More than half the competitors at next week’s Rally Poland (26 - 29 June), round seven of the FIA World Rally Championship, will be at the wheel of specially-built Ford Fiesta rally cars.
Ford dominates the entry list for the gravel rally with 39 privately-entered teams out of 71 opting for Fiesta – almost 55 per cent of the total field and more than twice the number aligned to the next highest manufacturer. The figures are a record for Fiesta in world rallying.
Seven Fiesta World Rally Cars are listed in the headline category. They include two cars from the M-Sport World Rally Team for Mikko Hirvonen and Elfyn Evans and one from the RK M-Sport World Rally Team for ex-F1 driver and Polish superstar Robert Kubica.
In the WRC 2 support category, there are eight new-generation Fiesta R5 cars entered, along with two Fiesta Regional Rally Cars and a Fiesta S2000. Fiesta has won all six WRC 2 rounds to date.
Twelve Fiesta R2 cars will compete in the DMACK Fiesta Trophy, a support series run by Ford’s rally partner, M-Sport, in conjunction with tyre supplier DMACK.
A further nine Fiestas are making one-off appearances in the hands of drivers from various countries, including France, Spain and Holland.
The figures for Poland exceed those of Rally de Portugal earlier in the season when 49 per cent of the entry opted to drive Fiesta.
“We’re delighted so many private teams choose Fiesta in which to compete at rallying’s highest level,” said Gerard Quinn, head of Ford Racing in Europe. “It’s a testimony to Fiesta’s strength, speed and reliability that more than half the competitors have chosen Ford when they have such a wide range of manufacturers from which to choose.
“Our continued technical collaboration with M-Sport has ensured private teams have access to Fiesta and its remarkable technology at all levels – from grass roots to the headline World Rally Car category. The latest success of this partnership is the EcoBoost-powered Fiesta R5, which dominates the WRC 2 entries,” he added.
Rally Poland is based in Mikolajki and competitors will tackle 24 high-speed special stages covering 362.48km in Poland and Lithuania during four days of action.
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