Drivers present:Kris Meeke (GB), Peugeot 207 Super 2000, 2009 IRC ChampionPaul Nagle (IRL), Peugeot 207 Super 2000, 2009 IRC ChampionAlister McRae (GB), Proton, 1995 British Rally ChampionBill Hayes (AUS), ProtonGuy Wilks (GB), Skoda Fabia Super 2000, 2007/2008 British Rally ChampionPhilip Pugh (GB), Skoda Fabia Super 2000John Goodman, Managing Director, Peugeot UKQ:Congratulations Kris, it’s rounded off possibly the best year of your life so far!KM:I have to say that I don’t think it could get much better than this! We’re already now thinking about next year, with Monte Carlo just around the corner, and I’m happy to announce that we will be trying to defend our title with Peugeot UK. There has been a bit of uncertainty over the last few months and everyone’s been looking to me but we’ve finally dotted the ‘i’s and crossed the ‘t’s and for me it is absolutely impossible to put into words how grateful I am to Peugeot UK and Kronos for the opportunities they have given me this year. Everyone talks about the other cars getting stronger and the 207 getting older but I know Peugeot Sport have given me the commitment next year to push the car to its maximum and I’m very happy to be staying around with them for next year. Q:Were you ever concerned at any time at Guy’s times?KM:I have to say it definitely made the rally exciting to have Guy turning up and it was definitely a bit of a rally. To have a 28s lead in an event like this and in these conditions is absolutely nothing. Speed wise I was confident enough but to be honest it kept us on our toes. The pressure had been building up beforehand and it was a fascinating battle. Myself and Guy are both on top of our game and on another weekend Guy could possibly beat me, there’s no question of that. But I am very happy to come away with the victory here; it makes the end to the year all the sweeter. Q:Was SS7 in the dark the watershed moment?KM:Yes, it was to and fro all weekend. Before that stage it was like a boxing match and we were taking blows from each other but I think I got the better of him on that one! To be honest I was panicking at the time control as we went into the stage, as we didn’t turn the lights on in the road section. There was only a small bit of gravel before the start so we turned the lights on there and they were pointing down on the ground! This rally is by no means slow and I didn’t have the tools to adjust them in time so I just thought ‘right, this is it, I’ve got to go fastest.’ It was actually a bit surprising at the end to see the time difference but then I found out that Guy had had problems as well. Q:Do you think if more of the regular IRC drivers had been here they would have been up there with you and Guy?KM:Obviously we’ve had a season now competing against everybody in the IRC and I am fully comfortable with the pace we’re at now. There have been rallies this year where other guys have been in front of me – it was impossible to compete against Jan Kopecky in the Czech Republic, for instance. But myself, Guy and Alister have been brought up in these conditions and obviously many years ago so were Richard Burns and Colin McRae. I know myself, and with no disrespect to the other guys from other countries, that we’re just used to this type of environment. Q:Paul, Loch Ard was the longest gravel stage on the IRC – 23 minutes of rapid pacenotes! Did you cope?PN:It was a brilliant stage, the biggest on the rally and the best Kris had ever driven. It’s a credit to the organisers and the marshals and to the sign teams that the stage was so well organised. Absolutely fantastic stretch of gravel.Q:Any moments from your side of the car?PN:We had a couple of interesting moments... (Kris Meeke: “Check his underpants!”)Q:Well done Guy! You gave Kris a really hard time. At what point did you decide to settle for second place?GW:We settled for second when the boss of Skoda Motorsport came to be before the event with the stern words to bring the car home in the best position possible without taking any risks. Try doing that in these conditions!Q:You seem to have adapted very quickly to the Fabia!GW:Yes, I felt comfortable in it straight away, from when I first stepped into it to do that 50km test before the rally. The test was pretty much the same as the event in that there was rain and standing water and lots of mud. The test was maybe not quite long enough but I’m just grateful for Skoda UK giving me the opportunity and I’m not complaining. You just have to look at the car on the axle stands and you can see straight away how it’s had a lot of time, money and effort put into it. All credit to the guys back at the Skoda factory who have done a fantastic job with this car. It would have been nice to have been let off the leash, as it were, but I think it was more important to keep everything going and do a good job. That’s not to say we didn’t push. Yes, we did push when the grip level