The World Rally Championship is where all the best rally drivers and all the best teams want to be. With the allure of a world championship title on the line, the opportunity to call themselves the best in the world is simply too great to resist.
So why would one leading privateer outfit decide to leave the glitz and glamor of the WRC behind, and head for a national championship instead?
It’s a good question, but when you lay out the context and the circumstances, a move into the American Rally Association presented by DirtFish made utter sense for 2C Compétition this season.
Running Hyundai i20 Coupe WRCs for Pierre-Louis Loubet, Oliver Solberg and Ole Christian Veiby over the past two WRC seasons, 2C has been in the WRC fight but with a rather blunt weapon.
Although its i20 was a pukka, ex-works car from Hyundai Motorsport, 2C didn’t benefit from the very latest upgrades that the likes of Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak were racing with.
The regulation change for 2022 offered 2C the chance to reset. It was never realistically going to get its hands on an i20 N Rally1 – certainly not at the start of the season given Hyundai wasn’t even sure it would have enough cars ready for its own team.
Competitive options in the WRC were therefore disappearing, but it didn’t matter. The boss had his eyes elsewhere anyway.
“For two years I wanted to come to the ARA,” Florent Peronnet told DirtFish.
“We never had the opportunity last year but since October 2020 I worked on a project to come here with a WRC car, so I was in contact with a few drivers and also Hyundai Motorsport to see what was the opportunity and what we could do.
“I worked during all the winter to find a solution to come here. I was also in negotiation with this championship to find an agreement about the balance of performance we have to adapt on our car.
“It was a last-minute deal but in the middle of February we had the confirmation that we would come with our WRC car and Ken Block.”
It was a deal that sent shockwaves through US rallying, and provided both parties with an amazing opportunity. For Ken Block, he had his hands on a seriously competitive car in his bid for a maiden US rallying title, while it gave 2C a new lease of life in a new environment that it has so far flourished in.
But it hasn’t been easy – for multiple reasons.
Making the i20 Coupe WRC legal for the ARA’s Open 4WD class was a rigorous process (that even involved the FIA!). The turbo restrictor was reduced from 36 to 33mm, the shift time of the paddle-shift gearbox had to be increased and a meaty 150kg of ballast had to be added to the car.
However Block’s troubled start to the season made things even trickier.
“It was busy, very busy because we had some logistical issues before the first round,” Peronnet explained.
“We received the car one day before the first test session and the container arrived two days after, so just the day before the start of the race. We did a test session without any [spare] parts so we had to send in some tires, some extra parts by an emergency plane to be sure to be able to do a correct test session.
“The start of the race was pretty good but as you saw he had quite a huge impact on the last stage with a deer. OK at the end we are still in a good place, did a good result, but already [there was] some big damage on the car because the impact was at very high speed, so we had to rebuild the car after this race.”
That 100 Acre Wood Rally incident was nothing compared to what would follow on the Olympus Rally though.
“At the second race he had a huge [12G] impact in the trees, so the car was not completely destroyed but extremely damaged,” said Peronnet.
As we had to rebuild a complete car, it was a bit intenseFlorent Peronnet
“So we had to change the chassis, the engine and everything. Our logistics are a bit intense anyway as we come normally like four or five days before the test session and we stay every time one week after the race [to re-prep the car], so it’s a very intense and busy period because we are all working on the car to rebuild the car.
“As we had to rebuild a complete car, it was a bit intense but it’s our work and it was a challenge so everybody was happy to do it.”
2C now has a base in Indianapolis where all the re-prep work is done. It’s a serious operation – as evidenced by it flying out a brand-new chassis following Block’s big Olympus smash.
“You have to [be prepared for everything], you cannot consider the ARA championship like something ‘OK we will see later’,” reasoned Peronnet.
“In the container there was a spare chassis. Everything was ready like you would in a World Rally Championship season, so there are three spare gravel kits, three gearboxes, three shells, one complete car in terms of big parts like looms, engine and much more other parts.
“We are here to win. We prepare the car and we work on setup and everything as if it was a WRC event.”
The winning feeling is one 2C and Block have grown somewhat accustomed to since those troubled early rounds. Block heads into this week’s New England Forest Rally riding a strong wave of form thanks to victories at both the Oregon Trail and Southern Ohio Forest Rallies.
“I hope we will fight for the championship win,” said Peronnet.
“For us it’s also interesting in terms of the team, because I think we can show that a European team can come to another country, like USA, to develop another business and to show the capacity of the European team.
“[But] it’s not just in terms of business, we are here also because of passion and to fight for the win.”
In Block, it has the perfect driver to do just that too. There are plenty that feel the equipment at Block’s disposal is overpowered, but 2C knows a good driver when it sees one.
“Relations are very good, everybody is very happy to work with him and honestly he has very, very good feedback and we can try a lot of things with him on the car,” Peronnet shared.
“He’s a very busy man so it’s difficult to organize an extra test session, so everything is on the calendar but as soon as we have the chance to have him and do work with him it’s a real pleasure.
“It’s also funny for us because we are not used to having a driver who is coming by plane on the last minute, but he’s a business man, it’s normal.
“As soon as he’s in the race he’s very focused on the race. It’s amazing to see how he can change his behavior. He has his time for the fans and the autographs, but as soon as we can speak to him about the rally he is very focused. It’s impressive.”
The 2C, Block and i20 Coupe WRC alliance will come to an end at the conclusion of the season due to the change in O4WD regulations for next season that prohibit the use of World Rally Cars.
But it won’t be the end of the 2C and ARA story.
“It’s a championship in a country where you can find all the different type of events like WRC,” said Peronnet.
“There are roads like Finland, like Wales, and like a mix of Greece and Sardinia maybe so it’s very funny as you can find lots of different combinations of races of the WRC, and only in one country.
“Honestly it’s a very good, good championship [and] next year I would like to stay here, so if we could add a second car it would be very good.”
