Evans' DMACK WRC entry gets announced

A deal for Evans to take the DMACK Ford seat occupied by Ott Tanak last year had been expected since before Christmas, and the reigning British Rally champion had already been confirmed in a Fiesta RS WRC on the Monte Carlo entry list.

The 2017 DMACK livery will be unveiled in this week's edition of Motorsport News on Wednesday.

M-Sport will enter and run the DMACK Fiesta, with Evans its third registered potential point-scorer alongside Sebastien Ogier and Tanak.

Evans lost his seat in M-Sport's main WRC squad last year and spent the season in the BRC and WRC2.

"I never doubted this is what I wanted to do, but when I was on the outside looking in last year, it really hammered it home just how much I did want this," Evans, who used DMACKs for his BRC title effort last year, told Autosport.

"It would have been easy to spit the dummy out and say: 'No, I don't want to do that [drive the R5 car]', but if I'd done that the result would probably have been that I probably wouldn't have driven a car again.

"I had to grit my teeth and get on with it.

"It's fair to say the last year has toughened me up a bit and taught me plenty, it's been a life experience as much as anything else.

"I knew you could never take anything for granted in motorsport, but I know more than ever that nobody's guaranteed their seat.

"When you've been through this kind of thing, you do come back with a different perspective and you come back stronger."

After working with Craig Parry last season, Evans will be reunited with former co-driver Dan Barritt for 2017.

M-Sport Ford: Sebastien Ogier, Ott Tanak

DMACK Ford: Elfyn Evans

Hyundai: Thierry Neuville, Hayden Paddon, Dani Sordo

Citroen: Kris Meeke, Craig Breen, Stephane Lefebvre

Toyota: Jari-Matti Latvala, Juho Hanninen, Esapekka Lappi

The Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy junior series has become the official Junior World Rally Championship for 2017 following M-Sport's deal to replace Citroen as the supplier for the one-make feeder class.

Crews will pay for an arrive-and-drive service in Ford Fiesta R2s, with a 2018 WRC2 prize drive for the champion of the six-round series.

The top-scoring crew on three pairs of rallies will also get two 2018 WRC2 outings - maintaining the prize from the DMACK series.

Reigning DDFT champion Osian Pryce, Max Vatanen and Jon Armstrong have earned 2017 WRC2 drives via their performances in the '16 DMACK series.