Early asphalt debut for Mini
| By David Evans |
Tuesday, June 7th 2011, 09:41 GMT |
 Prodrive has confirmed that Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo will drive the Mini WRC on its competitive asphalt debut on the Richard Burns Memorial Rally in August. As predicted by AUTOSPORT last month, one of the factory Minis will be driven at RAF Marham on the August 13-14 event. The Mini will make its first appearance on a World Rally Championship asphalt stage just five days later at the start of Rally Deutschland. Prodrive has a long-standing association with the Richard Burns Memorial Rally. The final version of the firm's Subaru Impreza WRC ran for the first time in Britain on the rally in 2008, crewed by Markko Martin and Robert Reid. This time, the Mini will be driven by Meeke on one day and Sordo on the other, but both drivers will attend the event for its duration. Meeke said: "Coming so close to Germany, this would be a good final test for that event. It sounds like there are plenty of junctions, which will be similar to Germany - and anything we can do to help causes like the Richard Burns Foundation or the Colin McRae Vision are really important." The former Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion was in the Mini testing in Italy last week. The Northern Irish driver completed 280 miles over two days and admitted he couldn't be happier with the car. "To be honest, I didn't want to get out of the car," said Meeke. "It was fantastic. We didn't have any problems at all and we tested plenty of suspension and roll bar settings. When we go to Germany for our next test, we'll be ready to focus on the set-up for the event [Rally Deutschland] and that's a good position to be in."
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