IRC: BFG to continue with Drivers' team in '09.

BFGoodrich has announced that it will re-run its popular Drivers Team programme in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge next year.

The scheme allows drivers of different nationalities the chance to contest their home round of the IRC at the wheel of a factory-specification Peugeot 207 S2000 run by Kronos Racing.

In order to try and secure the drive, each crew has to submit an application dossier. Representatives of BFGoodrich and Kronos Racing then prepare a final shortlist, before national media from each country spend a day with all the shortlisted candidates and vote for their preferred choice.

As was the case in 2008, the scheme will run over five rounds of the IRC, starting with the Rallye Monte Carlo in January.

"The success of the scheme in 2008 has led us to repeat the programme in 2009," said BFGoodrich's competitions director Frederic Henry Biabaud. "We will be introducing some new ideas and we hope that the operation will prove just as popular.

"We are delighted, too, to be getting the 2009 BFGoodrich Drivers Team calendar under way with the magical Monte Carlo Rally which is the opening round of next year's IRC. Nearly every rally driver must have dreamt of taking part in the legendary 'Monte' one day, and we are looking forward to a high number of applications."

Applications for the Monte BFG drive close on December 31. Interested crews should forward their applications, including a letter of motivation, to the Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile.

The list of applicants will then be communicated by the FFSA to the management of BFGoodrich and Kronos Racing by January 6. The latter will then draw up a shortlist of five crews, before a panel of journalists take part in a secret vote on January 9 to decide which crew gets the opportunity to contest the Monte in the BFGoodrich Drivers Team Peugeot 207 Super 2000.