A puncture four stages from the finish of the Belgium Ypres Westhoek Rally ended an incredibly tight fight between Peugeot drivers Freddy Loix, five time Ypres winner, and Kris Meeke. This left the Irish driver able to cruise home to his third outright victory in the first five rounds of the 2009 IRC championship, giving him a lead of six points in the IRC total ahead of Loix. This joint IRC-ERC event saw Fiat driver Giandomenico Basso gain maximum European points in front of Peugeot drivers Luca Betti, Corrado Fontana, Michal Solowow and Krum Donchev.

A thrilling contest in the impending event became evident on the 5 km long pre-rally shakedown test, when three drivers registered exactly the same best time, to the tenth of a second. These were the Skoda drivers Francois Duval and Jan Kopecky. with another Belgian Thierry Neuville, at the wheel of the BF Goodrich celebrity.car. Neuville was little known but highly rated by insiders. A total of six drivers were timed within 0.2 second of the best time! The event was based at the Flemish city of Ypres but for the first time ventured into neighbouring France for a couple of stages. Some night stages were included in this all asphalt event. British fans were keen to see the new confrontation between former Super 1600 rivals Guy Wilks and Kris Meeke, this time rivals at Super 2000 level - and both tackling this very specific event for the first time.

Technical interest was assured. Of the 19 drivers starting the event in Super 2000 cars there were cars from six different manufacturers, notably single entries from Proton and Opel, both of which retired. Guy Wilks’ Proton went off the road on stage 5 when lying eleventh and Bengue’s Opel broke an oil pipe on the opening stage and retired with engine damage. At the start of the second day, Patrick Snijers’ VW Polo had power steering failure and retired after a consequent fire, leaving the fight between the many Peugeots, the Skodas and Fiats. Duval retired on the first stage, the damage coming when the driver tried to regain the road after going off, while Kopecky finished second despite an accident incurred between stages and Hanninen dropped from third to fifth after a last stage puncture. Top finishing Fiat was Giandomenico Basso, who fell from fifth to eight also after a final stage puncture but was still top finishing European championship contender, but number two Fiat driver Bernd Casier was a poor fourteenth after punctures. Peugeot cars took six places in the top ten. Among the five Kronos team cars, Meeke, Loix and Tsjoen finished an impressive first, third and fourth, but the Benelux team lost number two driver Nicolas Vouilloz and their BF Goodrich celebrity driver Neuville, both of who went off the road. Dutchman Marcel Piepers (Honda Civic R3) won the two wheel drive ERC category and Czech driver Antonin Tlustak (Citroen C2 S1600) the same category in the IRC.

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photo 1: Meeke the winner
photo 2: Solowow in trouble

IRC overall classification: Meeke 30p, Loix 24p; Kopecky 21p; Vouilloz 14p; Basso 11p; etc

ERC overall classification: Solowow 39p; Donchev 33p; Betti 31p; Basso & Fontana 30p; etc