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11 May 2007 - Six manufacturers so far as IRC comes to Europe

This year´s Intercontinental Rally Challenge was officially launched on the eve of the Rally of Turkey, where Jacques Behar - the president of series promoter Eurosport Events - announced six manufacturers for this year´s competition. ...


Abarth, Citroen, Honda, Mitsubishi and Peugeot will compete on the Rally of Turkey, and they will be joined by Volkswagen from the next event - the Ypres Rally in Belgium - onwards. Behar commented: “We are delighted to have six prestigious manufacturers, with a distinguished history in motor sport, joining us for the first full year of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Their important participation will ensure a very close competition throughout the year.”

There will also be a battle between three different tyre suppliers - BFGoodrich, Pirelli and Yokohama. This added diversity will lend yet another dimension to the sporting challenge this year.
The series launch took place in the historic city centre of Istanbul, attended by some of the world's leading motor sport media and the president of the Turkish motor sport federation Mumtaz Tahincioglu. Behar added: “The IRC aims to bring a whole new dimension to rallying, by taking the sport to the people in a way that has never been seen before.

We aim to do this through a series of high-quality and innovative television programmes on Eurosport, using live broadcasts, in-car cameras and helicopter cameras. We are very pleased that these six manufacturers have supported our initiative, which is a great step forwards for us in only our first full year of competition.”

The Rally of Turkey gets underway today (Friday) with a ceremonial start in Istanbul city's centre, followed by a spectator superspecial stage. In total the crews will tackle 19 gravel stages before returning to Istanbul for the finish at 1600 on Sunday.

The Intercontinental Rally Challenge is a new nine-round rally series authorized by the FIA, which covers three continents (Africa, Europe and Asia).

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