WORLD Rally Championship class-leading Welshman Osian Pryce stands on the verge of landing the biggest prize of his career at this week’s Rally Poland.

Pryce won the opening round of the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy - the World Rally Championship’s most valuable support series - in Portugal last month and knows that a repeat result on round two would bag him two factory WRC2 drives in next year’s World Championship.

This year’s five-round DDFT series has been split into three scoring opportunities, with the driver who goes on to take the most points from Portugal and Poland, Poland and Finland, and Germany and Spain winning two drives in next year’s official WRC feeder category.

After a stunning Rally of Portugal win, a repeat result will guarantee Pryce and co-driver Dale Furniss their first two professional drives in the World Championship.

The Welsh duo took a sensible approach to the first half of the Porto-based opener, but still remained in the top three throughout the event. They eventually moved to the front on the final day, and took the win by almost two minutes.

The good news for the 23-year-old from Machynlleth is that he already has experience of the terrain out on Rally Poland. He competed there last year, dominating his class until an alternator problem robbed him of the victory on the final day.

“Next week is a very, very big deal for Dale and myself,” said Pryce. “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 just for more of the same, and more of what we did in Portugal. We drove our own rally, and we remained sensible and kept a little bit in reserve 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 a 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 I can’t wait to drive it again in Poland.

“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 it.

“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.”

Pryce was testing his M-Sport-run Fiesta on Monday this week, and he enjoyed some seat time last weekend as well.

Invited to the prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed, Pryce was mixing it with Britain’s three-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, and all the great and good of world motorsport.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to come to Goodwood, and a real honour to be invited,” said Pryce. “I’m driving M-Sport’s own Fiesta R2T down here, which is fantastic. I must admit, the South Downs aren’t exactly the same as Poland, but it’s time in the car polishing off some of the rust. Just being here is brilliant as well.

“I haven’t seen Lewis yet, maybe he’ll come up to the rally stage to see how us DDFT boys do it over the weekend. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for him!”