1. After championship status was withdrawn for security reasons from the Safari Rally in Kenya due to run 21-22 March, the opening round of the 2008 IRC season will be held in Turkey, at the Istanbul Rally, on 4-6 April. This gravel event will be held in the similar region as last year's FIAT Rally on the other side of the Bosporus, in Asia Minor, with cars being ferried to the ceremonial start in the ancient city by boat.

2. A new category for two-wheel drive cars will be introduced, a measure likely to lead to the registration applications from Honda, Citroen and Renault. In this series, World Rally Cars are not permitted. Like last year, manufacturers must register themselves for the IRC before drivers at their wheel of their cars can score drivers' points.

3. While the reigning championship team of Peugeot Spain will not this year be present on the events, the Kronos team is Belgium is expected to be the top running team running the French cars in the IRC. Kronos' original plans is for Freddy Loix to contest each round, with a second car sponsored by BF Goodrich to be driven by a driver chosen by the organisers of each event. Latest news is that Nicolas Vouilloz, runner-up driver in the 2007 series, will also drive a Peugeot for the Kronos team.

4. Abarth announced at their opening ceremony proceedings in Torino that Anton Alen and Giandomenico Basso will drive their Grand Punto S2000 cars in the series, that Umberto Scandola would be the team's test driver and that other one-off entries were being considered. Their present in the Italian national series was also being planned, with Renato Travaglia and Andrea Navarra.

5. The Rally of Portugal will run this year as an IRC event while it has a gap-year from the world series. This year the spectacular superspecial in the Algarve stadium will not be run, but instead there will be an opening superspecial in the streets of nearby Faro instead. In conjunction with the tyre supplier BF Goodrich, the organisers of the Rally of Portugal (9-10 May) have been selected as one of five organizers of IRC championship events looking to help find a new top driver from their own country. The selected driver will then join the Kronos team and contest the event in a third Peugeot 207 Super 2000 entry alongside their regular drivers Freddy Loix and Nicolas Vouilloz. The other four IRC events carrying out a similar project are Sanremo, Ypres, Asturias and Barum Rally in Czech Republic. Announced in Lisbon was the confirmation that three other Guest drivers will also take part and challenge the regular IRC competitors on the event. These will be the semi-retired 1994 world champion Didier Auriol, the aspiring Belgian Francois Duval, both to drive Fiat Grande Punto S2000 cars and the Finn Juho Hanninen in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Group N car.

6. The IRC were quick to announce during the Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo that the IRC would be happy to include this prestigious event in their serious when the FIA's gap-year system hits them in 2009. There is still no general trend, however, for the IRC to alternate its qualifying events with those on the FIA's world series calendar.

3mmm
photo: Anton Alen