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NEWS
MOTORSPORT: Fiesta Sport Trophy in Oz
Ford could be prominent in Australian rallying next year at next to no cost if plans for a “fleet” of M-Sport-kitted Fiestas take holdFord Australia is looking to Australian rallying to provide a boost to its brand.
Though the Blue Oval is set to wind back its Falcon-based V8 Supercar commitment, Fiestas will hit the national rally championship with support from the manufacturer.
Fiesta Sport Trophy will become an integral part of the 2013 Australian Rally Championship and perhaps – depending on driver ability – the hatch will vie for outright honours against the likes of Honda, Mazda and (maybe even) a Peugeot 207.
Under the Ford tilt, kits will be imported from Ford’s World Rally Championship partner M-Sport to be fitted to $15,000 Fiestas bought by privateer competitors from Australian dealers. The basic kits will be about $12,500 for the standard R1 spec and $37,000 for the higher-performance R2.
The project does not involve major outlay by the manufacturer, with the risk being assumed by importer RSPORT, a new joint venture between Canberra rallying identities Phil Coppin and Peter Taylor.
Coppin said today there had already been nine inquiries since Friday’s announcement.
“We are looking to get a batch of orders together by early November for delivery hopefully pre-Christmas,” Coppin said.
While unrelated, the introduction of the Fiesta Sport Trophy coincides with Ford Australia cutting back its spend in V8 Supercar racing. It will continue its financial support of Ford Performance Racing next season but not Stone Brothers Racing (likely to be confirmed soon as the team that will field three Mercedes-Benz-engined and bodied entries under the Car of the Future rules) or stalwart Ford team Dick Johnson Racing.
Ford Australia motorsport and sponsorship manager Graham Barrie said rallying was “a key component of Ford’s global motorsport strategy and Fiesta is a key nameplate for Ford Australia”.
“We see a great fit here with the new direction of the Australian Rally Championship taking shape in 2013 [with two-wheel-drive cars as the premier category],” Barrie said.
Australia will be the 13th country with a Fiesta Sport Trophy and the winner’s prize will be a contract to work with M-Sport and its WRC drivers for a year.
“This is an exciting development for next year’s ARC and shows that global manufacturers see the value of the ARC as a marketing tool for their products,” ARC chief executive Scott Pedder said.
Coppin predicted the Fiesta R2 would “surprise a few people with its pace”.
Victorian youngster Brendan Reeves is second this year in the WRC Academy, a series for international rising stars in identical R2s.
And in Britain, which has adopted a two-wheel-drive rally championship format this year, young Welsh driver Elfyn Evans is leading in a Fiesta R2 against works-supported R3-spec Citroens, Renaults and Skodas with one round remaining in a fortnight.
“Fiesta is a perfect vehicle to feed young talent from the various state rally championships into the ARC and from there to the world stage,” Coppin said.
“The R1 and R2 possess similar technology to the WRC car [driven by the weekend’s Rally Great Britain winner Jari-Matti Latvala and former world champion Petter Solberg], but at a fraction of the cost.”
The R2 Fiesta has a 1.6-litre 16-valve Ti-VCT engine mated to a five-speed Sadev sequential gearbox, AP brakes and Reiger suspension.
Fitted with the M-Sport conversion kit it delivers 127kw at 7500 rpm and torque of 182 Nm at 5700 rpm.
The R1 specification is a base-level conversion kit with the same personal safety and underbody protection as the R2 but using a standard engine and transmission components with power of about 90kW and 152 Nm of torque.
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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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