VW Polo Super 1600's ready for Wales rally action.

The Milton Keynes workshops of Volkswagen Racing UK are playing host this week to the Junior World Rally Championship [JWRC] Polo Super 1600s of Kosti Katajamaki and Oscar Svedlund as they prepare for the final round of the series, the Wales Rally GB.

The event gets underway from Cardiff on Thursday [6 November] and finishes back in the city on Sunday afternoon after 376km of special stage rallying in the Welsh forests.

There are high hopes for a good result on the Wales Rally GB for Finland's Katajamaki and his Swedish running mate Svedlund, both of whom have shown strong pace this season.

"Kosti knows the event very well," said Volkswagen Racing UK managing director Sam Roach, "and has every confidence that the Polo will be competitive in Wales. We are delighted to welcome the Lehtonen Motorsport team to our base, and to be assisting them in their preparations for the final round of the Junior WRC."

Katajamaki made a strong start to his season, leading the way in Monte Carlo and winning the Junior class in Turkey in March to take the championship lead. But since then he's been out of luck, failing to finish any of the subsequent four events. Last time out, in Catalunya, his Polo suffered accident damage.

Katajamaki holds eighth place overall in the Junior WRC driver standings and Svedlund is in 14th.

The Lehtonen team's Junior WRC programme is supported by Shell, Nokian Tyres, DNA, Superfastferries, Bosch, Blaupunkt, OMP, OZ Racing, Lecab, Kessel, Rannila, M?kela Alu oy and Sokos Hotels.