Meeke makes Citroen C2 switch.

McRae Motorsport driver Kris Meeke will drive the Citroen C2 Super 1600 car on the final round of the Junior World Rally Championship, the Catalunya Rally, which runs from October 29-31.

The 24-year-old, who is the prot?g? of 1995 world champion Colin McRae, will switch to the C2, which will be run by Kronos Racing, having driven a privately-run Opel Corsa since the beginning of the 2003 season.

The C2 is the successor the French marque's all-conquering Saxo Super 1600 machine, which won the JWRC category in the hands of current World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sola in 2001 and 2002 respectively. It has been driven successfully this year in the European and French championships, as well as making a one-off outing on Rally Deutschland.

"Having the opportunity to drive a car that has had so much factory development put into it was too good an opportunity to miss," said Meeke. "The car has been thoroughly tested in the European Championship and showed good pace when it ran on Rally Deutschland earlier this season, so I am confident that now is the right time to prove its pace in the ultra-competitive environment of the JWRC.

"Having another driver in the C2 is also going to be a good benchmark for me and watching team managers, and that is something we have lacked with the Corsa this year - nobody has really known where we are relative to the others. This is a one-off run at the moment, but the intention is to put in a performance that will open some opportunities up for next year.

"I have enjoyed a lot of success in the Corsa, winning the Junior British Rally Championship title in it in 2003, as well as scoring three JWRC podiums while driving for the team over the past two years. Those results are a credit to the Team Palmer that ran the car, and I'm grateful to them for all their help and assistance. They achieved far more than anyone could have expected on such a limited budget."

Meeke is sixth in this year's JWRC points standings, 18 behind the title leader, with one round still to run. Although he can no longer win the championship, he is hoping the switch to the C2 will give him an opportunity to end the year on a high.

"Although I have scored two podiums this year and set several fastest times, this switch represents my best opportunity to put right one thing that is still missing from my CV - a win at the JWRC level," said Meeke, who took second in Catalunya last year.

"It's going to be hard making the step up against drivers who have spent the whole year driving their cars, and are therefore used to every intricate detail of them, but I like to think I can learn pretty quickly and that I will be in the thick of the battle. Because I will be driving the car Bruno Thiry is using in the European Championship, and he has a rally in Antibes the week before Catalunya, fitting a test in is going to be hard. But the car has done 16 asphalt rallies this year, so it should be well set up."

Meeke's mentor, Colin McRae added: "The battle between the Citroen C2 and Renault Clio, which won last year's JWRC title, has been close in the European Championship all year, so we decided to take this step to give Kris an opportunity to show the team managers what he can achieve when he is in a factory-supported car. As the only front-running Opel driver it was hard for teams to judge where the car was relative to the others, but this should give Kris an opportunity to prove what he can do. Team Palmer worked very hard, but a privateer team will always be up against it when it is taking on manufacturer-backed squads. The chance to drive for Kronos Racing with so much manufacturer input was just too good an opportunity to turn down."