Jesús Puras Vidal de la Peña (born March 16 1963), also known as 'Chus Puras', is a Spanish
rally
Rally or rallye may refer to:
Gatherings
* Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade
* Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event
Sport ...
driver active in the
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
from 1991 to 2002. Puras was well known for his blistering performances on tarmac rallies.
Career
![Jesús Puras - 1998 Rallye Cantabria](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Jes%C3%BAs_Puras_-_1998_Rallye_Cantabria.jpg)
Puras debuted in rallying in 1982 and captured the
Spanish Rally Championship title eight times; in 1990 and 1992 with a
Lancia Delta Integrale 16V, in 1995 and 1997 with a
Citroën ZX
The Citroën ZX is a small family car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1991 and 1998.
During the beginning of the 1990s, the ZX was Citroën's competitor in the class traditionally dominated in Europe by the Ford Escort and ...
16S, from 1998 to 2000 with a
Citroën Xsara
The Citroën Xsara () is a compact car, compact C-segment family car, produced by the France, French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën, under their Citroën marque, from 1997 to 2006. The Xsara was a development of the Citroën ZX and Peugeot 306, w ...
Kit Car and in 2002 with a
Citroën Xsara WRC
The Citroën Xsara WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Citroën World Rally Team by Citroën Racing to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Citroën Xsara road car. The car was introduced for the 2001 World Rally Champ ...
. Driving a
Ford Escort RS Cosworth
The Ford Escort RS Cosworth is a rally version homologation special of the fifth generation European Ford Escort. It was designed to qualify as a Group A car for the World Rally Championship, in which it competed between 1993 and 1998. It was ...
, he also won the 1994 FIA
Group N
In relation to international motorsport governed by the FIA, Group N refers to regulations providing 'standard' large scale series production vehicles for competition. They are limited in terms of modifications permitted to the standard specifi ...
Cup (now as
World Rally Championship-3
The FIA WRC3 is a support championship of the World Rally Championship. The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after WRC2 entrants. Entry into WRC3 is limited to cars th ...
).
Along with teammate
Philippe Bugalski
Philippe Bugalski (12 June 1963 – 10 August 2012) was a French rally driver.
Bugalski became a works Renault driver in the French Rally Championship in 1994. In 1998, he joined the works Citroën team, with whom he won the French national titl ...
, he was chosen by the
Citroën Total World Rally Team to be part of their driver line-up for the first bit-part campaign with the
Citroën Xsara Kit Car in
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
. He secured his only WRC win at the 2001
Tour de Corse
The Tour de Corse is a rally first held in 1956 on the island of Corsica. It was the French round of the World Rally Championship from the inaugural 1973 season until 2008, was part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge from 2011 to 2012, and ...
with
co-driver
A co-driver is the navigator of a rally car in the sport of rallying, who sits in the front passenger seat. The co-driver's job is to navigate, commonly by reading off a set of pacenotes to the driver (what lies ahead, where to turn, the severity ...
Marc Martí
Marc Martí Moreno (born 1 October 1966) is a Spanish rally co-driver.
Biography
He debuted in the World Rally Championship (WRC) as a co-driver to Oriol Gómez in 1992. In the 1999 season, he began his partnership with Jesús Puras and the ...
(who then went on to pilot former double world champion
Carlos Sainz and in recent years,
Dani Sordo
Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland.
Career
Sordo began in motocross wh ...
) with the
Citroën Xsara WRC
The Citroën Xsara WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Citroën World Rally Team by Citroën Racing to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Citroën Xsara road car. The car was introduced for the 2001 World Rally Champ ...
.
However, with performances overshadowed by the upcoming
Sébastien Loeb
Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rallying, rally, auto racing, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nin ...
, he retired from the Citroën factory team and the WRC in
2002, ending with a sixth place in his last rally – the 2002
Rallye Sanremo Rallye Sanremo is a rally competition held in Sanremo, Italy. Except for the 1995 event, the event was part of the FIA World Rally Championship schedule from the 1973 season to the 2003 season. Currently, it is a round of the Intercontinental Rall ...
.
WRC victories
WRC results
References
External links
Puras at the World Rally Archive
1963 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Santander, Spain
World Rally Championship drivers
Rally drivers from Cantabria
Spanish rally drivers
Dakar Rally drivers
{{Europe-rally-bio-stub
Citroën Racing drivers