Jamie Anderson to step up to BRC in new Fiesta R5

Jamie Anderson will compete a full British Rally Championship slate in a Ford Fiesta R5.

Anderson – who won the Woodpecker Rally last year in a Mitsubishi Lancer E5 WRC – made the decision to compete in the championship in December.

“We’ve been in talks since last year to get the car,” explained Anderson.

“We went to look at the car at the end of last month and it arrived last week.”

Anderson is hoping to get the Evo upgrade on the car which provides a power boost, but he’s keen that the upgrade doesn’t curtail his opportunity to test the car before Mid Wales on March 5/6.

“Now we have it, we want to do the upgrade,” explained Anderson. “But we also don’t want to be on the back foot for the start of the season. We’re going to try and sort out a test now before the beginning of the season.”

Anderson pointed to the quality of the championship and drivers entered for the main reasons he’s signing up.

“There’s massive hype for the BRC, we were waiting to get our budget together and to see who was doing it and there’s some real quality,” he said.

“It’s good Elfyn Evans is competing as that provides a boost for the championship and a benchmark for competitors. I don’t think it will be fair if people judge drivers based on Elfyn’s pace as he’s had a lot of seat time at the highest level, but he provides a benchmark. “The old car is up for sale but, thanks to Ice Drive Sweden and some other sponsors, we’ve got the new car. “I decided that it was right now or never for having a go at the BRC. “I’m 30 this year and I decided the time was right.”