Munchi's Ford World Rally Team

Embarking on its third season in the FIA World Rally Championship is the Munchi's Ford World Rally Team. Named after the Argentinean chain of ice-cream parlours owned by team founder Luis Perez Companc, the M-Sport supported squad will complete an eight-round programme this year with a varied driver line-up.

Seven time Argentine national rally champion Federico Villagra will contest all eight rallies, while the driver of the team's second Ford Focus will be announced on an event-by-event basis.

The team was established in 2007 when rally enthusiast Perez Companc got together with Villagra to take on the best drivers in the world. Both successful competitors in their home country of Argentina, Companc and Villagra were nevertheless two of the least experienced international rally competitors in the 2007 field. Unsurprisingly their goal for the season was to learn; to familiarise themselves with the rallies in the series, and to improve their pace as they went along. And looking back at the season that's exactly what they did.

After winning 14 manufacturers' championship points in 2007, the objective for 2008 was to score more. In fact the team scored 22 and had the factory Suzuki team worried for much of the season. Villagra kept his South American fans happy by scoring his best result, sixth, in Argentina and Mexico. Business commitments cut short Perez Companc's season, but stand-ins like Henning Solberg and Barry Clark kept the points rolling in.

Embarking on his third year with the Ford Focus, Villagra will be the mainstay of the Munchi's again in 2009 and may well punch in some surprising results - especially in Argentina.