Ford Announces Fiesta ST Race Car, Expanded Partnerships for Global Rallycross Championship

 

 

DEARBORN, Mich., Feb. 6, 2013 – In many ways the 2014 Ford Fiesta ST is a race car built for the street; Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) fans will soon get an up-close view of the same car built exclusively for competition at the Chicago Auto Show.

 

With Ford’s global launch of Fiesta ST under way, Ford Racing will introduce the ST performance badge in the 2013 season of the Global Rallycross Championship and Global X Games events.

The move is part of an expanded Global Rallycross program for Ford as it capitalizes on the growing popularity of the series and its increased visibility through X Games and some larger-than-life personalities, including Tanner Foust, Brian Deegan and Ken Block.

The first Fiesta ST GRC cars will debut this season with Block, Deegan and two-time Global Rallycross champion Foust. Foust and Deegan will give performance car enthusiasts and media the first look at the OlsbergsMSE Fiesta ST GRC race car this week at the Chicago Auto Show.

“Global Rallycross has been a great series for us to demonstrate what Ford’s small performance cars can do,” said Jamie Allison, director, Ford Racing. “With great drivers and teams, and now a formal manufacturer partnership with OlsbergsMSE, Ford Racing’s commitment to Global Rallycross is quickly growing. We’re excited about the debut of the Fiesta ST GRC car this year, and it will be fantastic to see Ford’s global performance car compete in four countries around the world this season.”

To support development of the RallyCross Fiesta ST program, Ford Racing has formalized its manufacturer partnership with OlsbergsMSE, whose credentials include two consecutive GRC driver championships with Foust, and podium finishes at all six rounds in 2012. The team has helped Ford earn GRC manufacturer’s championships in 2011 and 2012.

OlsbergsMSE will field the Fiesta STs for Foust and Deegan.

“OlsbergsMSE has a good history developing extreme/RallyCross cars, and with the longer-term manufacturer relationship with Ford and its technical support, together we will develop even stronger RallyCross cars,” said Andreas Eriksson, OlsbergsMSE team principal. “The partnership is exactly what OlsbergsMSE needs to continue to be a winning team in the coming years.
 

“There are great teams and manufacturers coming to the series and the sport,” Eriksson continued. “We will have better and tougher competition, and I look forward to the challenge of staying persistent in the development of our cars.

“Outside of our technical development, we will also be very focused on providing our drivers with the information and input they need to be the best,” Eriksson added. “This is the way our entire OlsbergsMSE program moves forward, together with Ford. To be the best in this extreme sport, hard work and dedication is required from drivers and team.”

Joining Foust and Deegan to round out Ford’s GRC program is Block and the Hoonigan Racing Division. Block’s strong 2012 Global Rallycross season was highlighted by a silver medal at X Games 18 behind World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb, and he posted top two qualifying positions in each of the series’ last four rounds.

“I’m stoked to be able to say I’m going to be continuing to race Fords in Global Rallycross for the next few years, especially with the four X Games events this summer,” said Block. “For the upcoming 2013 season, my team is taking everything we learned during my rookie season last year and applying it to an all-new RallyCross car. It’s going to be a fun season.”

The Global Rallycross Championship will have a true global presence in 2013. In addition to five expected North American events, there will be four X Games in 2013 with RallyCross competition. Ford is sole automotive sponsor for all four 2013 summer global X Games, which will include the traditional event in Los Angeles and new venues in Brazil, Spain and Germany.

“Global Rallycross and X Games allow us to connect with the next generation of Ford customers and a very important group of performance enthusiasts,” said Allison. “They already know Ford for great products like Mustang and Raptor, but are becoming a real force helping drive the growing B- and C-car performance segments.”

Coming Through, Brian Deegan and Ford Racing Team up for Global RallyCross

Metal Mulisha’s "The General" Brian Deegan is not known for taking any prisoners while racing hard, Deegan is pictured here competing @ XGAMES 16. Picture Neil McDaid/ RallyWorldNews.com

DEARBORN, Mich. – April 12, 2011 – At the age of 17, Brian Deegan left his home in Omaha and headed for Southern California with only the F-150 he drove, a credit card and his dirt bike, dreaming of becoming the next big thing in Motocross. That 1989 Ford truck carried him and his dreams halfway across the country and to an entirely new life – the one he pictured growing up in the heartland. In the 17 years since Deegan has become a recognized innovator of FMX, one of the most decorated X Games athletes and an icon in action sports. He's not done yet. Deegan is now looking to take that same competitive fire to four-wheel motorsports and again looks to Ford to help him get there.

Deegan's partnership with Ford Racing announced today will allow him to race Fords in multiple action motorsports platforms, including the Ford Raptor in the Lucas Oil Off Road Series, Global RallyCross Championship and at X Games 17 in Los Angeles.
"I'm a Ford guy – always have been - and I'm really excited about working together. In order to be successful as a racer I need to be with the best," Deegan said. "When you think of racing, especially off-road truck, Ford has dominated, and there is nothing I'd rather be behind the wheel of."

Deegan, who earned the nickname "The General" after founding the famed Metal Mulisha dirt bike team, has established himself as one of action sports' cultural icons. Credited as the creator of FMX and an action sports pioneer, Deegan parlayed that success into becoming an influential cultural and lifestyle voice through the Metal Mulisha line of clothing, apparel and lifestyle products. Deegan has been nominated for an ESPY Award, has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Athletes of Action Sports and is a 12-time X Game medalist.

A rising star in the Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing a Ford F-150 truck, Deegan won the Championship in 2009 and was named Lucas Oil Driver of the Year in 2010. Accustomed to the spotlight at X Games, Deegan has tackled the rally competition in a Ford Fiesta the last two years. In 2010 he won a pair of silver medals at the LA Coliseum.

"One thing I am used to is riding dirt bikes," Deegan said. "I grew up doing it ever since I was eight years old and I feel comfortable there. I went out and won a lot of medals and (then) won at supercross."

"However there comes a time in your life where you're like 'have I done it all, or do I want to take on the next chapter?' and I saw four-wheels as the next chapter. When the opportunity came through Rockstar and Ford to race rally car at X Games , I was like 'It sounds pretty cool and I am going to go for it.' For an athlete who comes from the top of the game to start at the bottom again, it isn't easy. You have to kill your ego and your confidence is back to where you have to start over and try to learn this as fast as possible. I feel like my technique from dirt bikes and learning how to be the best at a sport has carried over."

As part of the agreement, Deegan will begin running in the Global RallyCross Championship as his Lucas Oil schedule allows. He was in attendance at the GRC kickoff at Irwindale Speedway in late March as a spectator and will be in the Ford Fiesta the Global RallyCross Championship event at Pikes Peak International Raceway and again at X Games.

"I would like the welcome 'The General" to Ford," said Jamie Allison, director, Ford North America Motorsports. "Brian Deegan is a true pioneer in action sports who has won at the highest level in everything he has competed in be it motocross, surpercross, freestyle motocross and short course trucks. Brian is a competitor and brings versatility to our action sports program not only with his racing background but with the Metal Mulisha team of riders and their fan outreach opportunities."

"Racing's been in my blood since I was a little kid and joining forces with Ford is something that I have always dreamed of," Deegan said. "I look forward to winning more championships with them."