the Subaru colors.  In essence, they have become such.
This is the rare example of when a sponsorship changes a brands popular image and the sponsor's color scheme BECOMES the manufacturer's brand scheme.
I find that VERY interesting!  (As should be obvious.)