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29 Oct 2015

Tohill to contest 2016FIA European Rallycross Championship

By Padraic Deane On October 29, 2015

Well-known Motor Factor personality and Double FIA European Rallycross Touring Car Champion Derek Tohill will contest a full programme of events in the FIA European Rallycross Championship next season, driving an OlsbergsMSE built Ford Fiesta Supercar.

Derek-Tohill

Following a year of planning the 2016 programme while contesting selected events in Ireland through 2015, Tohill – the only Irishman to compete in a full FIA World Rallycross Championship in 2014 – will debut the freshly built Supercar at the seventh round of the Irish Rallycross Championship this weekend at Mondello Park.


The 2010 and 2013 European TouringCar champion tested the Fiesta for the first time at Strangnas in Sweden on Monday with OlsbergsMSE, where Tohill and the PFCRX team got to grips with the new car, which has previously been used in the FIA World Rallycross Championship and recently updated to the latest specification ahead of 2016.
 


OlsbergsMSE is one of the front-running teams in the FIA World Rallycross Championship and in 2014 scored three victories to secure the Teams’ Championship title at the final event in Argentina. Tohill raced in World RX in 2014 and finished 14th overall in a Citroen DS3 Supercar, but is looking forward competing in the Fiesta Supercar with a longitudinally mounted engine, more akin to the Fiesta TouringCar in which he became the first ever Irish European Rallycross Champion.
 


The four-wheel drive OlsbergsMSE Ford Fiesta Supercar produces 600bhp with around 800nm torque. Rallycross Supercars are widely regarded as being some of the most exciting cars in motorsport, and can accelerate to 100kph in two seconds.
 
Tohill will be aided in his quest for glory in the European Rallycross Supercar category by PFCRX chief engineer; Graham Ronan, team coordinator; Gordon Lynch and chief technician; Ross Sutov.



The PFCRX Ford Fiesta MK7 Supercar is currently sporting an interim livery before the full 2016 livery and partners are revealed in the new year. The calendar for the 2016 FIA World and European Rallycross Championships is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.