François Delecour never won a World Rally Championship but gained a reputation as a very quick driver. His first factory drive was when he was hired by the Ford team to contest the 1991 World Championship in a four-wheel-drive Ford Sierra Cosworth. But it was the switch to the beautiful Ford Escort Cosworth in 1993 that he gained his best WRC result. The season consisted of 13 rallies which saw Juha Kankkunen win his fourth drivers’ world championship in a Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD, ahead of Delecour and Didier Auriol with the manufacturers’ title won by Toyota, ahead of Ford and Subaru.
Delecour has had an impressive rally career but without many wins. However, he did win the inaugural FIA R-GT Cup in a Porsche 997 GT3 in 2015.
The FIA R-GT Cup, created at the beginning of 2015, is a competition for drivers and co-drivers using a car of Class R-GT with a valid FIA Passport. The calendar for 2018 is a mix of FIA World Rally Championship and FIA European Rally Championship events and points from all five rounds count towards the title.
The events for these iconic cars include Rallye Monte-Carlo, Rallye France, Barum Czech Rally Zlin, Rally di Roma Capitale and Rallye International du Valais.
Porsche have won all three series so far and have just released a Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport which is a concept study for the FIA R-GT category based on the near-production GT circuit race car.
Porsche say that ‘Whether this turns into a rally project for customers with a similar vehicle in the medium term will be decided at a later stage.’
In this instance Porsche have probably already decided to go ahead with this concept. The GT4 category is on the rise and we are likely to see more of this type of car competing in tarmac events such as the Targa NZ.
As for the 2018 FIA R-GT series, Frenchman Raphael Astier is currently leading in a Abarth 124 R-GT with two rounds to go.
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