Stéphane Sarrazin returns to the World Championship with the Tour de Corse!
Winner of the Critérium des Cévennes and the Tour de Corse last year, as well as the Rallye Mont-Blanc most recently, Stéphane Sarrazin is about to return to the World Rally Championship. In the next edition of the Tour de Corse, TOYOTA’s official driver as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship will be defending his titles, behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta WRC entered by First Motorsport. Together with codriver Jacques-Julien Renucci, they will compete under the colours of KCMG Composites and ORECA Store, amongst others.
Stéphane Sarrazin knows rally racing quite well, he has regularly competed in the discipline those recent years with his title in the 2004 French Championship, his entries in the IRC and the ERC as well as his official campaigns for Subaru in 2005 and 2006. Actually, it’s the World Rally Championship that the driver from le Gard will soon return to, participating in the Tour de Corse, French round of the competition. Stéphane has carefully prepared this return in WRC. Following on the Italian roads of the Rally Internazionale del Casentino, the French driver also took part in the Rallye Mont-Blanc which he won for the third time (previous successes in 2004 and 2012). He dedicated that win to Frédéric Comte who passed away in a tragic accident during the first stage of the rally.
After the 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Stéphane Sarrazin will return to the Tour de Corse (October 1st – 4th) which is back on the WRC’s schedule for the first time since 2008. With the same team and the same car – in a WRC setup as opposed to RRC – that he won with in 2014, as part of the ERC, Stéphane will have to face some very serious contenders.
“I’m happy to be at the start of the Tour de Corse. It’s a rally that I particularly appreciate. I’m also very pleased to return to the World Championship” he confides. “Of course my objectives aren’t the same as last year. WRC contenders are very high quality drivers! We’re going to fight with what we’ve got: a certain knowledge of the site, a perfect harmony with the team and a good understanding of the car on that type of roads. Obviously I’ll have to find the right pace again but that’s the reason why I took part in two other rallies those last couple of weeks. We want to rely on consistency: our aim is to avoid the several pitfalls that we could encounter in this edition. We’ll do the math at the end, with the idea of “rocking the boat” somewhere in our minds!”
Just like when he won in 2014, Stéphane Sarrazin will have Jacques-Julien Renucci as codriver. The duet will be on board the WRC Ford Fiesta entered by First Motorsport and competing under the colours of KCMG Composites and Oreca-Store.com
About Oreca-Store.com
French leader in multi-platform sales of equipment and accessories related to motorsport and leisure, not only through its catalogue, but also its website and shops, ORECA Store is also a European leader and continues to regularly progress internationally, particularly with some partnerships on the Asian market. With 18 million pages visited per year, the French website www.oreca-store.com has now been updated with an English version accessible to all at www.oreca-store.eu.
Exclusive supplier of several brands, including on an international level, ORECA Store gathers no less than 35 000 references satisfying both fans and competitors. Indeed 250 leading brands are available, not only in terms of equipment or mechanics but also clothing products or car and motorbike accessories.
About KCMG Composites
Ambitioning to provide mass production capabilities in the manufacturing of structural parts made of advanced composite materials, KCMG Composites was created in 2014. KCMG Composites is a European company with an engineering centre based in Ireland and manufacturing plants located in Taiwan.
For the automotive industry, KCMG Composites develops suspension elements (triangle, brackets, etc.) aiming for weight reduction. The company also produces carbon chassis for electrical and hybrid models of the most important car manufacturers’.
KCMG Composites also works within the aviation sector, supplying Fly Case’s lightweight panels, ULDs as well as seat parts and composite materials on board aircrafts.