The 2008 Madeira Rally counted as the 5th International Rally Challenge event and the 7th round of the European Rally Championship. French Peugeot driver Nicolas Vouilloz lead the rally from the start and the finish, outpacing Italian Fiat driver Giandomenico Basso, last year's winner, before he made a tyre choice error, and Portuguese Peugeot driver Bruno Magalhaes who punctured. The win by the Kronos team driver, means that Peugeot cars have been unbeaten in the IRC series for the last 12 months, but there was an uncharacteristically poor performance by Luca Rossetti, who was badly hampered by brake troubles. Basso drove hard to recover from lost time, winning six of the eight stages on the final day and snatched second place on the final stage. Fiat had a pre-rally shock when Anton Alen withdrew from the event through illness and was replaced by Umberto Scandola, and later fellow Fiat driver Renato Travaglia was struck down by illness as well. Brice Tirabassi retired with electrical trouble while fellow Peugeot driver Luca Betti had gearbox failure. Vouilloz win puts him six points ahead of Rossetti in the IRC series. The event also counted for the FIA's European series in which Rossetti still holds the lead, ahead of Polish driver Michael Solowow and Volkan Isik from Turkey.

Final classification Madeira Rally 2008
1 Vouilloz/Klinger         Peugeot 207 S2000        3h.05m.14.8s.
2 Basso/Dotta              Fiat Abarth Punto S2000  3h.05m.20.2s.
3 Camacho/Calado           Peugeot 207 S2000        3h.05m.22.8s.
4 Travaglia/Granai         Fiat Abarth Punto S2000  3h.05m.56.0s.
5 Rossetti/Chiarcossi      Peugeot 207 S2000        3h.06m.17.3s.
6 Loix/Buysmans            Peugeot 207 S2000        3h.06m.23.5s.


Peugeots Dominate Barum
Kronos Racing's Peugeot 207 Super 2000s finished 1-2-4 in the all-asphalt Barum Rally in Czech Republic. Ypres winner Freddy Loix overhauled his teammate Nicolas Vouilloz to take victory, and the team's BF Goodrich guest driver Pavel Valousek finishing fourth. Peugeot drivers won all 15 special stages and the cars took nine of the top ten places, with the first traditional Group N car coming 14th. A record 22 Super 2000 cars entered the event, 21 started and a prototype non homologated Skoda Fabia S2000 ran as course car. Luca Rossetti was lying third till he punctured and eventually came seventh. Top non-Peugeot was Renato Travaglia's Island Motorsport team Fiat which was fifth, while both official Abarth team Fiats had gearbox troubles. Favourite driver was Roman Kresta but he crashed heavily and retired on the first orthodox section of the rally, the iconic Pindula stage close to the host city Zlin. Reigning IRC champion Enrique Ojeda returned to the series and was lying fourth when he went off the road. Bernd Casier was lying tenth on the first evening in a VW Polo but then also went off the road. The rally counted not only for the IRC series (now led comfortably by Vouilloz) but also the FIA's European championship. Top ECR qualifying driver was Travaglia, while second man Rossetti continues to head that series

Final classification Barum Rally 2008
1 Loix/Buysmans             Peugeot 207 Super 2000   2h24m24.3s
2 Vouolloz/Klinger          Peugeot 207 Super 2000   2h25m24.2s
3 Bouffier/Panseri          Peugeot 207 Super 2000   2h25m33.9s
4 Valousek/Hruza            Peugeot 207 Super 2000   2h26m47.4s
5 Travaglia/Granai          Fiat Grande Punto S2000  2h26m50.5s
6 Toth/Tagai                Peugeot 207 Super 2000   2h27m36.2s


Fiat Finally Wins Again
One year after the official Abarth team scored their last major international rally win, Giandomenico Basso brought his Grande Punto S2000 to victory at the Rallye Principe de Asturias, the seventh round in the 2008 IRC series. The long draught of success finally came to an end on the mountain asphalt roads in Northern Spain, ironically on the weekend when Andrea Adamo, the frustrated chief engineer of the project, left the team. This was the first time the Asturias rally had been elevated to major international level but the weather was capricious, leading to many regretted and a few lucky tyre choices. After swopping positions through the two day event with Peugeot driver Nicolas Vouilloz. Basso and Vouilloz, who had come to the event 12 points in the lead of the IRC series, scored equal times on the final stage with the Italian 12.2 seconds ahead. overall Curiously, they had also finished the first leg of the event exactly equal on times. The end result of the rally is that Vouilloz increased his championship lead to 17 points, with three rounds still to go. Challenger Luca Rossetti did not take part, as the event clashed with the Italian championship Costa Smeralda Rally. Notwithstanding power steering problems, Freddy Loix took third place ahead of the reigning IRC champion Enrique Ojeda Garcia and the reigning Spanish champion of the Fiat driver Miguel Fuster. In sixth place came Basso's teammate Anton Alen, a fine performace for this young gravel road specialist. Sergio Vallejo, the BF Goodrich Kronos celebrity driver finished seventh, gaining the lead in this year's Spanish series. Dani Sola (Fiat) went off the road and in the two-wheel drive category, Alessandro Bettega retired with alternator failure, victory going to tenth placed Joan Vinyes in a Renault Clio R3.

