IRC - 2006 Review/2007 Preview

With the new season fast approaching, lets take a look back at the 2006 International Rally Challenge.

As one of the first hotbeds of the S2000 category, South Africa was the perfect way to kick off the IRC. The “Year 0” season started with the Zulu Rally South Africa. Alister McRae won the first stage in his Mitsubishi Lancer and dueled locals Serge Damseaux & Enzo Kuun throughout Leg 1. The Scot lead Damseaux’s Toyota by eleven seconds with Kuun’s Volkswagen in tow.
Day 2 saw Damseaux attack with a win on the opening stage, but a costly error would later drop him over ten minutes behind. With a couple more stage wins, McRae cruised to victory over Kuun for the first IRC rally victory.

The Fiat Punto S2000 mades its IRC debut on the Belgium Ypres Westhoek Rally and was dominant. Umberto Scandola won the opening stage, but it was his team mate Giandomenico Basso that dominated the rally. The Italian won 9 straight stages to open up an insurmountable gap of the pack of Belgians. Defending rally winner Kris Princen was second, with a host of WRC faces in tow, lead by Larry Cols and Freddy Loix.

Round 3, Rally Vino da Madeira was much of the same. After Portuguese national champion Armindo Araújo won the opening stage, Basso took over. He won 7 of 10 stages on Leg 1 to build a lead of over a minute on Araújo. The Italian cruised through the second leg for back-to-back victories. Local Fernando Peres finished third. The win gave Basso the first ever IRC Driver’s Championship and was en route for the European Rally Championship.

The final round in Sanremo experienced severe weather that cancelled all four stages of the opening leg. Another Fiat Punto was the class of the field. Paulo Andreucci took 3 of the 6 remaining stage wins to nip another experienced Italian, Andrea Aghini, for the final win of the year. 2005 ERC Champ Renato Travaglia was third.

For complete 2006 results, stats and point standings, click here.

In 2007, the name has been changed to Intercontinental Rally Challenge but the action should be even hotter. The calendar has been expanded to 9 rounds. Ypres, Madeira and Sanremo return for 2007 and are joined by some former WRC rallies: Safari Rally Kenya, Rally of Turkey, and Rally China (pending confirmation). In addition the famed Barum Rally Zlin, Rally of Russia and Rally du Valais will round out the season.

Peugeot confirmed that they will participate in 8 rounds with a pair of 207 Super 2000’s for Nicolas Vouilloz of France and Enrique Garcia-Ojeda of Spain. Back from last year’s success with beat Fiat, with two Fiat Grande Punto S2000. The team leader will be Italian Andrea Navarra and the second car will be shared by Scandola and Finland’s Anton Alen. Toyota, Skoda, Volkswagen all have Super 2000 cars and we could see some of them on board as the season progresses.

In addition to the factory teams, Bernd Casier of Belgium and Luca Betti of Italy have thrown their hats into the IRC. Both former Junior World Rally competitors will be privateers; Casier in a Peugeot 207 S2000 and Betti in an undisclosed S2000 car. Also 7 time WRC winner Gilles Panizzi is looking to put together funds for a drive. Couple all these drivers with local talent and there should be some great fights in 2007.

The season will open this weekend on the Safari Rally Kenya. The Fiat Puntos of Navarra and Scandola will be challenged by the best Africa can throw at them. Not only the tough conditions, but the skilled drivers of the African Rally Championship will stand in the way of victory. Reigning ARC champ Patrick Emontspool, Conrad Rautenbach and many others are on the entry list. In addition several familiar faces from the Safari’s WRC past are present: Azar Anwar, Emmanuel Katto, Sammy Aslam, Peter Horsey to name a few.