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FORD TOURING CARS AT SPA Ford's European Touring Carhistory is intertwined withSpa-Francorchamps.Johan Dillen takes four generationsback to the fabled Belgian circuit STORMING DOWN TOWARDS Spa's EauRouge corner, we have an Escort, two Caprisand a Sierra, and they are creating on-trackmayhem, raucously roaring, then spitefullycrackling and popping, all three simplybursting with pugnacious blue-collar energy. From the 1960s onwardsthe Blue Oval was always a contender in SaloonCar racing and eventually outperformed itsrivals to such a dramatic extent with the SierraRS500 Cosworth that the FIA saw no optionother than to halt Group A racing. The genesisof Ford's fastest-ever Touring Car began on arotten day in 1983 at the British Touring Carrace prior to the Silverstone Grand Prix. The Sierra won theconstructors' world cup for Ford, in whatwould turn out to be the only World TouringCar Championship for some time: the FIA wasnot at all happy that Touring Car races werebecoming more popular than F1. [Extracted from the article] |
