Rally-eMag 017 March.April 2014 | Page 22

JWRC vs DDFT / Rally-eMag jwrc vs ddft two junior trophies In Portugal two special trophies started their season. The Junior World Championship (JWRC) and the Drive DMAC Fiesta Trophy (DDFT). Both trophies aim to attract young drivers who want to earn some experience on the highest level of competition in rallying. junior wrc Why two trophies? Of course the JWRC is the official world championship for young drivers. It is a series that is organized by the FIA. In 2011 the championship’s name was changed to as WRC Academy but since this year it is back to its old (and better!) name. Initially the choice of cars was free within a series of classes. Since the initiation of the WRC Academy however, the series became a one make only series. In those days M-Sport did the best offer and prepared a Fiesta R2 for the competitors in the Academy. A special department of M-Sport was built in Poland and from there the Fiesta’s would conquer the world. The drivers only saw their car at the rallies. The total maintenance of the car was part of the deal and was done by M-Sport. The three-year contract ended in 2013 and from then on new offers were asked for. This time Citroën Sport was the lucky winner. They proposed a Citroen DS3 R3 as the weapon of choice for the next three years. 22/42 JWRC Entrants Molly Taylor Jan Černý Martin Koči Panikos Polykarpou Quentin Giordano Stephane Lefebvre Sylvain Michel Australia Czech Republic Check Republic Cyprus France France France Christian Riedemann Alastair Fisher Kornél Lukács Simone Tempestini Simone Campedelli Aron Domzala Frederico Della Casa Germany Great Britain Hungary Italy Italy Poland Switzerland