Former Super1600 champion Jack Thorne will race a Ford Fiesta Mk7 Supercar in the MSA British Rallycross Championship in association with Odyssey Battery this season.

Thorne won the Super1600 title in 2014 before taking a sabbatical from competition last season. He returned for the final round of British RX at Croft Circuit, where he won Super1600 in his Citroen C2. The 20-year old made his Supercar debut at a the final round of the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship in a Ford Focus, but has acquired an OlsbergsMSE built Fiesta for 2016, bought from Max Pucher’s FIA World Rallycross Championship team, World RX Team Austria.

The car was used twice in World RX 2015 by Austrian Chris Brugger, in Canada and Norway. “We’re going to do the full British Championship and hopefully a round of the World Championship if we can,” said Thorne. “There were some delays getting the car over here because of all the snow in Austria, so we’re not going to get a chance to test before Croft, but we will be ready. This year will be a steep learning curve for me, my dad and the mechanics that come with us. I’m not going to go and potter around at the back, that’s not me. I’ll be hoping to win, but we’ll just do the best we can all the time and see how things go. We have a lot to learn, I know that.”

Thorne believes the revised event format for British RX in 2016 will make this season a good one for British Rallycross. “The British Championship is looking very strong this year, especially with the new system. I always say you learn a lot more by chasing someone than you do by being out in front, and I think we will have a lot of chasing to do. It will be good to be lined up against some of the top drivers in Europe and to get in amongst it.”

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