Cycling Champions Bettini and Ballerini lured to the Belgium Ypres Rally
In contrary to what has been published already by some, Paolo Bettini and Franco Ballerini do not have the entire budget yet to take it to the starting line of the next Belgium Ypres Rally. The cycling champions are working on it however.

Paolo Bettini started rallying earlier this year and participated to an event in Italy at the wheel of an Abarth Super 2000. It was a very difficult start for the Italian, although we could not call it his 'baptism of fire' as it rained the entire weekend. Paolo and Franco really enjoyed themselves however and last weekend they already participated to their third rally, the Rally Cittą di Pistoia. They are trying to build up experience and hopefully join the big boys at the end of June in Ypres. They are currently driving an Abarth Super 2000 from the Italian Procar team that entered Dani Sola last year in the IRC.

We spoke to Daniele Pelliccioni of Procar : "In the future, they would like to participate to some major events, but purely for fun. Ypres is an obvious choice as both men still have many fans in Flandres and they like the Westhoek area, a region where both participated to several cycling events. So the project does exist and we are working hard to make it happen."

We can only hope they succeed so we can welcome the two cycling heroes in the Westhoek again… be it on four wheels this time.

Gareth MacHale wants to come to Ypres with the Opel Corsa Super 2000

Gareth MacHale of Ireland wants to be at the start of the Belgium Ypres Rally 09 with an Opel Corsa Super 2000. This would be a first in Belgium for this beautiful toy of the MSD team.

The British MSD team of David Whitehead, which ran Freddy Loix some years ago when they took care of the Hyundai WRC cars, showed their latest creation last summer: the Opel Corsa Super 2000. Meanwhile they have done many tests and few events but the beautiful Super 2000 did not manage to get into the limelight yet. MacHale (28) is known for having driven a Ford Focus WRC in the world championship and wants to start driving the Corsa Super 2000 at major events and Ypres will be a first. The intend for MacHale is to also participate in a few more IRC rounds with the Opel Corsa Super 2000 after Ypres.

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