“The best one ever built!”


by Henk de Winter |

Pauwels Motorsport presents first Rallycross Ford Focus III Supercar.

“The fastest one. The best one. I’m impressed by it’s performance,” says Belgian TouringCar driver Koen Pauwels. Pauwels is not talking about his Ford Fiesta TouringCar, but speaks about his brand new Supercar Ford Focus III that the Pauwels Motorsport Team built in its workshop. Pauwels had a maidentrip with the Focus last Saturday morning . It was a ‘heavy’ test run as he calls it, done at the Ford testing centre at Lommel in Belgium. Under the eyes of Ford factory engineers the car did a bit more than several runs on the Ford test course.

“Unbelievable,” says Pauwels. “The car drives so easy and the steering is very good, which gives a good and complete handling of the car.” The Focus III has the latest engine specifications, made by its builder Julian Godfrey. Pauwels says that the 2011 Focus gave him from the first meters on a very good feeling. “Drifting, sliding and setting the car into a corner. Much, much better than the Supercar Focus that I drove last year in the European Rallycross Championship.”

Last year Pauwels brought Belgian Rally ace François Duval to the Duivelsberg at Maasmechelen. It was a very successful entry by the team. For the first time a Belgian driver won a Supercar race on home soil. The venue litterally exploded and was flooded by hundreds of fans. “And that entry was with the ‘slower’ older Focus,” says Pauwels. “This one, this is something different.” For quite a long time the grapevine had it that “Dudu” would also race the brand new Focus this year. Pauwels: “On request of François we made some adjustments inside the car.” Nothing seemed standing in the way for Duval to make a second entry at the Duivelsberg in a Pauwels Focus. According to the Pauwels Motorsport François has chosen, for budget reasons, to drive with another team.

Pauwels Motorsport has now a brand new Ford Focus III for sale or to rent for the coming races in the European Rallycross Championship. The car is tested and ready to race. Who ever will race this Focus in Maasmechelen, the driver can add ‘has driven the first ever Focus Mk3 in Rallycross history’ in his curriculum vitae. This could may be a good beginning for the person who starts with the Pauwels Focus in round 6 of the European Rallycross Championship at Maasmechelen next Saturday and Sunday.

 

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