Rautenbach confirms WRC return

Former FIA African Rally Champion Conrad Rautenbach will return to the World Rally Championship next season - but will spend this season at home in Africa contesting up to 16 rallies as he gets to grips with his new Ford Fiesta Super 2000 car.

The 24-year-old, who drove for the Citroen Junior Team last season, says returning to his homeland is the best way for him to prepare for the next generation of World Rally Cars coming to the sport in 2011.

He said: “The new cars are going to be based on current Super 2000 cars, so the best way for me to get ready for the 2011 World Rally Championship is to spend as much time as possible learning about Super 2000 cars and finding my way around the chassis. I did one rally in a Peugeot last year, but I really don’t have much experience of these cars - and that’s what this year is all about for me.

“Going home to Africa means I’ll be doing a lot of rallies in the Fiesta and I can also do loads of testing. There are some great forest and gravel roads in Zimbabwe, you know we can actually put together a 20-kilometer test road, that’s pretty much unheard of in Europe. I realise it could be seen as a backward step, but in reality, it’s taking one backward step to take two going forward to next season.”

Because his programme came together late, Rautenbach used Prodrive’s development Group N Subaru Impreza WRX on the opening round of the South African Championship, the Total Tour of Natal. He finished fourth in the car and is now looking forward to making his Fiesta debut on the Cape Town Rally next weekend.