Ken Block and Ford Racing to bring the RS badge to Fia World Rallycross

 

 

DEARBORN, Mich., March 2, 2016 – Ford’s RS competition legacy continues this season for a new generation of motorsports fans. 

Teased at the conclusion of Ken Block’s Gymkhana EIGHT released earlier this week, Ford Performance confirms Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division team will field two factory-supported 2016 Ford Focus RS race cars in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. 

“RS is a worldwide brand with a rich heritage that motorsports enthusiasts know and love,” said Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance. “Our RS badge has a natural connection to racing, and we have a passionate, dedicated team on the project. We’re excited to honor the history of Rallye Sport by pushing every aspect of performance and design to the limit.” 

For more than 50 years, Ford Performance’s Rallye Sport badge has been reserved for racing and production vehicles that push the limits of performance and innovation. Known for aggressive design and pioneering technology, Ford vehicles wearing the RS badge have seen success for decades in stage rally series including winning participation in FIA World Rally Championship with drivers like Björn Waldegård, Marcus Grönholm, Mikko Hirvonen and Colin McRae. 

The Focus RS build is a global collaboration between Ford Performance, Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division and U.K.-based M-Sport. Featuring all-wheel drive, a new EcoBoost® engine producing 600 horsepower, and a 0-60-mph launch time of less than two seconds, Ford Focus RS Rallycross cars are optimized for competition. 

Mark Rushbrook, motorsports engineering manager, Ford Performance, says the intention has been to develop a Rallycross car that lives up to the RS badge. 

“We’ve dedicated the same level of cutting-edge tools, technical resources and engineering know-how from our Le Mans GT and NASCAR programs, and working with M-Sport brings renowned expertise in rallycross and stage rally vehicle development,” said Rushbrook. “Ken, Andreas Bakkerud and Hoonigan Racing give us insight from the competition and driver perspectives. Our three organizations have a great working relationship, and we’re all looking forward to seeing the Focus RS in action.” 

"I'm really happy to be expanding my relationship with Ford Performance," said Hoonigan Racing Division’s Ken Block. "To have official factory support for my race season in 2016 and beyond as I enter the FIA World Rallycross Championship full-time is absolutely incredible. It opens up a ton of powerful resources that myself and my team will be able to benefit from in terms of engineering prowess, research, development and racing experience from different fields. Plus, have you seen the car that they've created for me to go race in? My mind was blown when they showed it to me in Dearborn a few months ago. I absolutely cannot wait to get behind the wheel and start testing." 

Malcolm Wilson, OBE, managing director for M-Sport, believes that together, they’ve produced a very special race car. “Working closely with our colleagues at Ford Performance and Hoonigan Racing Division, a huge amount of work has gone into this project,” he said. “It’s been an extremely exciting, rewarding venture – one we hope yields considerable success. I’m confident we have a winning formula for the season ahead.” 

A Ford driven by Ford-Autocraft employee Brian Melia was at the birth of rallycross in February 1967 – his Lotus Cortina finishing second in the Lydden Hill event created especially for ITV’s “World of Sport”. The BBC adopted rallycross later that year and the sport’s future was assured, with the first British Rallycross Championship won by Tony Chappell in a factory-prepared Ford Escort Twin Cam in 1968. 

The Focus RS Rallycross cars will debut at the FIA World Rallycross event in Portugal, April 15-17, with Block and Bakkerud behind the wheel. The global 12-race series takes place in 11 countries on three continents. 

 

 

 

Jacques Villeneuve Frustrated After His First FIA World RallyCross

Montalegre, Portugal — Sunday 4 May, 2014; Albatec Racing was forced to miss its place in the semi finals in the opening round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy today, after fire damage sustained to the Peugeot 208 of Andy Scott in heat four brought his hopes to an end. Series debutant, former F1 and Indycar World Champion Jacques Villeneuve also had his chances of progressing halted prematurely after he was unable to take to the grid for today’s third heat, which effectively dropped him out of contention.

The Dumfries-based team worked into the early hours to iron out the issues that had affected both two-litre 16v cars yesterday, and the result was a return to pace by Jacques in this morning’s warm-up session. Unfortunately a steering issue just before the session started meant Andy was unable to take to the track.

Ahead of heat three though, a water leak was discovered on Jacques’ car leaving him and the team understandably frustrated, although the French Canadian bounced back in the fourth heat with a strong drive in front of the enthusiastic crowd. It wasn’t enough to see him progress through to the final, but nevertheless he proved more than a match for the established runners.

With the steering problem now rectified on Andy’s car, he headed out to the grid for heat three but was forced to joker twice, dropping him down to tenth, but an exhaust fire in the last heat effectively ended his hopes. Despite the best efforts of the team to get the car repaired and out onto the pre-grid for the six-car semi final, they were unable to keep the engine running, denying Andy the chance to start the race.




Andy Scott, Team Principal, Albatec Racing driver #26:

“I had a good reaction to the start but didn’t have the right strategy, I had too much wheel spin and no chance to challenge for position onto the main circuit, so I elected to joker. On the second lap, I was pushing hard but locked up going into the first corner, missing the turn in point and was forced to take the joker again. The second heat started well, but immediately the exhaust problem we had yesterday returned and after two laps I had to stop as the underneath of the car was on fire.”

“All the boys worked really hard to try and get the car going again after the fire damage but we simply ran out of time to get into the semi final. We could get the engine running but we couldn’t keep it going and under the rules that meant we were out.  It’s not the weekend we wanted or expected, we’re now on the back foot, we planned to go away and just perfect the set-up of the car we’ve got, but now we have to go and build a new car.”

Jacques Villeneuve, Albatec Racing driver #25:

“Everything went wrong this weekend, but that’s part of racing. I’ve been racing long enough to know that nine times out of ten you get hacked off, but then you have that one special day when it makes you forget about the other nine times. It’s been a hard weekend for everyone, the car was late, we didn’t have enough people working on the cars due to things outside of our control and the guys have had to do a couple of all nighters, so it’s turned out to be a weekend more of an appetiser than the proper start to the season.”

“Coming here from Indy I was really hoping to have a good result here and go back ready for the Indy500 pumped up, but that hasn’t happened which leaves me a little frustrated.  It’s left me hungry, it didn’t really give me a taste of real rallycross as we had too many issues, so it took the fun away, but the little testing we did have gave me a better outlook of what it should feel like so I’m not going to take this weekend as an example. We’ll have more time to prepare before the next time.”