The World Rally Championship is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and teams. The series currently consists of 13 three to four-day rally events driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice. Each rally is usually split into 15–25 special stages which are run against the clock on up to 350 kilometres of closed roads.
The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car marketed by Ford since 1976 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and has been positioned below the Escort.
The FIA Junior WRC, also known as JWRC and previously known as Junior World Rally Championship, is an international rallying competition restricted to drivers under 29 years old. The championship currently consists of five select rallies of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar. The category has been a stepping stone in the careers of Sebastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier, Dani Sordo, Elfyn Evans, Craig Breen and Thierry Neuville.
Xavier "Xevi" Pons Puigdillers is a Spanish rally driver who competed in the World Rally Championship from 2003 to 2014.
M-Sport is a motorsport engineering company headquartered at Dovenby Hall near Cockermouth, United Kingdom. It is primarily known for entering the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) since 1997 in partnership with Ford, manufacturing race and rally cars, and providing parts and motorsport services to customers. The company has an automotive evaluation facility at its headquarters, and a second manufacturing facility in Balice, Poland.
Rodney Kenneth Millen is a New Zealand racing driver, vehicle designer, and business owner. He has competed in numerous genres of motorsports, including rally racing, off-road racing, hillclimbing, drifting, and super touring.
The Munchi's Ford World Rally Team was a private team competing in the World Rally Championship. The team made its debut in the 2007 Swedish Rally. The cars are prepared and run by the Cumbria based M-Sport operation and Martin Christie is the team principal.
Barry Clark is a British rally driver born in Aberdeen in Scotland. In 2006 he struck driver Jörg Bastuck during the Rally of Catalunya, which shortly after led to Bastuck's demise. After becoming the Fiesta Sporting Trophy International champion in 2007, Clark has been awarded a drive in the World Rally Championship for one event, and secured funding for two more events. His first event was to be in Turkey driving a Ford Focus WRC for the Munchi's Ford team, but after regular Munchi's driver Luís Pérez Companc had to drop out of the Jordan rally, Clark took his place at short notice. Clark also helps organise his local event, the Speyside Stages organised by 63 car club.
Tanner Foust is an American professional racing driver, stunt driver, and television host. He competes in rally, drift, ice racing, time attack, hill climb and rallycross with multiple podium placements, national championships, and world records. He was a co-host of the American version of the motoring television series Top Gear.
Elfyn Rhys Evans is a Welsh rally driver. He is currently teamed with Scott Martin and is competing for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the World Rally Championship.
Kenneth Paul Block was an American professional rally driver with the Hoonigan Racing Division, formerly known as the Monster World Rally Team. Block was also one of the co-founders of DC Shoes. He also competed in many action sports events, including skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross.
The FIA WRC2 Championship is a support championship of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after Rally1 class crews. WRC2 is limited to production-based cars homologated under Group Rally2 rules. There are separate specific championship titles awarded to Teams, Drivers and Co-Drivers.
Lambros Athanassoulas is a Greek rally driver.
Craig Breen was an Irish rally driver who last competed part time for the Hyundai team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). He won the 2012 Super 2000 WRC, scoring class wins in the Monte Carlo Rally, Wales Rally GB, Rally France and the Rally of Spain. Breen won the WRC Academy Cup in 2011, winning his first event at the 2011 Rallye Deutschland and sealing the championship with a win at Wales Rally GB. The Academy title going down to the last stage, with Breen and Estonian rally driver Egon Kaur ending the season, both on 111 points, Breen then won the title on count back of stage wins, 39 to 14. Breen won the 2021 Rentokil Historic Rally in Killarney, Kerry, Ireland in his BMW M3 E30.
Yuriy Protasov is a rally driver from Ukraine. He won the Ukrainian Rally Championship in 2008. In 2011, Protasov contested in the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC) with the Darnitsa Motorsport driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
Scott Martin is a British rallying co-driver who competes in the FIA World Rally Championship.
Fergus "Gus" Greensmith is a British rally driver.
Teemu Suninen is a Finnish rally driver. Suninen was driving for Malcolm Wilson's M-Sport WRT in WRC between 2017 and 2021. His manager is Timo Jouhki.
Since its inaugural season in 1973, the World Rally Championship has been supported by a series of additional categories. These categories, created and endorsed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)—the governing body of motorsport—were created to encourage participation from entries in classes that would otherwise be ineligible to score points in the World Championship or its primary feeder series, the World Rally Championship-2 and World Rally Championship-3. Over time, these support categories were created and changed in line with trends within the sport itself and motorsport as a whole.
In the motorsport discipline of rallying, Group Rally4 is a formula of rally car specifications determined by the FIA for use in its international competitions: World Rally Championship (WRC) and regional championships. National rallying competitions also allow Group Rally4 cars to compete. There are two technical subclasses of Group Rally4 however these do not affect competitive eligibility. 'Rally4' may be used alone with the same definition. The group was launched in 2019 after the introduction of the Rally Pyramid initiative to reorganise the classes of car and championships in international rallying was approved in June 2018.
