Ford WRC contenders go ‘back to school’ for sports day fun

• Eight Ford rally drivers and co-drivers participate in school sports day at Dunton
• Competitors swap horsepower for three-legged power, bean bags and eggs and spoons

Dunton, England, July 17, 2012 – All the ingredients for high drama were present – fierce competition, national pride, a series of rarely-seen athletic challenges.

No, this was not the Olympics, but a light-hearted alternative at Ford’s European engineering facility at Dunton, just a few kilometres from the London stadium that will launch the biggest sporting event of the year later this month.

Eight Ford drivers and co-drivers from the FIA World Rally Championship stepped back to their childhood days to take part in a traditional British primary school sports day.

Instead of the discus, javelin and 100m, the Ford Rally Sports Day saw them pit their skills in such demanding sporting disciplines as the sack race, three-legged event and bean bag-on-the-head race.

For such dangerous and challenging tests of speed and agility, only the bravest could compete, and Ford World Rally Team pairings Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila and Petter Solberg / Chris Patterson were joined by M-Sport duo Ott Tänak/ Kuldar Sikk and ALM Russia’s Evgeny Novikov / Denis Giraudet.

During an entertaining day of activities, in which the drivers’ and co-drivers’ competitive instincts came to the fore, Latvala, Solberg and Tänak won two races each.  However, it was Solberg who prevailed in the title-deciding egg-and-spoon race, even if there were some entirely unfounded suspicions that he fixed his egg to his spoon prior to the start!

“It was a really fun day, but we’re all ultra-competitive guys and I think there were probably more tactics than on rallies!  There was a little bit of cheating going on, although obviously not by me, and it was all in good spirit,” said a delighted Solberg.

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About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 166,000 employees and about 70 plants worldwide, the company’s automotive brands include Ford and Lincoln. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford’s products, please visit www.fordmotorcompany.com.

Ford of Europe is responsible for producing, selling and servicing Ford brand vehicles in 51 individual markets and employs approximately 66,000 employees. In addition to Ford Motor Credit Company, Ford of Europe operations include Ford Customer Service Division and 22 manufacturing facilities, including joint ventures. The first Ford cars were shipped to Europe in 1903 – the same year Ford Motor Company was founded. European production started in 1911.

Copyright-free images of Ford Rally Sports Day are available for download at www.worldrallypics.com/ford

A video of the day can be found at www.youtube.com/fordwrc