The lead up into the 2017 World Rallycross season has been a long one for both Ken Block and Andreas Bakkerud. While last year they started the season in an all-new car (the Ford Focus RS RX), they were unfortunately limited to just one single test prior to the start of the season and then had only one test later as the year went on. This meant that effectively they were testing publicly by racing, a tough thing to deal with during a development year with an all-new car. In spite of that and a few hiccups along the way, the team had a great season including Bakkerud finishing the championship 3rd overall.
This year has been a different story. The HRD duo have been hard at work with the team packing in multiple tests on two different continents in order to have both Focus RS RX rallycross cars as sorted as possible for Round One in Barcelona. They’ve tested in the wet, on dry tarmac, in gravel and have been focusd on their starts, all in the name of squeezing every last ounce of performance out of the cars as possible. Ford Performance, M-Sport and Hoonigan Racing Division have all been equally hard at work to improve the cars for the 2017 championship run. Both drivers feel very confident about their new and improved “offices” and will be gunning for the top spots in each race this year.
