Pryce joins MSA PRYCE HOPING FOR DMACK TROPHY DRIVE
Welshman must wait for selection committee
Osian Pryce has been selected as the latest member of Team MSA UK. The Welshman will benefit from the programme’s one-on-one tution and performance management. The team currently includes new Opel works rally driver Chris Ingram, as well as circuit racing drivers like GP2’S Alex Lynn among others. Welshman Osian Pryce will aim to get his World Rally Championship aspirations back on track this year by contesting the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy.
Pryce was a frontrunner in last year’s Junior WRC and is desperate to land a place on this year’s Fiesta-based series, which kicks off at the Rally of Portugal in May. DDFT numbers are limited and selection for this year’s field will be made next month.
Pryce said: “The prize is obviously better in Drive DMACK than it is in the Juniors – you win seven rounds in an R5 car, whereas it’s only six in the Juniors. And, the DMACK series is cheaper and going to all the right rounds. We showed the speed to win Juniors in Poland last year and, of course, it would be amazing to get to Finland.”
Pryce is no stranger to Ford Fiestas, having driven an R2 car on his first assault at the British Rally Championship in 2011. If he gets a place this season, this will be his first time in the new turbocharged R2.
After a season blighted by his Citroen’s lack of reliability last year, Pryce added that the arrive-and-drive aspect of DDFT made sense.
“M-sport has everything taken care of,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I like being involved in the work on the car, but last year didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. With M-sport, the car’s ready to go. Having driven Fiestas in the BRC, I know some of the people from M-sport and they will do anything to help you out.”
M-sport’s Malcolm Wilson admitted Pryce is just the kind of driver he’d like to see in this year’s DDFT.
“This is the perfect step for Osian,” he said. “We’ve seen his pace last year and he showed what he could do when he used a Fiesta R5 on Rally GB a couple of years ago. What DDFT does for guys like Osian is offer a cost-effective way into the world championship and it looks like we’re in for another fantastic season of competition.”