"Markko Martin's participation in Rally Estonia is very good news for the rally fans. For the organisers this means bigger publicity, good competition and a great opportunity to introduce Estonia in Europe. As Markko is starting in Rally Estonia, there is a very big possibility that victory of Rally Estonia will come to Estonia." said the event director, Urmo Aava.
Martin stormed to the win on last year's event, driving his own MM Motorsport run Ford Focus WRC03, a car which he says is his favourite world rally car. The 2010 event marked the return to competitive driving for the Estonian, who took five wins and drove for three manufacturers, Subaru, Ford & Peugeot, during his 5 year WRC career. More recently, he has taken part in tests for Ford and Subaru.
The Estonian is seen as a good event for pre-Rally Finland testing in a competitive environment. This year's event will see Kris Meeke take part for the MINI WRC Team, Mads Ostberg for the M-Sport Stobart Ford Rally Team as well as René & Dennis Kuipers for FERM Powertools World Rally Team. Meeke and Ostberg will drive the cars in which they will take part in Rally Finland in. It will be interesting to see how Martin's older 2.0 Turbo car will stack up to the new 1.6 Turbo cars. WRC Academy drivers Alistair Fisher, Craig Breen, Molly Taylor and Egon Kaur will also take part in their Ford Fiesta's.
Mads Ostberg, Ford Fiesta RS WRC, said: "Markko Martin starting means this will be a good rally, and we are going to fight for the victory for sure. We are working with different set-ups, though, and our goal is to get a good feeling before Rally Finland."
Martin's MM Motorsport team will run four cars, two Focus WRC's, a Group N Impreza and a Ford Fiesta, for Martin himself, Georg Gross, Sander Parn and Egon Kaur, respectively. Latvian Ivars Vasaraudzis will take part in a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC for the Skandi Motors Rally Team, the same team under which Jari Ketomaa will drive a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X R4.
No comments:
Post a Comment