New Ford Focus to make motorsport debut in World Touring Car series

The all-new Ford Focus will make its international motorsport debut in the inaugural FIA World Touring Car Championship, which begins at Italy's Monza race circuit today. German-based Team Ford Hotfiel Sport will enter two Ford Focus Touring cars in the 10-round series, driven by Thomas Klenke and Thomas Jäger.

The Focus RS WTCC was developed by Ford TeamRS to meet the needs of professional customer teams and will take to the international stage just a few months after the road version went on sale across the major European countries.

The Focus has been the backbone of Ford's motorsport activity since 1999. An all-new version of the Focus RS World Rally Car is currently being developed for the Blue Oval's flagship motorsport discipline, the World Rally Championship, from 2006.

Jost Capito, director of Ford TeamRS, the organisation within Ford which co-ordinates the company's European motorsport activities, said the Touring Car series was an integral part of Ford's support programme for customer teams.

"Ford carried out a comprehensive review of motorsport and our involvement in it," he said. "While the World Rally Championship is our headline activity, the WTCC is the most obvious example to date of our support for professional private teams.

"It is part of Ford of Europe's motorsport strategy, which was carefully developed as an integrated element of our core business to support our brand strategy for the future.

"The Focus RS WTCC provides Team Ford Hotfiel Sport with the opportunity to compete successfully with an affordable budget. We have followed the progress of the Super 2000 regulations closely and developed this car for what is a highly cost-effective category.

"Although it is early days, 25 cars have been entered for the opening race and that is highly encouraging for the sport. Ford has a long tradition in Touring Car racing, where the abilities of great cars like the Capri, Sierra and Mondeo have been showcased and we hope the new Focus will continue that line."

Capito stressed that the 2005 WTCC was just the beginning of what is intended to be a long-term programme. "We have already had considerable interest in the Focus RS WTCC touring car from other teams," he added.

"Our aim this year is to develop the car in the WTCC so that by the second half of the season we can sell cars and kits to teams with confidence as a competitive product for 2006 championships.

"We want to make the Focus fully competitive by the second half of the season. Any podium results before that would be regarded as a bonus," he added.

Eberhard Braun, manager of Ford TeamRS in Cologne, played a key role in the development of the new Focus RS WTCC car. "To reach this stage is the culmination of much hard work by many people within Ford TeamRS.

"Team Ford Hotfiel Sport's development programme has been heartening and we received positive feedback from the drivers during our test at Silverstone earlier this month. While we have a long way to go in the development of the Focus, I'm hugely encouraged by our progress so far," he said.