Dunedin driver Emma Gilmour will take on the biggest challenge of her motor rallying career in Cumbria, northwest England tomorrow.
Despite a experiencing a disastrous Rally of Wales, the 16th and final round of the world rally championship (WRC) which ended yesterday, Gilmour, 26, has earned a wildcardplace in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy International Challenge run by WRC manufacturers' champions, Ford.
At stake is a 12-month contract in 2007 with the M-Sport Ford WRC team, with a role aimed at raising the skill level of the winner.
M-Sport run the cars driven by 2006 WRC runner-up Marcus Gronholm of Finland.
The winner will be given shakedown runs in Gronholm's 2007 Focus WRC car and Ford Fiesta S1600, 12-month's use of an apartment at Cockermouth and will work with weather crews in WRC events.
Gilmour said this is the biggest opportunity of her driving career and she was going to go all out to win it.
"I'm very excited about this opportunity, I'm going to grab it with both hands and do as good a job as possible."
Gilmour suffered a string of mechanical problems in the Fiesta class of the Rally of Wales, so had no inkling she was going to get a wildcard into the international challenge.
"Considering how bad our weekend was, it was a nice finishing touch," Gilmour, who is in Wales with father, Alistair, said.
"It was a pretty frustrating and demoralising weekend so to get the wildcard was a great result.
"I seemed to spend more time parked up by the side of the stages waiting to be rescued than compete.
"I'm now focused on putting that behind me and doing my very best on the challenge this week."
Gilmour, a graduate of the New Zealand Motorsport Academy in Dunedin, arrives in Cumbria where she faces a battery of tests, well-prepared to match 26 other drivers.
All she will face were part of the academy curriculum "so at least I know what I'm likely to be in for".
"We start with a day of physical, psychological and media skills testing, then we do a driving shoot out the next day on a special stage near M-Sport headquarters."
The top five then have an interview with M-Sport principal, Malcolm Wilson, before the winner is selected.
