Road rallies – New features for the 2008 International Rally Championship –

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New features of the 2008 International Rally Championship

Road rallies - New features of the 2008 International Rally Championship -

Unlike last year, the 2008 international rally championship will take place well in three countries: Belgium, Portugal and France. With this year several new features, including power and / or displacement limitations. Taste.

Brought up to date five years ago (yes, read and our), the Tour de France Moto – successively renamed Moto Tour, then Dark Dog Moto Tour, then Dark Dog Tour – has become since last year a round of the brand new International Rallye Championship created for the occasion (read).

This year, the international rally championship will be contested in three countries: first stage with the Belgian Dark Dog Tour from April 30 to May 3, then towards the Iberian Peninsula with the Portugal Moto Tour from September 5 to 7, and finally the traditional final bouquet with the French Dark Dog Tour from September 28 to October 5 (the Italian round, canceled at the last moment last year, is still not on the calendar).

IRC Standard Proofs
(Belgium, Portugal and France)

  • Timed specials on closed roads or circuits (start one by one), day or night

  • Timed races on circuits (group departures), day or night

  • Regularity tests with "chrono bases" limited to 60 km / h.

  • Navigation tests on the connecting routes

    • Each of the three events of the championship will be able to accommodate up to 230 participants who will have the choice between five types of machines: multicylinders, single cylinders, scooters, classics (models approved before December 31, 1982) and sidecars..

    Specificity for 2008: the machines will have to respect the law of 100 hp … except in Portugal, contrary to what was planned at the start, namely the "limitation (at 100 hp at the rear wheel, Editor’s note) imposed on all the countries of the championship ", which should allow"get out of this notion of mechanical power for the benefit of human performance and the value of the pilot".

    Belgium and France will therefore have to "get out of this notion of mechanical power gna gna gna", but Portugal could, according to our information, remain open to full power machines…

    In exchange, the motorcycles competing in the Portugal Moto Tour will have to respect displacement limitations: from the Portuguese round and only at this time, free versions will be authorized for twin-cylinder machines up to 1290 cc, three cylinders not exceeding 990 cc and 4 cylinders up to 690 cc. Those who exceed these displacements will have to respect the limitation to 100 horses., specifies the organizer.

    What changes in 2008…

  • Prohibition of reconnaissance (read opposite)

  • Motorcycles with 100 hp in France and Belgium, free in Portugal

  • Reinforced special signs for "prevent and identify each type of obstacle"

  • A single "Scratch" classification for each round and a separate classification for the pilots who participate in the whole championship

  • Possibility for each organizer to create "Class trophies"

  • It is forbidden to ride with a backpack, top case or saddlebags (except soft bag on the passenger seat or on the tank)

    • Let us hope that this question of maximum power, which has certainly not finished igniting the debates, does not spoil the legibility of the event for the spectators or the pleasure of the race for the pilots. !

    Because unless modified at the last minute, the competitors will start in Belgium with their machines clamped, then will compete in Portugal with "full" motorcycles, before rebranding the mechanics for the final in France … Difficult in these conditions to choose a mount for the whole championship !

    Another radical change in 2008: outright ban on reconnaissance, on pain of exclusion from "any driver caught in the act of reconnaissance on one of the roads planned for the specials"Several pilots, including Serge Nuques himself, demanded the elimination of recos, believing that they favored the most important structures and penalized participants with more modest means, unable to gather the time and means necessary for on-site observations.

    The tracks (excluding circuits) will now only be revealed at the time of scrutineering, but each organizing country must film the stages and make them available on the Internet.

    See you on April 30 for the Belgian Dark Dog tour, but we will come back very soon to each of the IRC rounds: Belgium, Portugal and France … Stay tuned !

    To be continued :

  • Presentation of the Belgian Moto Tour

  • Presentation of the Portugal Moto Tour

  • Presentation of the Dark Dog Tour

    • Alexandre BARDIN – Photos DR

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