New Championship for new MG ZR!

The MG ZR rally car, crewed by Gwyndaf Evans and Chris Patterson and developed by GSE Motorsport, is competing in the first season of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC). Formally known as Super 1600, this series is contested at six of the European rounds of the World Rally Championship.

The new series is aimed at drivers rather than manufacturers, who can only be involved in designing and homologating (registering for competition use) parts, which teams and drivers can purchase as necessary. Thus the new MG ZR has been built from the outset by GSE Motorsport - though it bears the familiar MG-XPower livery. No 'works' teams are allowed to enter the JWRC, and cars must be available to private entries for less than 100,000 Euros.

The championship will see drivers facing many different challenges on the six rallies. The season opening Monte Carlo Rally is traditionally an icy test on mountain passes, while the Acropolis Rally is held on some of the roughest 'roads' in Europe, and takes place under the blazing Greek sun with the cars leaving huge plumes of dust in their wakes. The San Remo rally is held on tarmac roads in Italy, the cars running on slick tyres at high speed - while the end of season finale is the Rally of Great Britain, held in the Welsh forests so familiar to Gwyndaf.

The 1600cc cars compete in a standard rally format - a series of 'special stages' held against the clock, with the lowest overall time winning - contesting the same stages as the four-wheel drive WRC cars. A JWRC car must be front-wheel drive, no turbo-charging or other power-boosting devices are allowed, and a maximum of 30 cars are allowed in the class. On the Monte virtually half the 60-car field are JWRC entries!