MILLENER AND M-SPORT BACK FIESTA FOR BRITISH AND IRISH SUCCESS
Rally2 car showing its cutting edge says M-Sport team principal
Rich Millener, World Rally Championship team principal for M-Sport, says that recent UK and Ireland results for the Fiesta Rally2 are a reminder of how good the Ford is against Rally2 opposition from Citroen, Hyundai, Toyota and Skoda.
The Fiesta’s podium lockout on the West Cork Rally last month was the first 1-2-3 for the Fiesta on Irish asphalt since the 2019 Rally of the Lakes.
On the BRC-opening North West
Stages, Osian Pryce led the chase of Chris Ingram’s VW Polo GTi R5 before retiring his Fiesta Rally2 and William Creighton took second in his M-Sport car.
Millener told MN: “Last year we put Adrien Fourmaux in the car and showed what’s possible. With some of the upgrades that we’ve been doing over the last couple of years, now we’ve got them all working as a package it shows the car is very competitive.
“Our biggest issue is that the Fiesta has been around for a while now and it’s out of production. But in terms of competition, we’re still running them, building them and selling them and we’ve got parts for at least five years. The car is competitive and the results we’ve been getting will maybe open people’s eyes again and still see it as a good option.”
Millener says that the three-car
BRC team, with Creighton, Garry Pearson and Max McRae, is strong, while Keith Cronin has already put the Fiesta back into the limelight in Ireland.
He added: “Firstly, well done to the organisers of the British championship in terms of having a think about how to do the series and making the events a bit shorter, which reduces running costs a little. Then they added in the
TV, which is great, and added more of a buzz. With Rally2 being so competitive and relatively affordable, it’s worked very well.
“We didn’t plan to run three cars in the BRC and about six weeks ago we weren’t running any cars.
“Then Garry and Max came to discuss the BRC. Obviously, we wanted to be in the championship but weren’t interested in running a team that we felt couldn’t challenge.”