Turkey : BF Goodrich - PreviewAfter its visit to Africa, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge will straddle two continents in one event this weekend as the series moves on to Rally Turkey, this year based closed to Istanbul.
Rally Turkey will be the second round
of the 2007 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, marking the true start of the series as last March's official curtain-raiser in Kenya attracted few championship contestants.
In contrast, all the favourites will be present this weekend on the shores of the Bosporus near Istanbul, where BFGoodrich's partners will include the factory Fiat Grande Punto S2000s, the Peugeot Spain-entered Peugeot 207 S2000s and an official Citroën C2 S1600.
The second round of the 2007 IRC is none other than the Fiat Rally which has been a European Championship qualifier for many years. The route of this weekend's event will take crews from Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square to the shores of the Black Sea via a programme of 19 stages, all on gravel, with the exception of the two asphalt super-specials.
The switch to dirt marks a significant shift for the Fiat Rally which has been an all-asphalt affair for the past 12 years. Meanwhile, the route will be entirely new for the majority of runners, including for former winner Simon Jean-Joseph (1st in 2004 and 2005).
"This is something of a step into the unknown for us," underlines BFGoodrich's Rallies Programme Manager Matthieu Bonardel. "This event is very different to the Rally Turkey that counted towards the WRC recently and which was based near Antalya.
The time of year has changed, so have the stages and the tyres are also different from those seen in the WRC since they come from the standard BFGoodrich rally catalogue."
"That said, their strength and competitiveness were clearly apparent on the Safari Rally on Navarra's Fiat Abarth and we are hoping for a top result again this weekend," added Bonardel.
While March's Nairobi-based Safari Rally, which opened this year's IRC hostilities, attracted very few IRC contestants (only the two factory BFGoodrich-equipped Fiats made the long haul trip), Rally Turkey marks the true start to the series with a line-up that features two works Fiats (Navarra and Alen), two Peugeot S2000s (Ojeda and Vouilloz), plus a Citroën C2 S1600 (Jean-Joseph).
The three-time WRC Manufacturers' title winner recently announced its registration for the series in which it joins Fiat-Abarth, Mitsubishi and Peugeot in the Manufacturers' category.
In tyre terms, the IRC regulations do not stipulate a maximum number of tyres that each driver can use, while two spare wheels may be carried and mousse run-flat systems are not permitted.
BF Goodrich
