Hong Kong-based FRD Motorsports have continued to develop the Ford Focus TCR car, with the outfit planning to enter cars into the TCR Asia Series in 2017.
The team entered its redeveloped Ford Focus into two of the final three events of the 2016 TCR International Series, which were also shared with TCR Asia, with both Martin Cao and Nicky Pastorelli sampling the machinery.
FRD have continued to develop the car, and recently completed laps at the Zhuhai circuit in China.
Team Principal Kenneth Ma, who tentatively entered the car into two TCR Asia events in 2016, explained that the team will start the 2017 TCR Asia Series with one car, before expanding to two later in the year.
“Currently the second car is undergoing TCR Balance of Performance [BoP] testing at Adria in Europe,” said Ma. “We hope to have it back ahead of the second round of the season.
“There have been a number of modifications to the original car to make it more consistent and reliable, because it was clear the car had the pace it just needed some more development time to improve the reliability, so we’re confident that we’ll now be able to put the Focus right in amongst the Series front-runners.”
WSC Asia Limited’s David Sonenscher hopes to see the car mixing with the more established names on the grid in this year’s third season of TCR Asia.
“Right from that very first event at Sepang two years ago, the Focus was a fan favourite and showed some impressive pace,” added Sonenscher. “Unfortunately, due to their development program, they were unable to commit to the full Series.
“Last year the car made cameo appearances and showed significant improvement, but Kenneth and the team elected to concentrate on development for a return to competition this year, so we look forward to seeing the Ford mix it with the established teams.”