Zoom Hoping to shine on their home event

Within the Peugeot Belgium-Luxemburg team, the efforts made to deliver the best possible result this week-end have become more intense with each passing day.

"The Belgium Ypres Rally is not only an important national event, it's also the only IRC round to take place on our home soil," says team boss Marc Van Dalen. "More than ever, we will do everything we can to win."

"We've done it before in the past, so why shouldn't we do so again?" he asks, referring to the victories accomplished in 2002 and 2003 with Bruno Thiry driving a Peugeot 206 WRC.

Peugeot 207 Super 2000 driver Nicolas Vouilloz, who discovered the Belgian event last year, gives his impressions of the challenges waiting ahead: "It's narrow, it's fast, it's flat with many changes to the surface covering and the pace. Grip is often tenuous, the right-angle directional changes are innumerable, and local drivers have this tendency of plunging into the corners, which quickly throws dirt onto the road. "

Belgian teammate Freddy Loix was sent on two practice runs this month with the purpose of setting up the car perfectly for the push to the podium.

"The aim is to set up a car with perfect stability so that we may brake very straight and very late, and accelerate very straight and very quickly," explains Loix. "With its basic qualities, the 207 S2000 will help us a lot in attaining this objective."

"It is up to us to take advantage of our experience of the race to make the right choices," adds Van Dalen. "At the start of every IRC round the Peugeot Belgium-Luxemburg Team is amongst the best-prepared and fights for victory everywhere... It will be more so at Ypres."

Daniel BASTIEN
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