Other contenders for the class honours meanwhile include last year's Finland J-WRC winner Patrik Sandell in his Renault Clio S1600, plus the likes of Jaan Molder, Aaron Burkart, Alessandro Bettega and Martin Prokop.
Prokop will be especially determined to do well, after leading comfortably last year until an off on day 2 in SS14. He was also battling for the class honours in Sardinia too, until disaster struck when a fuel pressure problem forced him to stop mid-stage in the penultimate test and he lost 29 minutes.
The Czech is looking ahead though, not back: "I love the Rally Finland. Even though this is my fourth participation, I start just as motivated – if not more so – than ever. After some disappointing results at the start of the year, Finland will be a new challenge for us," he confirmed.
In total 17 runners will be able to score Junior WRC on the '1000 Lakes', including Kalle Pinomaki, who is entered on his home round as 'wildcard' in a
Suzuki Swift Super 1600.
Production Car WRC:
Round 5.
Rally Finland is the fifth round in the PWRC and with runaway championship leader Andreas Aigner not nominating it, it will give his rivals a chance to try and make up some ground.
Jari Ketomaa and Juho Hanninen, who are 16 and 18 points adrift respectively, will both want to exploit their home advantage and take the maximum ten points.
Hanninen goes to Finland fresh from winning the IRC event in Russia and he has only competed on two PWRC events so far this year and as such will take in all four remaining rounds.
"Of course, I like this rally," said Hanninen. "Everybody likes to drive at home. But at the same time, it's not the easy rally. And some times there can be a little bit more pressure when you are at home. But let's see. It's going to be an interesting fight - especially with what the weather might do."
Finnish 'wildcard' entries Juho Salo and Jussi Vallimaki will also no doubt be in the running for a PWRC podium, as will last year's Rally Finland Group N winner and rising Swedish rally star Patrik Flodin. All three compete in Mitsubishi Evos.
![Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) / Jarmo Lehtinen (FIN), BP Ford Focus RS WRC 07. Rally Finland, August 2-5 2007 [PIC CREDIT: Ford/worldralypics.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/359017.jpg)