was good but when it was slippery you weren’t thinking about times, you were just trying to keep it on the road.Q: Fancy doing any more?!GW:I’d love to, yes!Q:Phil, different car, but you looked very comfortable. PP:I couldn’t see out of the dashboard! I was sat on an old pair of jeans and a piece of foam!Q:Alister! You’ve travelled 10,000 miles to compete here. Was it worth it?AM:Definitely. To get Proton its first podium place in the IRC was fantastic. Proton is a small team and a young team and we can only go from strength to strength. The car is quick and it can only get quicker. The chassis is one of the best I have ever driven. Kris has christened me ‘Old Safe Hands’ but I can assure you the old hands were working quicker than the brain!Q:You must have learned a lot on this event about the Proton. More to come?AM:Yes we’re doing the full IRC next year. We are looking forward to coming back next year and fighting these guys again. Q:Bill, your first time in the Scottish forests. Are they anything like you’ve done before?BH:My bones are shaking with cold! The stages are very similar to those in New Zealand. They are fast and flowing and require total commitment from driver and co-driver. The event is unbelievable and really amazing organisation, despite the lovely weather!Q:John, if  we can turn to you finally. On behalf of motorsport fans a big thank you for backing Kris. It really is something special to see you back here again next year.JG:For Peugeot it was a very easy decision to make! Kris was somebody whose name was given to us on trust from Kronos. Both him and Paul have done a fantastic job for Peugeot the brand and Peugeot UK this year. A huge amount of interest and dealer following. We had a lot of our dealers up here and it was a very easy decision to make. It was never about doing one year it was always about doing two. We sat down with them and worked out the right arrangements and we’ll be back next year. The difficulty now is that they have set the bar very high so our expectations are very high as a result.Q:And for Skoda UK, they must be very interested in doing more rallies with you Guy?GW:Well, this was a one-off event but I would love to have a collaboration in the future. I’ve been told I’ve done a good job and yes, not to speculate too much, it would be great to go out there with two British arms of manufacturers in the shape of myself and Kris. QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOORMartin HolmesQ:Is there any policy for the support of the IRC rather than the WRC or the World Cup by Peugeot?KM:The IRC is the perfect platform for an importer such as Peugeot UK to achieve a lot for a justifiable spend. When you win a rally outright there is nothing that can compete with the press you get from that. It’s a fantastic platform plus the Super 2000 formula is such that no matter how much budget you throw at the category, one car will never be light years ahead of the other. You’ve seen throughout the year the battles have been so close. Plus the customers can see that the cars look very similar to the ones in the garage.

GW:I just think that the atmosphere on the IRC events, from the spectators, the drivers and the teams – there is no divide or animosity. It’s been an awesome atmosphere this weekend and it’s been great to see people turning out and cheering us all on.Eric Briquet, Auto HebdoQ:Guy, before the start of the last stage, did you feel it was still possible to get the win?

GW:To be honest we came out of the second last stage with no phone signal and we knew to push on to change the tyres. We got to the top of the hill and Paul told Phil that we’d taken five seconds out of him. I jumped in the car and said ‘don’t believe a word.’(laughter) To be quite honest I just thought the first time through Loch Ard that it was a very tricky stage and the way we had driven up until then there was no point in pushing if a puncture was going to be had. And if it was going to happen anywhere then it would happen there. We didn’t have any punctures all weekend and on the last stage I pushed hard but I was careful not to risk losing it altogether.Martin HolmesQ:Can Guy run though SS7 and tell us how he managed to lose nearly a quarter of a minute to Kris.GW:Kris drove faster! (laughter). It was quite simple, and like I said it got repetitive being asked all the time what our game plan was. I kept saying the same thing: we were seeing the times but we were really looking at what we were doing. Usually when we come to an event we want to try and win, especially when we have the tools underneath us to do it, which we did this weekend. On that stage we had a small problem with the lights and only managed to get one fixed and that was a big disadvantage. I was in the mindset not to undo all the hard work we had done the day before and knew that if  I couldn’t see the end of the corners I was not going to commit fully.