German debut for MG ZR.

The GSE-built and run MG ZR rally car heads for the Rally Deutschland this weekend - new territory for not only the team but all the other Junior World Rally Championship contenders as the event makes its debut on the international stage.

An all tarmac event centred round the historic town of Trier, the rapid stages represent a wide variety of types of venue, and organisers are predicting massive crowds as the German event joins the WRC. A secret weapon for MG could be Chris Patterson - co-driver to Gwyndaf Evans in the MG ZR - who has contested the rally before, and that experience might be vital.

"The atmosphere should be fantastic for the next round of the JWRC," said Chris. "Huge crowds of spectators are expected to line the stages when Germany makes its debut on the World and Junior World Rally Championship calendar."

Gwyndaf is also looking forward to the rally, especially in the light of recent positive testing: "MG Sport & Racing has been working flat out on improving the reliability of the engine. We have done hundreds of kilometres of endurance running over recent weeks and it's looking encouraging at the moment as we are definitely making progress."

It's not only Chris who has experience of the event, GSE's Steve Bond has been to the area before: "We are looking forward to Germany - this is a new challenge being the first time this event has featured in the WRC. The roads are unique within the championship. However I have been to the area for rallies a number of times in the 1980s and early 90s and have a clear idea of the nature of the challenge ahead. We know the chassis package on the MG ZR is competitive in these conditions."

GSE have been working hard in preparation for this rally, as the team's Baz Cannon explains: "A tremendous amount of work has been done over the last 6 weeks or so particularly on the engine to improve reliability and a number of detail developments have been made. The entire GSE team has been working hard to complete what is a brand new car for this event and we hope that our recent run of bad luck will come to an end."