Zoom New season, new challenge for BFGoodrich

The 2008 Intercontinental Rally Challenge is poised to kick off in Istanbul on April 4, marking the start of the series' second season which is scheduled to end in China next November.

This year's IRC promises to be a thrilling affair, with the factory Abarth team looking to win back the Manufacturers' title from Peugeot, while the top European drivers can expect stiff opposition from several former World Championship stars in the battle for the Drivers' crown.

The Intercontinental Rally Challenge is an international series which permits open competition between tyre manufacturers and is consequently a key championship for BFGoodrich which took both titles in 2007.

This year again, a long list of runners have chosen BFGoodrich tyres in their bid to secure top honours, while the American tyre firm has also introduced the BFGoodrich Drivers Team operation which is based of five rounds of the series starting in May.

"The IRC has a bright future ahead of it," says Michelin Competition Director Frédéric Henry-Biabaud, "since it allows competition not only between carmakers but also between tyre manufacturers, as well as the fact that it benefits from strong media coverage and care is taken to keep costs in check. The competitive context also makes the IRC a genuine challenge for BFGoodrich in technical terms, so we need to supply our partners with the very best customer competition tyres. "

"This development of tyres that are freely available across the counter is of direct benefit, too, to BFGoodrich drivers who compete in their home championship, and also to customers who use BFGoodrich tyres on a day-to-day basis since there is a very real technological carry-over from our customer competition range to our road tyres. We are very much looking forward to the 2008 season…"

Two continents, two seas
Following the cancellation of the Safari Rally after the unrest in Kenya early in the year, the 2008 Intercontinental Rally Challenge starts on April 4 in Istanbul, on the Asian side of the world's only city to straddle two continents.

The route of the Istanbul Rally takes in the regions bordering both the Marmara and Black Seas and is essentially based on that of the 2007 event which won the favours of the IRC fraternity thanks its wide, undulating stages which twist between pine forests, bougainvillea and camellias. "I enjoyed this event last year," says Peugeot Team Belux driver Nicolas Vouilloz. "That's not only because it enabled me to score my first IRC win after having to fight my way back up the field, but also because the stages are magnificent; very fast and challenging. Apart from the odd rougher portion, they are not particularly hardwearing on tyres but they do tend to be covered with a persistent top-coating of loose gravel, so it is necessary to 're-cut' our tyres to enhance grip."