Evans’ French IRC test a success
December 9, 2009 by Tim Beissmann
It seems like funding could be the only thing standing in the way of three-time Australian Rally champions Simon and Sue Evans joining the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) after a successful test session with Peugeot in France.
After receiving an invitation at late notice, Evan had just one week to prepare for the trial which was held in near-freezing conditions on a tarmac surface that he had limited experience on and in a Super 2000 car unlike anything he had driven for 10 months.
But he met the challenges over the six kilometre course, setting fast times, continuously improving them and impressing the new Peugeot team along the way.
Evans was full of praise for the team and the 207 S2000 rally car after the one-day trial.
“It was such a great experience. The team was fantastic, they looked after us incredibly well.
“The car was by far the best rally car I have ever driven. It gave me so much confidence to keep pushing harder and harder, and I felt really comfortable in it.
“I did exactly what I wanted to do. I drove at nine tenths and didn’t make any mistakes, but above all it seemed I was pretty quick,” he said.
Evans said the feedback he got from the team was invaluable and said he was encouraged by their eagerness to secure him for next year.
“They were quite keen to run me in the championship in 2010 – it all just made me more enthusiastic about the prospect of locking something in.
“Which is where the difficult part starts. We’re going to have to work very hard to come up with the funding to put a deal together for next year.
“After getting a taste of it, I want even more now. I’m more pumped up than ever to get to the IRC.”
The IRC is the rival championship to the World Rally Championship and comprised eight different manufacturers and 11 rounds across Europe, South America, and Africa in 2009.
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I hope that they can get the funding together to be able to compete in the IRC next year. It would be great to see more Australian presence on the international rally stage.
It will be interesting to see how long Peugeot persists with its rally programs, given their recent announcement that they will no longer be producing GTi versions of their passenger cars, and focusing instead on luxury coupes and convertibles. It would be a shame for these Australians to have done so well, only to have Peugeot cancel development and support shortly thereafter.
The lack of a hot hatch variant has stopped Skoda and Ford developing S2000 cars (Fabia and Fiesta), so the lack of a GTi 207 doesn’t necessarily mean Peugeot are going to stop their rally programs. The teams are generally not run by Peugeot anyway, but by other organisations like Kronos Racing.
T, I’m assuming you meant “…lack of a hot hatch variant *hasn’t* stopped Skoda and Ford…”. Both Skoda and Ford do actually produce warmed-up variants of their cars (the Fabia vRS and Fiesta ST / RS, respectively), not to mention the other sports models in their lineups (eg: Octavia vRS, Focus RS).
My point is that without a GTi lineup to promote via a motorsport association, Peugeot may well decide the investment required to develop and build the S2000 variants is too much to bother with. I hope you’re right though, it would be a shame to see yet another manufacturer stop supporting rallying.
Yes sorry I meant hasn’t. Typo. The Fabia vRS and Fiesta ST are not available in the current respective models, though one can hope that Ford will change their mind on not doing an ST version of the current model now that they have developed the S2000 car.
It would be a shame to see any more manufacturers pull out of Rallying, especially at a time when it really needs more manufacturers.
Peugeot 207 s2000 has been winning the IRC in the last 3 years straight. I wonder why they wouldn’t put more effort in advertising the 207 GTI with that and keep making even hotter GTIs. What a shame!