The second round of the Kick Energy Fiesta SportTrophy (FST) will take place next weekend at the first round of the British Rally Championship, the Bulldog International Rally of North Wales.  The event run by the Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire Car Club will be the first event where the Kick Energy FST will take advantage of its multi event entry format with competitors given the chance to compete in either the full BRC International event or the shorter BRC Challenge event, whilst still scoring FST points regardless of the event they enter. 

19 Fiesta ST's will line up for the start of the event with eleven crews tackling the full International event and the remaining eight competitors taking on the stages of the Challenge event.  The International event will see the competitor's tackle 82 stage miles of arguably the best forest roads in the UK, whilst the Challenge competitors will have 50 stage miles over which to do battle.  With the FST results being declared final after the culmination of the Challenge event, those competing in the International event will then complete the remainder of the rally in a bid to score overall British Rally Championship points and the opportunity to be nominated for the Pirelli Star Driver competition.

Kris Hall (19) from Appleby, Cumbria, will be the top FST seed in the International event.  Hall, co-driven by Robbie Durant, claimed victory on the opening round of the season, the Malcolm Wilson Rally, after an impressive show of speed.  Hall will be going into the event hoping to repeat this performance in addition to collecting a healthy number of points to start his 2009 BRC campaign.

Craig Breen (19) from Waterford and co-driver Gareth Roberts were in an impressive second place overall on the first round of the series when a transmission problem forced their retirement from the event.  Breen will aim to take the challenge back to Hall on the Bulldog. 

Stefan Davis from Aylesford made an impressive debut on the first round of the championship, setting an equal fastest stage time and actually leading the event in their first outing in the Fiesta, before retiring.  Davis will push hard from the start of the Bulldog and look to score his first FST event win.

Barry Greer (21) from Carryduff and navigator John Lemon, Kyle Orr (19) from Dromore with new co-driver Sorcha Kelly, Mark Donnelly (17) from Omagh and co-driver Paddy Robinson and the Billy Coleman Award winner Ross Forde (25) from Galway and another new co-driver Gary McElhinney all make the trip over from Ireland to compete on the Bulldog International Rally.  Greer finished fifth on Round 1 with Donnelly fourth and Orr second.  It was an impressive show from the Irish and they will all look to reproduce this, as well as starting an Irish assault on the BRC.  Forde suffered technical problems on his first outing in the car and hopes a clear run next weekend will help him get his championship back on track.

Stevie Brown (21) from Aberdeen unites with regular co-driver Andrew Roughead for the event.  Brown had a challenging first round with a crash during a pre-event test, which almost prevented him getting to the start of the event.   He managed to finish the event, however, and in the process gained nine championship points.  Brown's goal will be to get to the end of the event and score more points to aid his title bid.

Manxman Martyn Jones (22) and navigator Kris Killip finished sixth on their first event in a Fiesta and will look to finish further up the leaderboard in their Manx Motorsport Youth Trust car in the forests of Wales.  Rory Hall (26) from Fishguard has decided to enter the International event in a bid to gain more mileage and take the fight to some of the other FST crews.

Patrick Malley and co-driver Malcolm Read are the final entrants in the International event.  Malley will travel all the way from New Zealand in order to extend his knowledge of the British forestry roads, having already competed in the 2008 FST International Shootout.

Meanwhile, the leading entrant in the Challenge section will be Matt Edwards (24) from Cockermouth, Cumbria.  Edwards and co-driver Andy Murphy finished an impressive second overall on their debut in the Fiesta at the Malcolm Wilson Rally and will want to repeat this in Wales.

Harry Hunt (20) from London, will start his second ever event in a bid to improve on eighth place achieved on Round 1, whilst John Boyd (22) from West Linton and co-driver Fred Bell took a cautious approach to finish ninth overall on Round 1 and will look to increase their experience of gravel rallying having been a former karting champion.

Neil Coalter (26) and navigator Hannah Cessford and Thomas Watson (18) from Glanamman and co-driver Elgan Davies both return to the second round looking for finishes after retiring from Round 1.  Neil is adapting to the Fiesta well after many years of competing in Hondas.   Thomas is using the FST series to learn to compete on four wheels as opposed to the two wheels of motocross which is the sport that the young Welshman cut his teeth in.

Rounding off the Challenge entries are three new crews that did not feature at Round 1: Luke Francis (19) from Denbighshire with navigator Jon-Madoc Jones will be happy to be on 'home ground' on this event having to cancel his entry on the Malcolm Wilson when the young Welshman sustained a broken jaw.  Jamie Brown (17) and co-driver Craig Burgess from Norwich were also forced to sit out the first round and both will hope for a successful run on their first outings of 2009.  Finally Robert Barrable (21) from Dublin and co-driver Seamus O'Grady begin their rallying campaign at the Bulldog.  Barrable, an Irish Formula Ford champion and widely regarded as one of the fastest circuit drivers in Ireland has decided to switch codes to rallying and will make his FST debut in Wales hoping to translate his Tarmac winning ways onto the gravel stages.

The Kick Energy FST UK has a prize fund in excess of £18,000, with £750 for the winner of each round down to £75 for eighth place. 

Championship Leader, Kris Hall, said:

"The Malcolm Wilson was a perfect start for me and I hope to hit the ground running on the Bulldog.  I am really looking forward to the event and being able to make my own notes on the recce for the first time on gravel will be a tremendous experience.  Now Robbie [Durant] and me are a team for the year I think we will learn and progress a lot.  I think the pace will be faster than ever in the Fiesta's with the new format. I hope everyone can have a good run and we get a clean fight for the rally"