New Stobart Ford line-up to make its debut in Ireland

The Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team will be represented by a brand new line-up when the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship season gets underway on Rally Ireland.

It will be the first time that the WRC has started outside Monte Carlo since 1996, but the Cumbrian-based team says this could be beneficial, as previous successes on the Irish event give it a good chance of a strong result.

Stobart achieved its first-ever asphalt podium in Ireland when Jari-Matti Latvala secured third place on the inaugural running of the WRC event in 2007. Matthew Wilson is also a previous Ireland winner - winning it in 2005 when it was a national championship rally.

Rally Ireland will be the 50th WRC start for Wilson, who will celebrate his 22nd birthday on Thursday - the same day as shakedown. “This is obviously a special event for me having won it in the past and now it’s my 50th WRC start so hopefully it will be kind to me,” said Wilson. “As the first event of the year, it would be good to start off with a decent result and our pre-event test on Monday will certainly help with that. It will be a good boost to my confidence to get some miles in the test rather than going straight into the shakedown on Thursday morning.”

The first of the team’s points nominated drivers, Henning Solberg, is hoping this year’s event will go more smoothly than his last attempt in 2007. On that occasion he had to use a stand-in co-driver (Goran Bergsten) when regular navigator Cato Menkerud stayed at home during the birth of his second child.

“I don’t have a lot of experience on asphalt but when I competed on this rally in 2007 I was running in the top six on the first day, which was very good,” said Solberg. “It’s not a true tarmac rally because there is so much gravel and mud dragged across the road and I cope with these conditions better. The most difficult things about the stages are the high-speed sections and the unpredictable bumps, and it’s hard to get a good feeling with the car. We found a good setting on some tarmac events last year and with a test planned for Monday I’m sure we’ll start the rally with more confidence than before. I’d really like to start the year off well, and a finish inside the top six would be a good boost ahead of my home event in Norway two weeks later.”

The team’s second points nominated driver, Urmo Aava, will be making his Stobart Ford team debut in Ireland. The Estonian and co-pilot Kuldar Sikk completed the recce in 2007 but haven’t driven the event competitively before.

“When I did the recce in 2007 I found the most difficult part of the stage to understand was the grip,” he explained. “For sure this will be a very difficult rally, maybe even more so than Monte Carlo, and in some places it’s like Finland but only on tarmac - with very high speed sections over crests. The plan is to find a good rhythm but it’s most important to get the car to the finish. This is not a rally we want to attack in. This year is an extremely good chance for me in the Stobart team. We have seen some difficult times lately with teams pulling out, so I know how lucky I am to be with a strong team and will definitely make the most of this opportunity.”

Source:
http://www.wrc.com