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Another huge top-class ERC field in Ypres with plenty of big names

Another impressive entry has built for the next round of the FIA European Rally Championship, the Kenotek Ypres Rally.

Entries for the classic Belgian asphalt event (23-25 June) closed earlier this week, with 100 cars presently on the provisional entry list. Of these, 29 will be R5 cars, joined by a couple of older Super 2000 models.

There is great quality as well as quantity at the top of the list, led by Estonia's Ott Tänak and French aces Bryan Bouffier and Stéphane Lefebvre. ERC regulars heading to Belgium will be Alexey Lukyanuk, Jaromír Tarabus, Dávid Botka, Tomasz Kasperczyk and Antonín Tlusťák. Jaroslav Orsák, Hermen Kobus and Martin McCormack make second appearances of the season, while Petter Kristiansen and Jourdan Serderidis return for their first starts of the year.

Ten-time Ypres winner Freddy Loix will start as a favourite, and is one of 18 Belgian drivers set to pilot R5 machinery. Among these will be other past Ypres winners Kris Princen and Pieter Tsjoen, as well as Vincent Verschueren, Guillaume Dilley, Ghislain De Mevius, Didier Duquesne and Claudie Tanghe.

In ERC2, Tibor Erdi Jr will hope to repeat his category win from 2015, challenged by Giacomo Scattolon.

The ERC Junior field increases in popularity again with the additions of Callum Devine, Catie Munnings and Kristof Klausz, while Gergely Fogasy and Polle Geusens join an ERC3 contingent that includes the class winner from the SEAJETS Acropolis Rally, Murat Bostanci.

Zdroj: fiaerc.com