The Munchi's Ford World Rally Team was a private team competing in the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

. The team made its debut in the

2007 Swedish Rally The 56th Uddeholm Swedish Rally, second round of the 2007 World Rally Championship season took place between 9 and 11 February 2007. __TOC__ Results Retirements * Jimmy Joge - gearbox problems (SS2); * Xavier Pons - went off the road (SS5 ...

. The cars are prepared and run by the

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

based

M-Sport M-Sport is an auto racing team and motorsport engineering company headquartered at Dovenby Hall near Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Formed in 1979 by the World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson, and originally known as ...

operation and Martin Christie is the team principal.

History

2007 season

The Munchi's Ford World Rally Team was founded by Argentine rally driver

Luís Pérez Companc Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, using the name of his family's ice cream parlor chain, Munchi's. The team competed in the

in 2007 for ten rounds. The drivers who started the season for the team at the

Rally Sweden The Rally Sweden ( sv, Svenska rallyt), formerly the International Swedish Rally, and later the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in February in Värmland, Sweden and relocated to Umeå in 2022. First held in 1950, ...

were Pérez Companc and

Juan Pablo Raies Juan Pablo Raies is an Argentine rally race car driver. Raies made his World Rally Championship debut on his home event in 1992, aboard a Renault 18 GTX. He returned to participate in the same event intermittently over the course of the follow ...

. Companc finished the rally in 15th, but his teammate Raies retired before the start of the event. Despite scoring eight points, Raies was replaced by

Federico Villagra Federico Villagra (born May 21, 1969) is an Argentine rally driver competing in the Argentine Rally Championship. He had previously competed in the World Rally Championship for the Munchi's Ford World Rally Team. His co-driver is Diego Curletto. ...

halfway through the season in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Villagra would go on to score just two points. The best result for the team came at the

2007 Rally Japan The 2007 Rally Japan was the 14th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. It took place between 26 and 28 October 2007. Report Ford Mikko Hirvonen took the lead on Friday afternoon after overtaking Jari-Matti Latvala. Hirvonen then led the r ...

when Companc and Villagra finished fifth and seventh respectively, scoring six points for the team. The team finished last in the constructors' championship with 14 points. However, the initial season for the team was simply to familiarise themselves with the series and the car.

2008 season

For the 2008 season the team contested ten rounds. Federico Villagra drove all ten rounds for the team, while Luís Pérez Companc, who also began driving in the

FIA GT Championship The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

in 2008, shared the second car with Stobart Ford regular

Henning Solberg Henning Solberg (born 8 January 1973) is a Norwegian rally and rallycross driver. Together with his female co-driver Ilka Minor, he currently competes in the World Rally Championship (WRC) with cars of M-Sport. Solberg is the older brother of ...

Aris Vovos Armodios "Aris" C. Vovos (Greek: Αρμόδιος "Άρης" Βωβός; born 21 October 1964) is a Greek businessman. The family business Babis Vovos Constructions filed for bankruptcy protection in 2015. Vovos is a rally driver and was presiden ...

and Barry Clark, the reigning Fiesta Sporting Trophy International champion, who contested 3 rounds of the championship for the team.

2009 season

With a healthy amount of experience under their belts and the competitiveness of the

Ford Focus RS WRC The Ford Focus RS WRC is a car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport and based on the Ford Focus Climate 2-litre production hatchback, developed to compete in the World Rally Championship. The RS stands for ''Rallye Sport ...

, the Argentinean duo of Villagra and Companc gathered a strong haul of 23 points in the 2009 season. They also had their best WRC finishes, finishing

Acropolis Rally The Acropolis Rally of Greece ( el, Ράλλυ Ακρόπολις) is a rally competition that is part of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The rally is held on very dusty, rough, rocky and fast mountain roads in mainland Greece, usually duri ...

and

Rally Argentina The Rally Argentina ( es, Rally de Argentina) is an Argentine rally competition that has been a round of the World Rally Championship, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the South American Rally Championship and the Argentine Rally Championshi ...

in fourth position overall.

2010 season

For the 2010 season the team took part in 8 rounds out of 13. Federico Villagra drove the 8 rounds with various co-drivers in Ford Focus RS WRC 08 car. At the end of season, the team scored 58 points and ranked 5 of the Manufacturers' championship. Villagra scored 36 points and finished 9th in Drivers' Championship.

2011 season

It was announced that

is going to continue in 2011 with Ford. Currently with

Ford Fiesta RS WRC The Ford Fiesta RS WRC is the World Rally Car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport for use in the World Rally Championship 2011–2016. It is based upon the Ford Fiesta road car, and replaced the Ford Focus RS WRC, whi ...

WRC results

Gallery

Image:Frederico Villagra-2007 Wales Rally GB 001.jpg,

at the

2007 Wales Rally GB The 2007 Wales Rally GB (formally known as 63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain) was the 16th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. The race was held over three days between 30 November and 2 December 2007. Report Sébastien Loeb became world ...

Image:Luís Pérez Companc-2007 Wales Rally GB 001.jpg, Luis Pérez Companc at the

Image:Aris Vovos - 1 SSS - 2008 Acropolis Rally (1).JPG,

at the 2008 Rally of Greece Image:MEX 2008 RB 09 parked 1.jpg,

at the 2008 Rally Argentina Image:MG 2400 (30x20) (300dpi).jpg,

at the 2008 Rally Argentina Image:Federico Villagra - 2009 Rally Portugal.jpg,

at the 2009 Rally de Portugal

References

External links

Munchi's Ford World Rally Team at WRC.comM-Sport website
{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Ford Team RS World Rally Championship teams Argentine auto racing teams Intercontinental Rally Challenge teams Auto racing teams established in 2007