The number of vehicle brands you see at a national rally will increase to four this year with the announcement that Peugeot will be entering the fray under the Team Pirtek banner with Hein Lategan and Visser du Plessis being the wheelmen.
Du Plessis will run a 207 purchased from a team based in Portugal while Lategan has purchased a new 207 S2000 Evolution kit from Peugeot Sport in France.
The Peugeot 207 was homologated for S2000 rallying by the FIA in 2007 and since then has made its mark in national and regional championships as well as in the International Rally Challenge. In fact, Peugeot is a three-time winner in the IRC with series victories in 2007, 2008, and 2009.
A unique aspect of the IRC is that it does not allow the participation of factory supported teams with the focus rather on professional, but independent competitors. It is in this environment that Peugeot Sport has developed an extensive customer support infrastructure to back its customers.
An example of this is the secondment of a Peugeot Sport engineer to Team Pirtek Peugeot to assist with the preparation of the vehicles for their debut in South Africa at the Total Tour Natal Rally on the 25th and 26th of March.
This competitor model will be followed in South Africa with Team Pirtek Peugeot operating as a fully independent privateer team.
Together with the technical backup provided by Peugeot Sport in France, Peugeot South Africa will provide a degree of marketing support and PR for the program.