Four Ford Fiestas will be going for gold in the rally events at X Games 17 this weekend. The Fiesta has dominated the competition in the last two years, winning three gold medals, two silvers and a bronze medal.
Tanner Foust will be defending his double gold, while Brian Deegan will defend the two silver medals he picked up last year. Ken Block will also return, while former two-time WRC champion Marcus Gronholm makes his X Games debut in a Fiesta.
Foust and Deegan will both drive their Rockstar-backed Ford Fiestas prepared by Sweden-based Olsberg MSE. Olsberg prepared Fiestas have won the last two X Games as well as all three events in the Global RallyCross Championship this season. Last year, the Rockstar Fiesta duo swept the gold and silver medals in both events.
“This is by far the most competitive year ever for Rally at X Games,” said Foust. “X Games has upped the ante for the rally car racing every single year and this year they have taken it to a whole new level going in the streets, door-to-door, up to eight cars on track at once with the RallyCross.
“Add to that all the top level drivers that have come over from Europe with Gronholm, my Fiesta teammate, being the headliner who is a two time World Rally Champion, it's an amazing field. Defending my two gold medals from last year is going to be tough, but I am glad I am in the Fiesta because it is the car to beat.”
Motocross leged Deegan said: “I am excited for X Games because rally is such a fun event. Ford has dominated the last couple of years and this year it is going to be more of the same. I think the best drivers are driving the Ford Fiesta so it is a really good chance that we are going to win it again. I don't see it going down any other way.”
Block and the Monster World Rally Team will be campaigning the recently-unveiled H.F.H.V. Fiesta, and X Games is his first competitive appearance in 2011.
“I wish I could have done a few more RallyCross events prior to jumping right into X Games, especially with the great stage they have built in downtown LA,” said Block. “Who would have thought they could put RallyCross in the streets of downtown LA? It is amazing that we get to do this type of stuff. I have had some bad luck at X Games the last couple of years, but I do have a couple of silvers and a bronze and I am missing that gold so I am here to get that gold in my Fiesta.”
Gronholm meanwhile will drive his Best Buy-backed Fiesta, and has already found success in GRC this year.
“This is my first time at X Games and I have been told it is quite a spectacle,” said Gronholm. “The competition will be tough, but we will be ready in the Best Buy Fiesta.”
