Van Dalen: Neuville is ready for IRC title fight

Marc van Dalen says that while it’s difficult to predict this year’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion, the team boss is satisfied that his driver Thierry Neuville will be fully prepared when he begins his title bid on the Cyprus Rally on Thursday evening (3 November).

Van Dalen’s Kronos Racing operation oversees Neuville’s Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg entry. Kronos guided Nicolas Vouilloz and Kris Meeke to the IRC drivers’ crown in 2008 and 2009 respectively and will be hoping Neuville can get the better of his four rivals to hand Kronos title number three.

“To win is not only up to Thierry but at least he will be very well prepared for this,” said van Dalen. “The nature of the roads is quite new to everybody but he is good at quickly adapting to new conditions. He will have to improve his pace during the rally, as he has learned to do this year, and he will fight till the end. Whatever will be the result, our motivation is high.”