Iron Dames has introduced plans to develop its transfer into rallying by fielding an all-female crew within the 2025 World Rally Championship.
The Italian workforce, working together with famend rally squad Sarrazin Motorsport, headed by former System 1, WRC and WEC driver Stephane Sarrazin, will subject an entry within the WRC2 class for Sarah Rumeau and co-driver Julie Amblard.
Rumeau and Amblard’s promotion to the WRC subsequent 12 months comes off the again of a season competing within the French Rally Championship the place they completed fifth on tarmac and sixth on gravel. They grew to become the primary feminine crew to realize such a feat since WRC nice Michele Mouton in 1979.
Iron Dames’ step as much as the WRC arrives after the operation, recognized for its exploits in sportscar racing, expanded into rallying this 12 months working Ford Fiesta Rally2 equipment.
Nevertheless, for 2025 it would swap to Citroen with Rumeau and Amblard set to pilot a C3 Rally2 for seven WRC2 rounds starting at Monte Carlo in January. The duo will even compete within the French Rally Championship once more subsequent 12 months.
“2024 was a 12 months of studying, we made progress on each gravel and tarmac. We completed the season fifth on asphalt and sixth on gravel,” stated Rumeau, the 2022 French Girls’s champion.
“With quite a lot of competitors, we managed to shut the gaps and that’s actually constructive. All year long we obtained quite a lot of recommendation from the Sarrazin Motorsport workforce, which enabled us to make quite a lot of progress. I can’t thank Deborah [Mayer, Iron Dames project founder] and the entire Iron Dames workforce sufficient for the boldness they’ve proven in us.
Deborah Mayer, Sarah Rumeau, Julie Amblard, Stéphane Sarrazin, Iron Lynx
Photograph by: Iron Lynx
“It’s been a rare 12 months in four-wheel drive, surrounded by individuals who assist us in the absolute best means. It offers us quite a lot of energy to maintain giving it our all. So now, we flip our faces towards 2025 with Citroen Racing and a brand new step ahead internationally. It’s a unbroken dream with all of the workforce, and I’m actually pleased with this.”
Mayer added: “We’re so pleased with what Sarah and Julie have achieved in only one 12 months.
“By their willpower and expertise, they embody the spirit of the Iron Dames and deserve this extraordinary 2025 programme.
“To see them comply with within the footsteps of such a Grande Dame as Michele Mouton is especially shifting. Their historic participation within the WRC is a good alternative for them and for Iron Dames as a challenge that opens doorways, units requirements and turns goals into actuality.
“Along with Sarrazin Motorsport, Citroen Racing and the FFSA, we’re pushing the boundaries for girls in rallying and paving the way in which for future generations to dream larger and goal larger.”
The WRC will even see an all-female crew compete within the Junior WRC subsequent season following the launch of the championship’s girls’s driver programme this 12 months. Claire Schonborn or Lyssia Baudet will earn a totally funded marketing campaign within the class, following a head-to-head shootout at Rally Sweden in February.
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