Young guns Nick Kenny and George Gwynn will be adding a touch of youthfulness to the proceedings. Despite their combined age of just 43 years the pair have already tasted success in 2007 and are worth watching.
2006 Stars of the Future champion David Meredith returns this year at the wheel of a Mitsubishi Evo 9 but the Welshman admits that it will take time to adjust to the more powerful machinery at his disposal.
David Higgins, another former British champion, returns for a full assault on the championship having contested selected rounds in 2006. David will be at the wheel of a new Toyota S2000 which, despite no testing, should go well.
“We’ve had a bit of a delay in receiving the car as there was a problem sourcing a left hand drive. This means that we might not have the opportunity to do any testing before the opening round which is not ideal. On a personal level I have been training hard and recently won the opening round of the Chinese Rally championship so at least I’ve been keeping my hand in the game,” he noted.
Offering a similar level of vocal output to the S2000 are the Super 1600 cars. The 2006 junior champion, Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach, returns, this year at the wheel of a Citroen C2 S1600. But he will face competition from the likes of Darren Gass and category newcomer Stefan Davis.
Stefan is finding the transition from Peugeot 205 to S1600 quite a steep learning curve: “I’m getting to know the car rather intimately as it needs a fair bit of work done to it. We’ve only managed a short test so far and still have a lot of work to do. 2007 is a learning year but I still hope to be fairly competitive.”
