A rubber mounting on the gearbox of the Ford Fiesta robbed Ford Racing of their first potential class win on the Toyota Dealer Rally over the past weekend. The Ford Fiesta in the hands of Etienne Lourens/ Elvéne Coetzee was eight seconds ahead of the rest of the class N3 competitors when the mounting worked loose in stage 7, and put and end to their race.
“It was important for us to get to the end and get as many kilometres on the engine as possible. Until the problem occurred we were having a very good run and kept the car in front of the other N3 contenders without any problems.
The car handled well and showed that once all the teething problems have been sorted out we are confident that the Ford Fiesta will be the car to beat in the class that has been dominated by Toyota over the years”, commented Lourens.
Martin Steyn and Van Aardt Schoeman – Ford Fiesta ST
Steyn and Schoeman had a good run on this event, and was only one second behind team mate Lourens on the tar stage in the Pick n Pay car park in Brackenfell on Friday night. In stage 6 they were forced to retire from the race due to a broken strut.
Tony Barbosa and Ian Mackenzie – Ford Ka
Barbosa and Mackenzie in the Class A5 Ford Ka had to push the car out of stage 5 on Friday night due to a broken drive shaft. Until then the Ka was attracting a lot of attention from the Capetonian rally fans and we look forward to seeing more from the team in Class A5.
