There will be a touch of "Vive La France" when the city’s big sporting event, The Pirelli International Rally, hits town over the weekend of 18^th / 19^th. April for the rally has been chosen as the opening round for the C2R2 Cup, an exciting new series supported by Citroen Sport France, aimed at giving young drivers the opportunity to make an affordable start in top line motorsport be .

The Citroen championship drivers have the added incentive of being eligible for the Pirelli Star driver award, an extremely lucrative and sought after prize, which offers one lucky young driver the opportunity of a fully funded season in the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.

A spokesman for the Pirelli International Rally said, "We are delighted that the C2R2 Cup participants are coming to Carlisle and we will certainly be showing them some typical Cumbrian hospitality. They will provide a colourful addition to the weekends rally action and we expect that the competition will be extremely close fought and fierce"

The Pirelli International Rally is the opening round of the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship and features two days of intense competition over special stages in Cumbria and Kielder Forest while the start and finish podium is located right in the middle of Carlisle city centre, bringing rallying to a wider audience.  The main event is supported by The Pirelli Historic Rally, The Pirelli National Rally and The Pirelli Land Rover Rally and it is expected that almost 200 cars and crews will be heading for Carlisle to participate in some of the most popular events in the motorsport calendar.