The 2008 Fiesta SportingTrophy International series begins this week on the Rally d'Italia Sardegna - and five crews will take in the opening event of the six-round series.
This will be the third year of competition in which the one-make Ford Fiesta ST GpN cars run within selected events in the
FIA World Rally Championship and all crews will compete with a two-litre Duratec 1999cc engine on a control Pirelli tyre.
Returning for a second full year of FSTi action is Lithuanian Vytautas Baranauskas. Baranauskas finished all but one event last season stepping on the podium five times in seven events - including a win on Rallye de Espana. The driver from Kaunas was the only competitor to snatch a victory from the dominant 2007 FSTi champion Barry Clark.
Joining in the action from Turkey are three crews competing under the 'Castrol Ford Team Türkiye' banner. Leading the way will be 2007 Fiesta SportingTrophy Turkey champion Koray Muratoglu from Istanbul.
He will be joined by Emre Yurdakul, who is also from Istanbul. Yurdakul is familiar with driving the Fiesta on WRC events, finishing top placed Fiesta on last year's Rally Finland and was a finalist in the prestigious FST International Shootout held at M-Sport in December. As a warm-up to the Shootout the 25-year-old also contested Wales Rally GB last December; his first ever attempt at the British event.
Completing the Turkish trio is dual Turkish Ladies' Champion Burcu Cetinkaya. Cetinkaya is no stranger to the Fiesta ST and was selected as a wildcard entrant to last year's FST International Shootout after some impressive displays in the Turkish championship. Like her team-mate, Cetinkaya also contested Wales Rally GB in 2007 finishing in an impressive fourth position.
The fifth point to the pentagon is World Rally Championship debutant Denis Grodetskiy from Russia.
Of the five competitors embarking on the opening round of the 2008 FSTi series, only Baranauskas has competed on the event finishing fifth Fiesta last year. Now with seven WRC events under his belt, the Lithuanian will be aiming for the win.
![Barry Clark (GB) / Scott Martin (GB) Ford Fiesta ST [Pic credit: Fiesta Sporting Trophy International]. Rally d'Italia Sardegna, May 17-20 2007](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/325553.jpg)
