Less than a month after naming its drivers, the Mini WRC team is ready for its first race. Two Mini Countryman-based Mini John Cooper Works WRC cars will compete in the Rally d'Italia Sardegna (Rally Italy on the island of Sardinia) this weekend. It's the fifth race of the season, and as you'll recall, Mini and partner Prodrive only planned to run a partial 2011 WRC season.
The three-stage rally starts Friday with a 563-km stage, followed by a 400-km stage on Saturday, and by the end of the day Sunday, competitors will have covered 1,183 km or 735 miles -- pretty much all of them on twisty dirt roads that meander through Sardinia's incredibly beautiful and incredibly old countryside... there are still remnants of Bronze Age settlements on this island. Yeah, I drove here once in an econobox, and I'm feeling wistful.
Should you somehow find the wherewithal to attend, Rally d'Italia helpfully offers a detailed spectator guide. And Mini Motorsport will post updates on its Twitter and Facebook pages. Eventually, Discovery HD might get around to putting some of it on TV.
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