Harry Hunt will have a new co-driver when he resumes the defence of his Intercontinental Rally Challenge 2WD Cup title on Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Inglés this week.
The 22-year-old Briton has recruited countryman Robbie Durant to partner him on the all-asphalt event, which features 12 special stages and gets underway with a ceremonial start on Thursday evening.
“One of the areas I need to work on is my pacenotes,” said Hunt. “I’m getting there and working really hard but it’s all about experience. Robbie brings so much experience and that can only help me. We spent a day together testing in France and it went really well. I know it’s not going to be an easy rally although I tend to adapt quicker to Tarmac rallies I don’t know than I do to new gravel rallies.”
Hunt will start Rally Islas Canarias on the back of a recent two-day test in Monchique, north of Portimao in Portugal’s Algarve region. The London-based driver sampled two different roads representative of the conditions found on Gran Canaria. He covered approximately 300 kilometres.
Iwan Evans, the boss of Hunt’s I Cars Motorsport team, explained: “We worked on car set-up, tyre choice and tyre pressures and everything went to plan. A top three in the IRC 2WD Cup would be a great result and it’s more than realistic.”