autosport.com posted an interview with Prodrive Chairman David Richards where he discusses the upcoming MINI Countryman WRC entries in the 2011 season of the World Rally Championship. Two Prodrive drivers have already been announced, they are Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo.
The MINI Countryman WRC joins the Citroën DS3 WRC and Ford Fiesta RS WRC for the 2011 season. Richard says “Volkswagen are about to announce their return to the World Rally Championship as well – and under the Volkswagen brand rather than Skoda” and may run a limited schedule of rallies like MINI will do. The entries list for Rally Sweden, the first event of the season, has been published but MINI is not entered.
The entry of MINI by Prodrive is generating a lot of interest in MINI Countryman WRC sales. Richard says:
“This is the first time I can remember for a long time that the private teams, private customers buying the Mini will have an identical car in every respect to the ones Dani and Kris are going to be driving.
“We’ve got cars going all over the world now. We’ve had orders from Brazil, Australia, the Middle East, the Far East, all across Europe, so you’ll see the Mini out there very quickly.”