In just under a week's time no less than six Grande Punto Abarth S2000 machines will go into action on the 43th edition of the Belgium Ypres Westhoek Rally with crews contesting points in two championships: the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) and the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC).

The 2007 edition looks exceptionally promising. The Belgium Ypres Westhoek Rally will be the first rally in the world to get this many cars of the Super2000 category on the list of participants chasing IRC points. Fourteen of them to be correct should drive over the starting podium on the Ypres market place on Friday 22nd of June. As such, the rally will mark the real start of the new IRC-series.

For the first time ever, the six manufacturers that are engaged in the IRC will be at the start of the same event. And this honour will fall upon the ‘City of the Cats'. The drivers of the Abarth, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, Citroën and Honda cars will fight for the IRC points that will be allocated after the finish on Saturday evening.

The fight will take place amongst the poppy fields that were the scene of great battles last century. The Super2000 and top Group N cars will fight for the honours in the Belgium Ypres Westhoek Rally, with the best Super1600's as referees. A fight also between the six Abarth Grande Punto Super2000, the car that won last year, and the six brand new Peugeot 207 Super2000. For the first time, two Volkswagen Polo Super2000 will act as ‘third dog'.

The set of drivers the A.C. Targa Florio managed to gather will be definitely international. Peugeot is turning up with two 207 Super2000, one for the Frenchman Nicolas Vouilloz and one for Enrique Garcia Ojeda of Spain. They will be joined by the Peugeots of the Hungarian Janos Toth and Marco Cavigioli and Luca Rossetti, both of Italy. One Belgian will join the army of Lions: Bernd Casier, official driver of the Peugeot Belgium Luxemburg Team, will put the 207 of Kronos Racing for the first time through its paces.

Four nationalities also in the Abarth gang. Italy will be represented by Umberto Scandola, who did very well last year, Andrea Navarra, the IRC points leader and Corrado Fontana who is chasing ERC points. Also fighting for ERC points will be Volkan Isik who will represent Turkey, while Poland will line Michal Solowow up. The final Abarth machine will be pedalled by Pieter Tjoen, the current national champion, who will fly the Belgian flag.
 

Volkswagen will also put forward a serious candidate for the final win: Freddy Loix will be the first driver of the German team with one of the two Polo's Super2000. He will be seconded by Tomek Czopik of Poland who will drive the second car of the team. No big surprises in Group N with the two traditional makes going for the win: Mitsubishi and Subaru. We expect that the biggest threat for the Super2000 guys will come out of the Mitsubishi camp. The impressive army (26 cars) will be led by the Italian Renato Travaglia, European Rally Champion in 2002. Then there will be the local experts Larry Cols, Patrick Snijers, Bob Colsoul and Andy Lefevere. Finally, we should not forget the Bulgarian Dimitar Iliev and a few very fast Dutch drivers. It is also in this side that we will find the only female representation: Melissa Debackere will make her debut with the Mitsubishi after having competed in many races with Toyota Celica and Corolla.

From 2008 onwards, more categories will be added to the international championships. Representing the future R3 series will be the two Honda Civic Type R of the JAS-team in the hands of Luca Betti of Italy and Dani Sola of Spain. They will go head-to-head with the Renaults Clio R3 of Kris Princen, twice a winner in Ypres with a Clio Super1600, and of Olivier Collard. The ‘R3'-s will not be on their own in the category of the two-wheel-driven cars. Quite a few top Super1600 cars show on the list of participants too. Amongst them the two current references of the category: the Suzuki Swift, driven by Urmo Aava of Estonia, a great entertainer of the FIA Junior Championship, and the Citroën C2. In the colours of the French team we will have the Frenchman of Martinique: Simon Jean-Joseph, who has actually become a regular of the Ypres Rally. A second C2 Super1600 will be driven by the Brit Darren Gass, whereas Jan de Winkel of The Netherlands will bring his Clio Super1600 to Belgium.

Being the climax of the Belgian season and one of the most European amongst all rallies, it is clear that the Belgium Ypres Westhoek Rally will be the major motorsports event of the beginning of the summer. It is sure an event no passionate fan or even a very large number of people with an interest in motorsports will want to miss.