Ford, Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) and new co-sponsor, Puma Lubricants, will be kicking off the team’s 2017 campaign at the Lichtenburg 400 on 31 March and 1 April, the opening round of the South African Cross Country Series (SACCS) .
The Ford NWM Puma Lubricants team is fielding three entries in the Class T Production Vehicle championship, which is expected to produce one of the most competitive seasons yet.
“It has been a long off-season since the final race at the end of October last year, but we have been working hard behind the scenes, producing two brand new Ford Rangers and thoroughly rebuilding and updating the third vehicle,” says Neil Woolridge, team principal of NWM.
“Our pre-season testing has shown that we have made significant improvements to the Ford Rangers from last year, and we’re expecting to be super competitive right from the start,” added Woolridge.
The three Ford entries are made up by:
- Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer (T77)
- Lance Woolridge and Ward Huxtable (T34) and
- Henk Lategan and Barry White (T17)
The dirt starts flying on Friday 31 March with the series adopting a short qualifying loop to determine starting positions for the main race on Saturday 1 April – the latter comprising two race loops covering a total distance of approximately 350 km, split by a compulsory 20 min service.
The race headquarters and service park are based at the Lichtenburg show grounds on the outskirts of the town, with free access for spectators to these areas and all viewing points along the route.
Fans can follow the action live on the RallySafe app for Apple and Android devices. The
app can be downloaded free of charge from the relevant app store, and enables enthusiasts to track the cars on a detailed map, download split times and access results.
Test and images supplied by Ford Motor Company