Kankkunen gets Hyundai drive for Finland.

The Hyundai Castrol World Rally Team will be running a three-car team for Rally Finland, the ninth round of the World Rally Championship, to include four-time World Champion Juha Kankkunen and co-driver Juha Repo.

They will compete in an Accent WRC? and will be accompanied by Hyundai regulars Kenneth Eriksson and Staffan Parmander, and Alister McRae and David Senior.

Kankkunen, who has been familiarising himself with the Finnish terrain since his debut event there in 1979, will no doubt add strength to the team having been on the podium no less than eight times, three of which were outright wins in 1991, '93 and '99.

"I am delighted to be driving for Hyundai at my home event. The Accent is a new challenge for me and we are hoping for a strong result," commented the Finn, looking forward to competing on home turf again.

David Whitehead, Hyundai Castrol World Rally Team Principal is optimistic; "Finland is such a specialist event where local drivers usually have the edge on others. By using Juha, we hope to tap into his enormous experience on these unique fast flowing roads and bring the team the success we are looking for".

Kankkunen and Repo are scheduled to test the Hyundai Accent WRC? in Finland for several days prior to the event.

The next round of the World Rally Championship is Safari Rally, July 20-22, which the Hyundai Castrol World Rally Team will not contest. This will be followed by Rally Finland, which runs from August 24-26.