MINI WRC Team Prepares for Wales Rally GB

The MINI WRC Team is now heading home for Wales Rally GB and the final round of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship. The forest stages of Wales are famous throughout the rally world and an event including them has been part of the WRC since its inception in 1973.

Not only is the MINI WRC Team based in the UK, but this is also a home event for Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle in the number 52 MINI John Cooper Works WRC. Meanwhile for their team-mates, Dani Sordo and Carlos del Barrio in the number 37 MINI, Wales has proved a happy hunting ground in the past.

Meeke made his WRC debut in Wales back in 2005 and then his last visit to the event was in 2006. Sordo has considerably more experience here, as he has competed on the event every year since 2006 and in 2008 and 2009 was on the podium.

Even though this is only the sixth WRC event for the team, the results have exceeded expectations with two podiums and several fastest stage times. This week the team and both its drivers have been testing at Walters Arena, situated in the Neath Valley South Wales in preparation for the event and familiarising themselves with Wales's capricious weather patterns that almost always prove a factor in the outcome of the UK's November event.

6th November, 2011