Following their best points-haul of the season in Germany though in mid-August, where Andreas Aigner finished sixth and DTM ace, Mattias Ekstrom 11th, team boss, Armin Schwarz, has pledged that they will be testing 'extensively' for that event, which will see Harri Rovanpera return to their line-up alongside Aigner.
"First off I want to congratulate the entire team including the co-drivers, but especially Andreas, who has driven a great rally and who really came up to my expectations," summed-up Schwarz, after the Rallye Deutschland. "The thorough testing in conjunction with several technical improvements contributed a lot to this success. That's why in the coming weeks we will be testing extensively in Austria again with Harri Rovanpera and Andreas Aigner for our next rally in Cyprus."
Production Car WRC:
In the Production Car WRC, 12 of the 16 drivers contesting the series have opted to compete in Japan - those who will not take in the event include Nasser Al-Attiyah, Nigel Heath and the OMV CEE squad.
Toshi Arai will also
not be eligible to score PCWRC points as this is not one of his six nominated PCWRC events. He is in action though, but in a WRC car [see below].
Attiyah currently leads the race for the Production Car WRC championship with 34 points. Mirco Baldacci is second on 17 points, while Arai is third on 15. Leszek Kuzaj is next up in fourth with 13 points, while Fumio Nutahara has ten and is fifth. Whatever happens this weekend then Attiyah will remain on top going into the next PCWRC event in Cyprus.
