Rally Perce-Neige kickstarted the Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup North America
Words by David Evans, DirtFish Head of Media
If you want to win, take a Finn. That’s been the thinking around rallying for decades.
Maybe it’s time for a rethink – especially if you’re running a two-wheel drive car in North America.
If you want to win, take a Peugeot 208 Rally4.
Last weekend’s Rally Perce-Neige was the opening round of the Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup North America and, once again, the 208 locked out the class podium on the Canadian Rally Championship counter. Vincent Lalande set the pace to take maximum points in the one-make series which spans both Canada and America.
Lalande won the class by 32 seconds from Nicolas Laverdiére’s 208 – but it was the car’s speed in the overall competition which caught the eye. ‘Crazy Leo’ won the event outright in his Subaru Impreza. Lalande was first two-wheel drive home in ninth place, but he still managed to set times inside the top three overall.
The Peugeot has now won its class on all 25 rallies its started and demonstrated a 100% mechanical reliability record.
Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup North America heads south across the border to Missouri for next month’s 100 Acre Wood Rally, where Team FJ president and CEO Jerome Galpin is confident of more cars and more competition.
A delighted Galpin told DirtFish 2026 had already gone above and beyond what he expected. He said: “We are extremely happy and impressed the way the Stellantis Rally Cup North America is taking shape. We currently have six cars racing in North America and five more are on their way.
“This is a great result that already passed our expectations for the first year, but more and more drivers can notice the level of performance and reliability of the 208R4 as well as the very unique chance the Cup is offering to the drivers to develop their career.
“So we now set up bigger expectations.”
Talking about the 208’s potential, Galpin added: “Since we started this program, we raced 25 rallies with 100% reliability, total domination in 2WD class, multiple overall top five and even [overall] podiums and a victory. This shows that today the Peugeot 208 Rally4 is the ultimate car to win the 2WD championships and probably the best performance, reliability and cost rally car in North America.
“Driving it myself at Rally Perce Neige, discovering both the Peugeot 208R4 and rally on snow, I was surprised how easy, fun and performant the car is. The only thing you want at the end of the rally is to race the next one as soon as possible!
“At the next round, in 100 Acre Wood, we should have some American competitors starting their program. Our Partner Argonaut Motorsport should have two cars and we expect some others to come. We can’t wait to come back in Missouri to launch American part of the Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup Noth America.”
Words:David Evans
Tags: Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup North America
Publish Date February 11, 2026 DirtFish
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