KEY POINTS:
Emma Gilmour will return to Europe to contest the final round of the world rally championship, Wales Rally GB, later this month.
The Dunedin driver will fly to Britain after competing in the penultimate round of the series -- Rally New Zealand from November 16-18 -- in her four-wheel-drive Vantage Team Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
As was the case on her two earlier appearances on European rounds of the championship this year, the 26-year-old will drive a Castrol-owned two-wheel-drive Fiesta ST in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy segment of the British event.
"Once again Castrol have been instrumental in making this possible," Gilmour said.
"In fact, they have been pushing me to commit to returning for the British event for some time now, but it has just taken a few weeks to put all of the arrangements in place."
Gilmour feels she has unfinished business in Europe, having demonstrated her speed by beating all of the regular Fiesta Sporting Trophy drivers during the Rally of Finland before her car suffered an engine failure.
"Now I know I have the pace, the challenge will be making it to the end of the British event well up in the Fiesta Sporting trophy field," she said.
"The conditions in Britain are probably closer to those I am used to here in New Zealand."
Should Gilmour perform well on the British event, she also has the chance of gaining a wildcard entry into the end of year Fiesta Sporting Challenge shootout.
"I don't know that much about it at this stage except that it is a weekend-long event that includes psychological analysis and profiling as well as driving," she said.
Her rivals will again include Mathieu Biasion, a younger cousin of two-times world champion Miki Biasion, and Alessandro Bettega, whose father was a factory rally driver for Lancia in the 1980s.
Gilmour's co-driver for the event will be British-based woman Claire Mole, who sat alongside her on the Rally of Finland.
- NZPA
