The Spanish island of Gran Canaria will play host to the second round of this year’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). Peugeot UK’s Guy Wilks and Phil Pugh will be aiming to improve on their third place position achieved at the IRC’s opening round in Monte Carlo.
As the highest placed UK team, Peugeot UK has spent the time since the last rally testing and further improving its Peugeot 207 S2000, ready for the fast mountain roads of Gran Canaria. The special nature of the roads on the island makes the stages more like a race track with wide, fast-flowing corners and very high grip levels.
“The stages are very fast, you don’t always think of the Canaries as being a mountainous landscape, they go uphill and downhill very quickly, they are very smooth, very nice and require you to be brave if you want to be fast” says Guy Wilks.
The success and publicity generated by the team through its participation in the IRC has also resulted in a new sponsor signing up with the team for 2011. Clarion will now become the team’s new main sponsor and, therefore, Guy and Phil’s 207 S2000 will be sporting a new livery. Clarion joins the team’s other sponsors, Evolution Power Tools and Total Oil.
After the fantastic performance in their first rally for Peugeot UK in Monte Carlo, where they achieved a well deserved third place podium position, Peugeot UK’s dynamic duo will start the Canarias rally as one of the favourites to occupy the top step of the podium when the rally finishes on Saturday.
“Last year, this rally was new to me but it didn’t take me long to settle in, ” recalls Guy. “This time round, though, I won’t be able to profit too much from that experience because the route has changed significantly. That said, the lie of the land will be the same, you need to refrain from cutting corners and your lines have to be absolutely perfect. I think good pace during the night-time stages will be important to win this rally.”
Since the Monte Carlo rally, Guy and Phil have been testing extensively to increase further their understanding and speed of the Peugeot UK 207 S2000. The hard work also doesn’t even stop after the rally as both Guy and Phil will be jetting off for another test programme as soon as the rally finishes.
This year’s Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Ingles will have a changed format from last year and now includes two night stages on Friday night. In total, the rally will feature twelve special stages over a total distance of 190.59 kilometres.
The 35th Rally Islas Canarias begins with the Ceremonial Start on Thursday 14th April before the teams tackle the first stages on Friday. With the change in format, the first day of rallying kicks off on Friday when a total of eight stages will be contested, totalling 313.29 km, of which 116.81 km will be on timed special stages. The first stage starts at 13:48hrs with the rally halting for the night around 00:50hrs on Saturday morning.
Day 2: Saturday provides the crews with a total of four stages, totalling 73.78km, but the crews will have to cover a further 164.40 km just to get to the stages. The Saturday stages are run twice, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, before the rally finishes on Saturday afternoon. By the end of the rally, Guy and Phil’s Peugeot 207 S2000 will have covered a total distance of 668.28 km and tackled 190.59 km of special stages.
A total of 12 S2000 cars and drivers will join Guy and Phil in their Peugeot 207 S2000 and the 22 other cars signed up for this year's event. A total of ten manufacturers will be represented across all the classes, with six Peugeot 207 S2000s battling for a Peugeot victory.
