Duval bids for victory on Ypres Rally.

Ford Rallye Sport's rising stars, Belgium's Francois Duval and Jean-Marc Fortin will take a well deserved break from their demanding Junior World Rally and World Rally Championship programme this weekend - but rather than enjoy a weekend off, the madcap duo's idea of relaxation is competing in their home event, the Ypres Rally.

"Both Jean-Marc and I have competed in this event many times but never together. Since we both had the weekend off and the forecast didn't look too good for fishing we thought we may as well have a go," joked the 21 year old driver.

However the duo are indeed taking the event seriously and thanks to the support of Ford Belgium and SN Brussels, the country's national airline, will be competing in a 2001 specification Ford Focus WRC, owned and prepared by Italian Team, Euromotor

"Euromotor are successfully running two 2001 Ford Focus world rally cars in a number of Italian and European championships this year. They have a reputation for thorough preparation and very competitive vehicles and when the opportunity came up to work with them for Ypres we jumped at it," said Duval.

Francois and Jean-Marc are both very realistic about their chances over the weekend on a rally that is notorious for it's very unusual roads.

"Ypres is a very peculiar rally in that the road surface is very narrow, bumpy and dusty with huge water filled trenches lining the roads. Many of the stages are made up of long straights followed by 90degree corners - the longest is almost a kilometre so braking distance and keeping a good line are both very important!

Fortin believes performance on this event is about taking the right lines - and that's often cutting the corners.

"With big ditches along the sides of the roads the risk is high - if you go off it's unlikely you'll be able to get back on the road. Every driver tries to cut as many corners as possible but you never know what to expect and the results can be disastrous," he added.

The pair believes their strongest competition will come from fellow countrymen Bruno Thiry and Stephane Prevot, in a Peugeot WRC and Pieter Tsjoen and Steven Vergalle and their Hyundai Accent WRC.

"We have been working hard to get the car set up just right, but on surfaces like these chance and luck will play just as big a part as science when it comes to set up. We used yesterday's shakedown for fine-tuning and if we need to we will make any necessary adjustments on the first few stages tomorrow," concluded Duval.

Ypres Westhoek Rally 2002 - schedule:

Leg One - Friday 28 June 2002:

Start Ieper Expo 16.45
SS1 Merkem 1 11.10km 17.48
SS2 Sint Juliaan 1 8.65km 18.22
SS3 Zonnebeke 14.68km 18.41
SS4 Sauvegarde 1 16.41km 19.17
SS5 Merkem 2 11.10km 21.08
SS6 Sint Juliaan 2 8.65km 21.53
Finish Ieper Expo 23.55
Total SS 70.59km

Leg Two - Saturday 29 June 2002:

Start Ieper Expo 10.15
SS7 Westouter 1 13.00km 11.13
SS8 Krombeke 1 7.74km 11.55
SS9 Watou 1 16.99km 12.17
SS10 Hollebeke 1 19.42km 14.17
SS11 Heuvelland 1 32.84km 14.55
SS12 Westouter 2 13.00km 15.58
SS13 Krombeke 2 7.74km 17.40
SS14 Watou 2 15.99km 18.02
SS15 Hollebeke 2 19.42km 20.02
SS16 Heuvelland 2 32.54km 20.40
Finish Ieper Expo 22.40
Total SS 178.68km

Leg Three - Sunday 30 June 2002:

Start Ieper Expo 07.10
SS17 Sauvegarde 2 16.41km 08.05
SS18 Zonnebeke 2 14.68km 09.08
SS19 Hollebeke 3 19.42km 10.27
SS20 Sauvegarde 3 16.41km 10.59
Finish Ieper Podium 12.00
Total SS 66.92km

Total SS distance 314.88km