IRC Rallye Monte Carlo 2009 preview

The 2009 IRC kicks off with the oldest and most prestigious rally of them all, Monte Carlo, and what an event it promises to be.

With the entry list expected to be released soon it appears there will be roughly 17 S2000’s taking part with works entries from Peugeot Sport, Kronos, Abarth and Skoda Motorsport. Drivers confirmed so far include the likes of Basso, Vouilloz, Meeke… Continue reading

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Giandomenico Basso comments on his recent Abarth testing for Monte

Giandomenico Basso was testing recently for Abarth in the south of France ahead of  the upcoming Rallye Monte Carlo.

He was using the Grande Punto Super 2000 with some new upgrades for the 09 model and he also tried out BFGoodrich’s new snow tyre.

Basso commented on the test to rally-live.com:
The test was good, although in the areas with a lot of snow

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Abarth announce driver line up for 2009 of Basso, Alen, Scandola and new signing Rossetti

Abarth have announced their driver line up today in Turin for the 2009 season according to autoklub.pl. 

Giandomenico Basso, Anton Alen, Umberto Scandola and new signing, ERC and CIR 2008 champ, Luca Rossetti. They will all drive Abarth Grande Punto S2000’s during 2009.

Alen and Basso will again contest the IRC in ‘09. Scandola and Rossetti will compete in next season’s CIR with the possibility of doing some IRC events starting with Rallye… Continue reading

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Didier Auriol to drive Grifone 207 S2000 on Rallye Monte Carlo as Luca Rossetti set to sign for Abarth in ‘09

Didier Auriol is set to enter the Monte Carlo Rally in a Grifone prepared Peugeot 207 S2000, according to autosport.cz.

Autosport.cz report that Eurosport have officially confirmed that Auriol, at 50 years of age, will compete on the IRC Rallye Monte Carlo in the Grifone 207. Auriol contested several IRC events last year in a Grifone Punto but suffered numerous reliability problems.

Meanwhile, reigning ERC and CIR champion Luca… Continue reading

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Abarth likely to enter the WRC in the next two to three years

Abarth looks set to enter the WRC in the next three years, according to Autosport magazine.

Abarth’s business operations director Antonio Labate told Autosport:
WRC makes sense for Abarth. Racing is the soul of this brand so we need to compete in the right championship. We are building the brand in different European countries to finance the new position.

Obviously we would like to go to WRC. It’s our dream… Continue reading

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2009 (IRC) Intercontinental Rally Challenge draft calendar has been released

According to the website turbomagazine.be the 2009 IRC draft calendar has been leaked and it includes 12 events based on four continents.

The Safari Rally returns with new events such as Monte Carlo, Rally Japan, Rally Scotland and an event from Brazil in March being included also. The official calendar is expected to be announced on Monday 24th November.

Draft IRC Calendar 2009:

21-24.1 Rallye de Monte-Carlo
5-7.3 Rally Internacional de Curitiba
3-4.4 Safari Rally
7-9.5 SATA Rally Açores
18-20.6 Belgium Ypres… Continue reading

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