Next weekend (19th/20th) June the 5th round of this years IRC will take place in Belgium. It's the best entry list for the IRC yet with 3xSkoda, 12xPeugeot, 2xFiat, 1xProton, 1xOpel and 1xPolo S2000 entered.

The 3 Skodas will be driven by Duval, Kopecky and Hanninen and there are 2 Brits in the event too (Meeke - Peugeot & Wilks - Proton)

There will be 4 hours of live tv on Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2 and online, including the 33km Heuvelland stage!

Further info in the links below:

Official IRC site: IRC - Intercontinental Rally Challenge

TV schedule: Unprecedented live tv for IRC Ypres : Rallye-Info.com

Duval's Skoda: Duval to drive Fabia S2000 on Ypres : Rallye-Info.com

Skoda test videos:

Test ?koda Motorsport Vy?kov (rz Vá?any) 2 - 3. 6. 09 | Stream.cz

Dailymotion - Skoda Fabia Super 2000 Pre-Ypres 2009 Night Test - a Oto-Moto video

I'll be there, setting off to Dover on the 17th, back on the 22nd

Duval's first test:

Enjoy the rally Gee!

TV Coverage

Eurosport will be broadcasting (and streaming) 4 stages (2 x 2) live similar to their coverage of RMC which proved such a resounding success. Broadcast Plan for 2009 Belgium Ypres rally

* Friday 19 June

19:15-20:15 : LIVE Stage 3 / Lille-Eurométropole1 (9,78 km) - Eurosport

23:00-24:00 : LIVE Stage 6 / Lille-Eurométropole2 (9,78 km) - Eurosport

* Saturday 20 June

16:00-17:00 : LIVE Stage 11 / Heuvelland1 (32,75 km) - Eurosport 2

21:15-22:15 : LIVE Stage 16 / Heuvelland2 (32,75 km) Rally's Final stage – Eurosport

Please note those are central Europe times, so for those in the UK we are one hour earlier (ie stage 3, 19:15 is actually 18:15 here in the UK)

2 Skodas were joint fastest with one Peugeot in the shakedown yesterday evening In all, there were 6 cars within 0.2s on the 5km stage they used! Full times:

Ypres Shakedown times : Rallye-Info.com

Shakedown Vid here

Day one report here, Duval crashed on the first corner but the other two are going well:

Loix leads after day one in Belgium : Rallye-Info.com

Britain's Kris Meeke (Peugeot) won whilst the Skodas came 2nd and 5th, final report here:

Meeke makes it three in a row! : Rallye-Info.com

What a great time in Belgium.. lovely place and a cracking rally

Well done Chris Meek, and managed to get to Freddie Loix's after party about 6am after the pubs :P