Grönholm to race in Britain

Ford’s megastar gets Best Buy Fiesta for August Bank Holiday Lydden event.

Marcus Grönholm will race in the fifth round of the Quaife MSA British Rallycross Championship at Lydden on Monday August 29. The former World Rally Champion will drive an OMSE Ford Fiesta VII Supercar in the event, his participation brokered by Best Buy which has backed his campaign in the Global Rallycross Championship and which also sponsors David Binks in the British championship. “We have had a great year so far with OMSE and are excited to both extend our relationship with Marcus in the US and put David into an OMSE Fiesta for the 2012 British championship,” said Mark Williams, president of Best Buy Financial Services. “Bringing Marcus to the UK, where he has so many fans, is a great way to keep him busy in the US off-season and for us to extend our brand awareness in Britain.”

Binks has already tested an OMSE car, driving in Sweden last month in a test day also attended by Grönholm. “Marcus did 40 or 50 laps in the day and just being at a test like that and watching how the team works was a good experience for me. At the end of the day I got three runs, so just nine laps,” said Binks who did well in the test, “The car was amazing, a huge step forward from what I’ve got now and it felt as though it was on rails. I had a bit more power for my last three laps and did a time that was under the record for the track and close to what Marcus had done. Everyone was happy and I was amazed at the times as I was not on the limit. The whole thing has really fired me up to get the deals together and drive that car next year.”

Grönholm will also attend a sponsorship function for Best Buy over the BRC weekend. While it is his first appearance at Lydden, it is not new territory for OMSE who ran Tanner Foust in the first day of the 2010 BRC opener at Lydden having been at the track a couple of days earlier for a pre-season media event.

Before his BRC outing at Lydden, Grönholm will take part in the X Games 17 at the end of this month where he competes alongside Foust and Brian Deegan as OMSE bids to complete a hat trick of Ford victories in the event which it won in 2009 with Kenny Bräck and 2010 with Foust. Unbeaten in his American outings in the Global series so far this year, Grönholm starts among the favourites in the X Games and his presence at Lydden will, naturally, raise the bar for British championship contenders.

Although he had planned to add some European Rallycross Championship outings to his 2011 British championship campaign, Binks has now decided to focus on the national series and on plans for 2012. “The budget I have is for Britain and now that next year’s plans are developing I want to concentrate on the British championship and use any extra time to work on next year’s plans,” said Binks, “Having driven a new car and seen how OMSE works I can also see that driving in ERC events now, with the car I have is not the best use of time or money, it’s better to wait and do that next year.”

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