BRC: Grant gets Focus for BRC switch

Rallycross Open champion, Andy Grant, has bought a Ford Focus as he switches to the British Rallycross Championship in 2010.

The 49-year-old, who won the Open title in a Ford Escort Cosworth last season, has purchased the ex-Will Gollop/Andrew Jordan Ford Focus and will begin his campaign in the season opener at Lydden Hill on Easter Weekend.

After converting from rallying in 1992, Grant has enjoyed huge success in rallycross and has been a front runner in his Escort since moving into the Supercar category in 1996. However, with his venerable car starting to show signs of age, the Devon-based driver briefly considered retirement while looking for alternatives for the new season.

"I decided that I can't watch TV, can't play Golf and can't sit still long enough to go fishing,” said Grant. “I noticed that my female friends often buy a new handbag, so I had this crazy idea to buy a newer Rallycross car!

“The Focus has a good history and although the power of it and my Escort is about the same, the suspension and transmission in the Focus is far superior. The Escort wasn't going to go any quicker so I'm hoping that a newer, better car will let me go faster.

"I won the Open championship last year so I can't do any better there so the next thing is to have a crack at the British championship."

Grant's new car has won British Rallycross Championship events in the hands of both Jordan and Gollop, but hasn’t been driven since 2007 when Jordan made the switch to the BTCC.

"The Escort wasn't competitive enough to win British championship events,” said Grant, “but I've proved plenty of times that I can match the best drivers when things are equal. With the Focus I should have an equal chance every time.”

With the sale of his Focus to Grant, former British and European Rallycross champion, Gollop, has called time on his 29-year career in the discipline. He remains Britain’s most successful rallycross driver of all time and will be present at Lydden on Easter weekend to help Grant with his first event with the car.

Watch the British Rallycross Championship on Motors TV (Sky Channel 413, Virgin Media 545) in 2010.


Andy Wilkinson

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