Two M-Sport customer Fords for New Zealand.

Two teams supported by M-Sport's customer programme will contest the 2003 Propecia Rally of New Zealand this weekend, with both Antony Warmbold and Tomasz Kuchar running in a Ford Focus WRC02.

Warmbold returns to the 2003 FIA World Rally Championship after being unable to compete in last months Rally of Turkey as he was laid low by illness.

Preparations for this, his third outing this season, centred on a gravel test in Portugal at the beginning of last month. Here the team made relatively small and carefully thought out steps to provide a car that is both predictable and progressive for their South Pacific challenge.

"We worked a lot on the car and spent much time adjusting the differentials. I think that we have found a set up which will make the car easier to drive on the unknown gravel conditions of New Zealand and I am very happy with how it performed at the test. Now it is just down to me as a driver," he conceded.

His father, Achim Warmbold, a former driver and Team Manager, seized the opportunity during the test to drive the car.

"It is a big advantage to have somebody as experienced as my father to give me advice and his experience means we are able to make quick and concise advances in set-up," added Anthony. "I think that as we do more rallies the times will show on the stopwatch."

For Tomasz Kuchar, who has moved to a Focus this season, this will be his second outing in 2003 following his first in Sweden.

Despite not competing since, Kuchar has spent time analysing data and information gathered from the Swedish Rally and as a result used a recent pre-Rally New Zealand test in Cumbria to trial some adaptations to his driving style.

"I felt I was personally not maximising the power I know the Focus has got and was feeling frustrated by some of my times in Sweden," he said. "I have been through the performance data, made some changes and I am now feeling much more confident in both the ability of myself and of the car."

Kuchar competed in New Zealand for the first time last year, finishing 11th overall. "For sure it would be great to better last year's result and we now have the car to do it. But we haven't been in the car competitively for the past two months so I am realistic about out chances.

"I am 100 per cent committed and prepared, we have worked hard with our engineering support team on set up - and made definite progress during our test in Cumbria at the end of last month," added Kuchar, who aims to compete on up to 10 rounds in the WRC this year.

"I am very happy to be doing this rally," he concluded, "It is useful experience for us in the Focus to compete in such a fast and specialist event."