Of the rest, Andreas Aigner, Araujo Armindo and Juho Haninnen should all be strong contenders, as should 'wild cards' Guy Wilks and Gwyndaf Evans and David Higgins, who has taken over the TACK entry of Niall McShea.

Wilks, Evans and David Higgins, like Mark Higgins, will all be able to score PWRC and BRC points.

Stuart Jones meanwhile will switch to an MG Super 2000 Sport and in the process will make a bit of WRC history as he will be the first PWRC registered driver to use one of the new S2000 category cars.

“I am really excited to be using the MG Super 2000 Sport this weekend,” said Jones. “The car is still very much a development project but MSD have plenty of experience in this game.

“Wales Rally GB is the one event this year where I have previous experience and I'm hoping that it will help us end the season on a positive note.”

In total, 20 drivers' will be able to score PWRC points in GB, including Moto X star, Travis Pastrana, who won his second consecutive Rally America National Championship Series title back in October.

PWRC regulars such as Toshihiro Arai, #31, Fumio Nutahara, #35 and Nasser Al-Attiyah, #39 are not in action as it is not one of their nominated events.


Other significant entries:

Over 100 crews are due to start.

The Wales Rally GB once again sets the standard this year with the most competitors for a single round in the WRC.

Only two other events have managed to break into three figures this season, namely Finland and Germany, but GB betters both with 116 set to start.

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.