Team boss tips Aigner for IRC Production Cup glory

Manfred Stohl has backed Andreas Aigner to shine when the Austrian begins his IRC Production Cup campaign on Giru di Corsica-Tour de Corse from 9-12 May.

The highly regarded Aigner has been plucked from international rallying’s sidelines to contest five rounds of this year’s IRC in an R4-specification Subaru Impreza run by Stohl Racing.

Stohl (pictured) said: “The first target is to finish the rally then of course we will look to the IRC Production Cup to win that for Subaru. We know it will be very difficult but Andi is a driver with a big talent and is especially good on Tarmac.”

Apart from an abortive run on last year’s Rallye Monte-Carlo, Aigner has only tackled a limited schedule of events since winning the Production Car world title in 2008. Despite his absence from regular competition, Stohl is confident that the 27-year-old has lost none of his speed.

“When you have such a talent as Andi you don’t lose this talent,” said Stohl. “For sure he is missing quite a lot of kilometres but there is no reason why he cannot get the feeling back that he had before.”

Stohl Racing guided Toshi Arai to the inaugural IRC Production Cup title in 2011.