Special event for Bozian.

Bozian Racing will celebrate their 100th and 101st entries in the FIA World Rally Championship in Australia this weekend, when they run two Peugeot 307 WRC cars for Manfred Stohl and Henning Solberg under the 'OMV Peugeot Norway World Rally team' banner.

The team have had some notable results this season and as well as easily being the top M2 squad, they have also managed two podiums, the most recent in Turkey two weeks ago, when Henning stood on a WRC rostrum for the very first time. Along with Stohl's eighth place the outfit also closed the gap to Subaru in the manufacturers', the margin going down from 20 points to 16.

"We have already proven this year that we, as a private team, can indeed compete with one or other of the works teams," said team boss, Jackie Bozian. "Now we are seriously challenging Subaru too for third in the constructors'."

Henning meanwhile is on cloud-nine after his third place finish in Turkey and the Norwegian, who is the older brother of Petter, is hopeful he can get another top five finish, even if this will be his debut outing on the Perth event.

"At the moment I'm in top form and have the perfect feeling with my Peugeot 307 WRC. We are in Australia for the first time though and therefore we somewhat lack experience. But I am nevertheless sure that we can be fast on these unknown roads, thanks to our self-confidence. We can finish in the top five anytime," he predicted prior to the fourteenth round in the championship.

Stohl is also upbeat having scored points on nine occasions thus far this season. Furthermore while he wasn't overly pleased with his form in the wet in Turkey, rain shouldn't be an issue in Australia and his podium 'down under' in 2005 also bodes well: "We have learned in Japan and Turkey that we do have problems under wet conditions. But it should be dry in Australia - which is in our favour," he added. "Additionally, this rally suits me and is one of my absolute favourite runs. One mustn't be deceived even if only ten World Rally Cars compete though. Eight of these do stand a chance to reach the top three. It is going to be a fight for each and every second."

For the record, Bozian Racing, which was founded in 1969, began competing in the WRC in 2001. The French-based outfit has fielded cars for a number of top WRC drivers', including in addition to Stohl and Henning, Harri Rovanpera, Gilles Panizzi, Didier Auriol, Roman Kresta and Ari Vatanen.