Polos to find a home in new privateer FIA WRC Trophy

Volkswagen’s decision to run private 2016 Polo R WRCS next season has heightened awareness of the 2017 FIA WRC Trophy.

The return of a privateers’ title offers the drivers of year-old World Rally Cars the chance of global glory. Like this year’s WRC2 support series, drivers can register to take WRC Trophy points on any one of the 13 rallies, but they can only count seven scores.

One of the initial arguments against the Trophy was that there wouldn’t be sufficient variety of cars, with the overwhelming number of private drivers running Ford Fiesta RS WRCS. That’s changed with DS3 WRCS, i20s and now the Polos arriving on the market.

Volkswagen’s Sven Smeets said the Trophy would become a natural home for the car that has won the manufacturers’ title for the last four years.

“The Trophy makes sense as the basis of a programme for a private driver renting one of our cars,” Smeets told MN.

Full details of the series are expected from WMSC this week.