King’s Langley rally driver Paul Alexander hopes to travel to Cumbria next weekend (11th) in order to contest The Malcolm Wilson Rally, round one of the inaugural Fiesta Sporting Trophy. Based at the Cockermouth headquarters of Ford’s World Rally Championship team, M-Sport, the rally consists of 9 Lakeland stages covering 45 testing miles.

By seeding Paul third out of twenty-four identical Fiestas, the organisers make the Hertfordshire driver one of the pre-season favourites in the category. However, Paul doesn’t see it that way, with delays in finalising a support package meaning that his mere participation on the event will be in doubt right up until the last minute:

“At the moment we’re working flat-out on attracting support, so the actual event and our seeding is the last thing on my mind” said the amiable Kings Langley driver. “If we do make the rally, there will be 24 of us in identical cars and for most it’ll be the first competitive mileage we’ve done in new cars - so it’s wide open. Many of the other Fiesta competitors have a great deal of front-wheel-drive experience, and recent successes in other very competitive categories, so we certainly won’t be taking anything for granted. In fact, where we’d normally be hoping for a strong finish, at the moment just making the start-line would feel like a win for us!!!!”

Fans of the Fiesta Sporting Trophy will soon be able to see the new championship on TV, whilst it is hoped that Paul’s exploits will be featured in leading Ford enthusiast’s magazine, Performance Ford throughout the season.

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