As reported last weekend, M-Sport has managed to sell a second Ford Puma Rally1 car to a private customer. The buyer, Indonesian rally driver Putra Rizky, will be competing with the vehicle in a round of the Indonesian Rallysprint Championship this weekend.
This particular Puma, which lacks the hybrid unit, was the same car used by Latvian driver Martins Sesks in the Rally Poland at the end of June. Putra Rizky revealed to the Indonesian site viralnews.id that he was on a family holiday in Edinburgh when he impulsively decided to acquire a Rally1 car.
Now, M-Sport’s head of car sales, Tom Krawszik, has detailed to DirtFish how this unexpected car deal came about.
“They just so happened to give me a ring on the Friday and asked if they could come in (to M-Sport) next week, and they did,” Krawszik explained.
“And from there they literally asked ‘how soon can we have the car, please?’ because our event is coming. The car was actually out in Estonia heading to Finland, so we had to basically organise transport to get the car back here, get it stripped, get it painted, get it all fully rebuilt all within a two-week timeframe,” Krawszik continued.
Previously, M-Sport had only managed to sell one Rally1 car to a private buyer, Greek businessman Jourdan Serderidis, who has occasionally driven the car in WRC events.
Martins Sesks’s impressive performance in Poland, despite the absence of a hybrid unit, may have paved the way for this significant sale for the British team. M-Sport now hopes that the success will lead to more sales of non-hybrid Rally1 cars in the future.
Even Malcolm Wilson, the founder of M-Sport who has seen it all in the World Rally Championship, was astonished by the unexpected deal.
“Malcolm is over the moon about this, he thinks it’s just phenomenal,” Krawszik said.
Putra Rizky received the car in Indonesia this week and has already showcased his new pride and joy on social media.
