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

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

. 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