The 2007 championship returns to a familiar venue, Rally Vino da Madeira. In the first season, the series visited the Portuguese island as the third round. There the Abarth of Giandomenico Basso was victorious, and the maximum points helped him to the IRC and European titles. The route is fairly similar, with many of the same tarmac stages from 2006.
In the points chase Andrea Navarra leads Enrique García Ojeda by 7 points and Nicolas Vouilloz by 13 points after Russia. The Peugeot boys were able to gain ground on Navarra in the drivers chase and pull Peugeot into a tie with Abarth in the manufacturer's chase.
The entry list consists of 80 crews, including 13 Super 2000 cars. Headlining the field will be Basso and Navarra in their Abarth Grande Punto S2000 machines. Private Puntos have also been entered by fast Freddy Loix (coming over from Volkswagen) and Corrado Fontana. Poland's Tomasz Czopik will make his first start in a Punto and be joined by Volkan Işik as well as local stars Vitor Sá and José Pedro Fontes.
Peugeot will put up a strong fight with 5 entries of its own. The Peugeot Sport España cars of García Ojeda and Nicolas Vouilloz want to continue to gain ground in both title chases. Local Bruno Magalhães wll also drive a 207 S2000, as well as Bernd Casier (4th in Belgium) and Marco Caviogli (5th in Russia).
Mitsubishi lies third in the manufacturer's standings and has 15 crews entered, including former ERC champion Renato Travaglia (11th in IRC points), current ERC points leader Dimitar Iliev, and a host of local drivers, including Fernando Peres, who finished 3rd here last year. 4th place Citroën is also very well represented with 19 cars. Another former ERC champ, Simon Jean-Joseph will lead the charge.
Other notables include the Honda Civics of Daniel Daniel Solá & Luca Betti, as well as Vitor Pascoal in a Subaru Impreza WRX.
This is the second inclusion in the IRC for Madeira. Check out the 2006 results or Rally Stats on my webpage.
Stay tuned to the Official IRC website or Rali Vino da Madeira website for all the action this weekend.
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