Final classification Rallye Principe de Asturias 2008
1 Basso/Dotta              Fiat Grande Punto S2000         2h34m39.0s
2 Vouilloz/Klinger         Peugeot 207 S2000               2h34m51.2s
3 Loix/Buysman             Peugeot 207 S2000               2h36m33.5s
4 Ojeda/Barrabes           Peugeot 207 S2000               2h37m13.3s
5 Fuster/Vicente           Fiat Grande Punto S2000         2h38m44.7s
6 Alen/Alanne              Fiat Grande Punto S2000         2h38m55.7s
7 S + D Vallejo            Peugeot 207 S2000               2h39m51.1s
8 Hevia/Iglesia            Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX        2h41m19.6s

IRC drivers classification: Vouilloz 52p; Loix 35p; Basso 32p; Rossetti 32p; Alen 17p; Kopecky 15p; Hanninen 14p; Travaglia 14p etc
IRC team classification: Peugeot 117p; Abarth 64p; Mitsubishi 10p; VW 5p


Halkidikis Rally Cancelled
The organisers the Halkidikis Rally, due to be held 26-28 Sep as a qualifying round of the FIA's European Championship series and a candidate event for the IRC series, have announced its cancellation for financial reasons. A spokesman explained, "There has been a chain reaction of circumstances which have forced this to happen." No decision has yet been taken how the FIA will negotiate with competitors who had planned for the Halkidikis Rally to be one of the six events they tackled in the series or whether the organisers have abandoned their hopes for being placed on a future IRC calendar. Highly disappointed at the news are Turkish competitors, following the victory on last year's event for the Turkish driver Volkan Isik, whose success was a ground breaking development in sporting relations between the two countries. Isik's victory was also the last time a major international championship rally was won by a Fiat. The last and single ERC round left to be held is the Antibes Cote d’Azur Rallye in southern France between 17 – 19 October.

Drivers classification ERC 2008: Rossetti 64p, Travaglia 50p; Solowow 47p; Isik 42p; Basso 32p; Betti 29p; Donchev 28p; Fontana 27p; Alen 18 etc.


Proton Super 2000 makes his debut
Peugeot 207 Super 2000 driver Bryan Bouffier is to test the Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 car in South France towards the end of September, with the intention of competing on the Rallye Antibes Cote d'Azur, the final round of the FIA European championship. Bouffier has considerable Super 2000 experience, including winning the Polish national rally series in 2007 in a Peugeot, the first time any foreign driver had become champion in that country. The 29 year old French driver won Antibes in 2006 at the wheel of a Peugeot 206 Super 1600 and for seven years was exclusively a Peugeot
driver.


Torlasco Wins the Peugeot Drive
24 year old Andrea Torlasco has been voted by Italian motorsport journalists as the most appropriate driver for the Kronos BF Goodrich celebrity Peugeot 207 Super 2000 car in the forthcoming Sanremo Rally, eighth round of the IRC series. Andrea comes from Alessandria in Piemonte, started rallying six years ago after spending ten years in karting. At the wheel of Renault Clio group N cars, twice he won the under 25 Trofeo Asfalto national rally championship, and has also competed in Mazda RX8 racing with Astra Team. No fewer than 133 applications were received for this opportunity. A strong contender for this drive was Simone Campedelli, but Torlasco was preferred by the jury who judged that he would gain more from the experience. Sanremo is run 25-27 September and the season still have two round to go : Valais (Switzerland) 23 – 25 October and China 5 – 7 December, after the event was postponed for one month.

3mmm
foto 1: Luca Rossetti lost the 1st place in IRC in Madeira
foto 2: Freddy Loix wins in Czech Republik
foto 3: Skoda Fabia S2000 non official entry
foto 4: Basso wins again for Fiat
foto 5: Vouilloz - Peugeot is the IRC leader
foto 6: Bouffier prepairs the Proton S2000 debut