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Customer MINI Countryman to Debut in WRC

Prodrive and MINI will begin their new adventure in the World Rally Championship on a part-time basis in 2011, but the first rally-spec MINI Countryman to make it to a 2011 WRC entry list will not be a works one, but ran through a customer effort.

According to a report appeared on WRC's official website, 25-year-old Brazilian Daniel Oliveira will be the first man to drive a MINI Countryman in the WRC next season, in the 3rd round of the year in Portugal. He will be co-driven by Portugal’s Carlos Magalhaes, together with whom he also competed in the International Rally Challenge back in 2010.

However, Oliveira will not drive a WRC-spec MINI in the aforementioned Vodafone Rally de Portugal – scheduled to kick off in late March – but a Super 2000-specification MINI Countryman. Only after Prodrive will begin its works efforts in the WRC next season, the Brazilian driver will switch to a WRC-spec machine.

Brazil World Rally Team, for which Oliveira will run in the 2011 WRC thanks to the technological support of Prodrive, has 10 rounds scheduled for their 2011 programme, meaning the team will be present on all WRC rounds starting the one in Portugal, except for one.

Despite having contested in the IRC last season, and recording his sole points finish in his native Brazil (7th place), Oliveira is no stranger from driving a rally-spec MINI Countryman, as he joined Prodrive's official racer for 2011 Kris Meeke at Prodrive’s test track in Warwickshire, United Kingdom, last month.
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