It has been another tough season for the Subaru World Rally Team as they prepare for the final two events of the season.

The team has yet to win an event this year and are currently third in the championship with 73 points. Petter Solberg for one is looking forward to Rally Ireland but admits it will be something of a challenge.

“I have never rallied in Ireland before so it will be very new for me, but I am looking forward to it," Solberg stated. "The fans in Ireland are rally-mad which is really good. It's always nice to drive in front of people who are really into it."

Unlike some of his rivals, Solberg has been unable to get some practice in Ireland ahead of the penultimate round.

"It would have been good to do a few rallies earlier in the year to get a feel for the surface," he admitted, "but still we prepare and focus 110 per cent. It will be very interesting I think, especially with the chance that the 2007 championship can be decided there.”

Team-mate Chris Atkinson is looking to improve on his best result of the season so far which is a fourth position.

“Rally Ireland is a totally different event, not just in terms of the bumpy surface," he said. "Being a new round it's very difficult to prepare for. We've driven the route in a Group N car, but the extra speed of the WRC car is bound to make it very different. When everything comes up faster, it becomes more difficult as you have to process the information faster, and when it is all new that is the hard part."

"The surface is half asphalt and half gravel, which means we have to use a unique setup," he continued. "We actually set the car up for the wet to get the compromise between the two surfaces, and the high chance of rain. Rather than when the asphalt gets wet and slippery, it's when the asphalt is totally dry that you lose time.”

Xevi Pons is back with the Subaru squad again this week but admits he has not real idea of how the event will unfold.

"Okay, it will be a hard rally and very slippery, so it will be easy to make a mistake but I will push as hard as I can," he said. "We haven't done any testing there so I don't really know what to expect from the conditions, but I still prepare in the same way as any rally, and learn as fast as I can from the recce days.”