WHERE THEY SECURED THEIR 2009 IRC TITLE  - RALLYE SANREMO – 23 – 25 SEPTEMBER

The glamorous Italian Riviera town of Sanremo will become the venue for the last tarmac rally of this year’s 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC).

It was twelve months ago that the twisty and testing mountain roads of Sanremo provided the stage for Peugeot UK’s Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle to secure the 2009 IRC Drivers’ Championship. This year, with a mathematical chance of retaining the title, Kris and Paul will be back with one aim only, to repeat last year’s victory.

With no fewer than 32 S2000 cars entered into the rally the competition will be fierce. Contained in the entry are also all the past winners since 2004 as well as a number of local specialists.

The Sanremo rally will also see five of the latest Peugeot 207 S2000 Evolutions go head-to-head with the revised Skoda Fabria S2000, introduced earlier in the year. The 207 Evolution model benefits from a number of performance enhancements including a new 300 bhp engine, new front suspension, optimised gearbox and transmission, upgraded brakes and suspension dampers. These modifications will ensure the Peugeot 207 S2000 remains the reference vehicle for the category.

The rally will be contested over eleven special stages with a total distance of 220.03 kilometres, including the 44 km Ronde stage in the dark on Friday night. Careful management of tyres and brakes will be vital for success in this year’s rally and the “Evolution” revisions to the Peugeot 207 S2000 will give the Peugeot drivers an added advantage.

The rally starts on Friday 24th and finishes on Saturday 25th September.

Follow the day-to-day progress of Peugeot UK and Kris Meeke in this year’s Sanremo rally via the team’s Twitter linkwww.twitter.com/Peugeotrally, video podcasts and web-based Rally Radio hosted on the Peugeot.co.uk web site and all main rally web sites and, for iPhone users, the Peugeot co-sponsored iRally App.