Publicat in: March 5, 2009, Vizualizari: 90
The opening round of the 2009 IRC series broke new ground by being run as part of the Rallye Monte-Carlo, round 2 breaks more ground by being held in Brasil (March 6-7), the first time an IRC has been run in South America. The Curitiba Rally is being run 30 years after the first major rally was run in that country and 27 since the world championship last visited Brasil, always elsewhere in the country. This event is being run further south at Curitiba, the host town of the most popular round of the national rally series, the Graciosa Rally, and which more prominently has become the venue for a round of the World Touring Car Championship. The promoters of the rally have struck a deal. The rally and the race will be run as part of a major motorsport festival in the city, with the service park and headquarters of the rally being in the Curitiba autodromo paddock
Of the IRC regular teams, the Kronos Peugeot team are sending two cars for their own team, driven as usual by IRC champion Nicolas Vouilloz and Freddy Loix and running a third 207 Super 2000 for the Peugeot UK team driver Kris Meeke. There had been a lot of concern about Meeke's entry following his crash at Monte Carlo, but finally Kronos released the spare car used on other events for a celebrity driver entry. This was the car that had actually won IRC events in the hands of Juho Hanninen in Russia and Sebastien Ogier in Monte Carlo! The Abarth team have two Grande Punto S2000s for Giandomenico Basso and Anton Alen, both cars now fitted with the new Xtrac transmissions. A lot of media attention is currently focussed on Anton on account of the victory of his father Markku, also in an official Fiat, on the inaugural international Brasil Rally in 1979.
International interest in the Curitiba Rally extends beyond the IRC as this is the first round of the 2009 FIA Codasur zone series. Main contenders are the Subaru Barattero teams from Argentina with drivers from Argentina, Paraguay and Peru, and Mitsubishi from Argentina headed by Marcos Ligato making his debut in an Evo X with other drivers from Brasil and Paraguay. Local privateer entries have two-wheel drive cars, mainly Peugeot 206 and GM Celta (Suzuki) cars. The preliminary entry list names 34 crews, only 20 of whom are from Brasil itself. At this time the only top Brazilian name missing is that of Edio Fuchter the reigning champion of Brasil.
The rally's epicentre at Curitiba race track is 10km to the east of the city. Shakedown is on Thursday morning, there will be a mid afternoon downtown ceremonial start later that day and the cars will then be placed overnight in parc ferme in Barigui Park. The first day is being run in a complex of stages some 15km to the west of the town, and the longer second day in hills 40km to the east. The rally finishes at the racetrack early afternoon Saturday. Gravel stages ranging from 9 to 28km are promised throughout, there are no designated spectator stages or superspecials. Stages are run a mixture of once, twice and three times.
Rally de Curitiba is a major project for the IRC. The cars had to be shipped from Europe to South America three weeks before the event and will be away from base for a similar period after the rally. The next IRC round will be the Safari Rally in Kenya on April 3-4 but the top teams do not expect to be active again in the series until the Azores Rally in May 7-9.
3mmm
The opening round of the 2009 IRC series broke new ground by being run as part of the Rallye Monte-Carlo, round 2 breaks more ground by being held in Brasil (March 6-7), the first time an IRC has been run in South America. The Curitiba Rally is being run 30 years after the first major rally was run in that country and 27 since the world championship last visited Brasil, always elsewhere in the country. This event is being run further south at Curitiba, the host town of the most popular round of the national rally series, the Graciosa Rally, and which more prominently has become the venue for a round of the World Touring Car Championship. The promoters of the rally have struck a deal. The rally and the race will be run as part of a major motorsport festival in the city, with the service park and headquarters of the rally being in the Curitiba autodromo paddock
Of the IRC regular teams, the Kronos Peugeot team are sending two cars for their own team, driven as usual by IRC champion Nicolas Vouilloz and Freddy Loix and running a third 207 Super 2000 for the Peugeot UK team driver Kris Meeke. There had been a lot of concern about Meeke's entry following his crash at Monte Carlo, but finally Kronos released the spare car used on other events for a celebrity driver entry. This was the car that had actually won IRC events in the hands of Juho Hanninen in Russia and Sebastien Ogier in Monte Carlo! The Abarth team have two Grande Punto S2000s for Giandomenico Basso and Anton Alen, both cars now fitted with the new Xtrac transmissions. A lot of media attention is currently focussed on Anton on account of the victory of his father Markku, also in an official Fiat, on the inaugural international Brasil Rally in 1979.
International interest in the Curitiba Rally extends beyond the IRC as this is the first round of the 2009 FIA Codasur zone series. Main contenders are the Subaru Barattero teams from Argentina with drivers from Argentina, Paraguay and Peru, and Mitsubishi from Argentina headed by Marcos Ligato making his debut in an Evo X with other drivers from Brasil and Paraguay. Local privateer entries have two-wheel drive cars, mainly Peugeot 206 and GM Celta (Suzuki) cars. The preliminary entry list names 34 crews, only 20 of whom are from Brasil itself. At this time the only top Brazilian name missing is that of Edio Fuchter the reigning champion of Brasil.
The rally's epicentre at Curitiba race track is 10km to the east of the city. Shakedown is on Thursday morning, there will be a mid afternoon downtown ceremonial start later that day and the cars will then be placed overnight in parc ferme in Barigui Park. The first day is being run in a complex of stages some 15km to the west of the town, and the longer second day in hills 40km to the east. The rally finishes at the racetrack early afternoon Saturday. Gravel stages ranging from 9 to 28km are promised throughout, there are no designated spectator stages or superspecials. Stages are run a mixture of once, twice and three times.
Rally de Curitiba is a major project for the IRC. The cars had to be shipped from Europe to South America three weeks before the event and will be away from base for a similar period after the rally. The next IRC round will be the Safari Rally in Kenya on April 3-4 but the top teams do not expect to be active again in the series until the Azores Rally in May 7-9.
3mmm
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