Rallying Round the World in Another Way
Life took on a new dimension for Kris Meeke when he won the drive in the Peugeot UK's 207 Super 2000 on the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, and then took off when he was leading the Rally Monte Carlo. His misfortune on that event was frustrating, but when he and codriver Paul Nagle went to Brazil and won the Curitiba Rally, second round of the IRC, their life was moving in a vertical direction. For Kris, Curitiba was very special occasion, the first victory for a British driver on a major international championship event for three years, and there was more. Apart from three stages in Russia it was Kris' first gravel rally for three years, and it was only his second four-wheel drive rally on gravel in eight years. But perhaps the biggest impact came with the realisation that there is rallying life outside the hallowed World Rally Championship. What is life like in the IRC? Paul Nagle, Kris' analytical codriver, took time in Brazil to explain some of the things he had already noticed about the IRC world, things that we are not accustomed to seeing in the WRC.

"There are hundreds of ways in which the IRC is different from the WRC! The world championship is the pinnacle of the sport, it is where everyone wants to be, but the IRC is very competitive, teams are very good. There are specific differences between the IRC and the WRC in the running of the events. I like the things which are different, for example the individual format of the Monte Carlo. The IRC organisers are not hidebound by the formats they have in the world championship, every organiser is allowed to do its own thing. The world championship is stuck with three day systems, where stages are normally done twice each day. On the IRC events the systems can be different every rally." The cars are also obviously different. "Super 2000s may not be quite as fast as World Rally Cars but in some ways I think they are more fun and I think for spectators they are more enjoyable to see because they sound fantastic." In the WRC you only have two recce runs per stage but here you are allowed three. "It is also very noticeable there are a lot more politics in the WRC, in the IRC you get the impression all the time that people want to help you. The IRC does not have such a feeling of money orientation. People are here in the IRC because they want to drive, not just because they have loads of money to spend..."

Another major difference is that everything in the WRC these days seems to be yellow coloured because of the Pirelli involvement. "The tyres which we can use in IRC are completely different, there is no limit to the make of tyre which we can use, Pirelli, BF Goodrich, Yokohama, whatever and there is no limit to what type or number of tyres, unlike the restrictions you get on the WRC. We are allowed to have tyre treads cut in the IRC, like we used to do in the WRC. For example, when we were running first car on the road on the second day in Brazil, we could cut the tyres the way we wanted which lessened the disadvantage, lessened the importance of running order. Look at the sort of problems there were on Rally GB with the unexpected snow and ice, Rally Ireland with snow tyres on wet tarmac roads."

Obviously it is difficult to know where the IRC is heading and whether the World Rally Car rules are going to become the same as the rules for the cars on IRC events. "People are wondering if the WRC and IRC should merge but I hope that does not happen. Certainly I think rallies such as Monte Carlo are probably happier to be in the IRC because they have more freedom to do what they have always done. Look at the size of the entries on the recent world championship. That tells a story but of course the WRC is still the pinnacle of the sport. But you cannot get away from the fact the IRC is such a friendly place to be and of course there are currently more active manufacturer teams in the IRC than in the WRC...."

3mmm
photo 1: Meeke / Nagle on the podium in Brazilia
photo 2: Peugeot 207 Super 2000 at Monte Carlo
photo 3: Anton Alen - Fiat Grande Punto S2000 at start in Brasil