The opening round of the 2010 Kick Energy Fiesta SportChallenge (FSC) championship took place on Saturday 6 March with seven crews tackling the 35^th running of the Malcolm Wilson rally.  The event took place over seven stages covering 41 stage miles around the Cumbrian forests of Greystoke, Grizedale and Whinlatter. 

 The first competitive test of the day was the three-mile Hobcarton stage.  Despite being graced with blue skies and sunshine the stages remained snow covered in places as a result of the recent snowfall and low temperatures.  Damien Smith and Frazer Hutchinson marked their debut in the FSC by winning the opening stage. Fellow debutants Jonny Cunningham and Richard Millener were second, just 13seconds behind with John Pritchard, Alex Laffey and Richard Parry-Jones covered by less than ten seconds in third, fourth and fifth.

The Kick Energy Fiesta SportTrophy UK (FST UK) enters a new era next weekend with the start of the 2010 championship on the traditional season opener, the Malcolm Wilson Rally.  The fifth consecutive FST UK championship sees two exciting new introductions, a new car in the shape of the Fiesta R2, and a new championship, the Fiesta SportChallenge (FSC), providing competitors with more choice than ever before.

 The Cumbrian countryside provides a picturesque backdrop to the start of another exciting FST UK championship.  Based at the Dovenby headquarters of M-Sport, the team behind both the Fiesta SportTrophy and the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, the Malcolm Wilson Rally takes place over seven gravel stages covering 41 competitive miles around some of the most famous forests in UK rallying including Greystoke and Grizedale.

Ever since its 2006 inception, the Fiesta SportingTrophy (FST) has been a tremendous success. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the company behind this influential and inspirational championship is the WRC-winning and hugely-respected M-Sport. Secondly, the car M-Sport selected for the championship is also a class act. That car is the extremely capable Fiesta ST. Thanks to a very structured and cost-effective approach; M-Sport engineered a package that turned the roadgoing ST into a GpN rally weapon.

Fiesta SportTrophy UK (FST UK) organisers M-Sport are pleased to announce that registrations are now open for the 2010 championship.

 Registrations are now being taken for both the Fiesta SportTrophy and for the new Fiesta SportChallenge. Competitors who would like to compete in 2010 can register for either championship by completing the online registration form that can be found in the Competitors' section of www.fiestasporttrophy.co.uk. Regulations for FST UK, which includes the new Fiesta R2, are also available to download from the Competitors' section of the site.