Osian Pryce will chase the biggest prize of his life at this weekend’s Rally Poland.
The Machynlleth-born flier knows a repeat of his victory in Portugal in last month’s Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy will bag him two factory drives in WRC2 next year.
WRC2 is the main support series to the full-blown World Rally Championship.
But Pryce and co-driver Dale Furniss are confident of the challenge ahead having been set for a class victory in Poland last year until being hit by an alternator problem.
“This is a very, very big deal for Dale and I,” admitted the 23-year-old.
“There’s no two ways about it: if we get the right result in Poland, it’ll be huge for our careers.”
“The plan is for more of the same, more of what we did in Portugal.
“We drove our own rally; we were sensible and kept a little bit in reserve just in case the roads got really rough.
“We’ve talked about next week a lot and we’re sure that’s the way to go.
“Poland is an awful lot faster than Portugal, the stages are flat-out much of the time, but we showed we could deal with them last year.
“Portugal was my first event in the Ford Fiesta R2T and by the end of that event, I felt like I was really on top of the car. Now, I can’t wait to get back in it and drive it again in Poland.”
This year’s five-round DDFT series has been split into three scoring opportunities with the driver taking the most points from Portugal and Poland, Poland and Finland, Germany and Spain winning two drives in next year’s official WRC feeder category.
A stunning Rally of Portugal win means a repeat result at Rally Poland will guarantee Osian and co-driver Dale Furniss their first two professional drives in the world championship.
He added: “It would be silly to say there’s no pressure on Dale and I, of course there is.
“But we banked some really good points with the win in Portugal and now it’s about us finishing the job – or the first part of the job.
“One of the interesting facets of Poland is that it counts as a score for this first round of rallies and for the second round, where it’s paired with Rally Finland.
“Probably more than any other event in the season, it’s vital we get a good result.”
Rally Poland starts on Thursday with the finish on Sunday.