All the manufacturer teams’ will attend the event, although the OMV Kronos
Citroen WRT will
not field a #2 car for
Francois Duval.
In total 25 WRC cars are entered with Sebastian Lindholm in the new
Suzuki SX4 WRC, Jan Kopecky in privately entered Fabia WRC and JRC regular,
Conrad Rautenbach in a Citroen Xsara WRC.
Mads Ostberg will also compete in a WRC car, using a
Subaru Impreza, while Andreas Mikkelsen, Gareth Jones and Peter van Merksteijn boost the number of Ford Focus RS WRC cars entered to ten.
Of the rest, in addition to those competing for PWRC points, there will also be a number of BRC runners - 25 in total - four of which will be able to score points in both categories.
Six drivers’ remain in contention for the 2007 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship, including Mark Higgins, Guy Wilks, Gwyndaf Evans, Wyn Humphries, Rob Swann and Phillip Morrow
[see the RALLY UK channel on Crash.net for further details].
Other notable names include 2007 FSTi champion, Barry Clark, who will use a Group N car, as well as Martin Prokop, who finished third in the JRC this season, Dani Sola and Tony Jardine.
All-in-all 32 nations will be represented, including teams from Australia, Barbados, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, the USA and Zimbabwe.
Route:
The rally is again based in the forests of south Wales, with the start and finish in Cardiff.
The service park has been moved from the edge of Swansea to a more central location in the city's marina area, about 70km from Cardiff.
The route is virtually identical with just Sunday's Trawscoed stage showing major differences - it will be used in the opposite direction to 2006.
Friday's opening leg is the longest and is centred on the Vale of Neath forests, including the classic Resolfen and Rheola tests.
Saturday's competition is located further north, close to the Epynt military land. The day ends with a spectacular test inside Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and, as in previous years, the arena's sliding roof will be shut.
The final leg takes competitors west to Brechfa Forest, notorious for being foggy and slippery.
Drivers tackle 17 stages in total covering 359.54 kilometres in a route of 1271.94 kilometres.
