Italian driver Alessandro Bettega, the son of the legendary Attilio, is to embark on an IRC campaign with the Honda Civic Type R R3 this year, giving a new dimension to the recently-launched IRC 2WD Cup.

Honda, one of the Intercontinental Rally Challenges's registered manufacturers, already has one season of the IRC series behind it, culminating in an excellent best result of fifth place overall on the all-asphalt Rallye du Valais in Switzerland.

The all-new Civic, which is built to the latest FIA regulations, will make its debut on the Ypres Rally Belgium from June 27-28, and will then compete on six more rallies in the IRC series.

The car will be run by Italian team Procar, which already has previous experience of the IRC. It was originally built by JAS Motorsport in Italy – Honda's long-time competitions partner – which will give Procar technical support throughout the season.

Bettega has packed a lot of experience into a comparatively short space of time, and recently finished second overall in the Junior World Rally Championship classification at his native Rally d'Italia-Sardinia.

Procar's Daniele Pelliccioni commented: "Having seen how competitive the car was last year, we are all very excited about this new challenge on the IRC. It's the first time that we have worked with Honda and this category of car, but we are all hopeful of our prospects as we have plenty of experience in rallying along with a very quick driver and an exciting new car. I am convinced that we can put all these elements together to achieve some good results this year."

JAS Motorsport Team Principal Alessandro Mariani added: "We are really happy to have the new Honda Civic challenging for the two-wheel drive title on the IRC this year. Procar and Alessandro are sure to represent an excellent combination in finalizing all the development work we have completed so far."