Convinced that the FIA Junior Rally Championship is the ideal stepping stone for upcoming drivers on their way to joining the WRC elite, Citroën announced that the creation of the C2 Junior Experience which will be based on the qualifying rounds of the 2007 FIA Junior Rally Championship.
Ever since its launch in 2001, initially as the Super 1600 Championship and then as the Junior World Rally Championship, Citroën has enjoyed considerable success in this category over the years. In 2001, driving a Saxo, Sébastien Loeb sprang to international acclaim by winning all the rounds in which he took part before going on to enjoy an extremely successful career at WRC level.
Spain's Dani Solà drove one of the five Saxos entered in the following year's series to take the 2002 title. Finally, last year saw Daniel Sordo take Citroën to the top of the pyramid once again by securing the title with his C2 S1600. And it is no coincidence that Loeb and Sordo will be joining forces next year as team-mates with the new Citroën C4 WRC.
The FIA Junior Rally Championship's mix of all the surface types encountered in world class rallying (snow, gravel and asphalt) makes it the ideal framework for the C2 Junior Experience. The series will give drivers the choice of competing in either the C2 Super 1600 or the C2-R2, both of which are developed and distributed by Citroën Sport.
The regulations of the C2 Junior Experience will be based on those that govern the FIA Junior Rally Championship, including an upper age limit of 28, the nomination of six of the calendar's seven rounds, limited numbers of mechanics, etc. There will be no specific classification for the C2 Junior Experience which will form an integral part of the FIA Junior Rally Championship and which is a commercial partnership between competing drivers and Citroën Sport.
Prizemoney will be awarded as a function of the contestants' position in each round's official of the FIA Junior Rally Championship classification. At the end of the year, if the winner of the FIA Junior Rally Championship is a Citroën driver who has contested the C2 Junior Experience, he or she will win drives in two rounds of the World Rally Championship driving a Citroën WRC car.
If the second placed driver in the FIA Junior Rally Championship is a C2 Junior Experience driver, he or she will win one event in a WRC car and if the third placed driver in the FIA Junior Rally Championship is a C2 Junior Experience Driver, he or she will be invited to take part in a WRC test session.
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
