Ford Focus to Compete in 2005 FIA World Touring Car Chamionship

Ford Motors has recently announced that the German Hotfiel Sport team will enter two of its new Ford Focus touring cars in the 2005 World Touring Car Championship. Hotfiel is a long-term Ford team and has previously competed with a three-Focus squad in the German DMSB Produktionswagen Meisterschaft this season with frontrunners Patrick Bernhardt, Thomas Klenke and Michael Funke in the drivers' seats.

The team driver line-up for next year will be unveiled in a future Ford release.The team also co-operated closely with the RS-Line team which drove two Ford Focus cars in the FIA European Touring Car Championship this year. Ford motorsport director Jost Capito stated: “We're delighted that Hotfiel has taken the initiative to enter the new Ford Focus in 2005, and we will be watching their progress with great interest. We hope this will inspire other teams to develop their own programs using the new Ford Focus."

Ford competed in the first, and so far only, World Touring Car Championship in 1987 with its powerful Ford Sierra RS500.