The experiment has worked.
The whole purpose of Mārtiņš Sesks’ drive at Rally Poland back in June was to promote the performance of a non-hybrid Rally1 car – which is more affordable for customers than the full-fat hybrid versions.
Sesks thrust himself into the limelight with his mega performance, and now M-Sport Ford has sold a hybrid-less Rally1 to a brand-new customer.
Everyone has ended up a winner.
The car in question is actually the chassis Sesks himself drove, which has been flown out to Indonesia ahead of an event this weekend.
Putra Rizky's new Ford Puma Rally1 had been driven by Mārtiņš Sesks
Putra Rizky is the new owner of the Puma, joining Jourdan Serderidis as just the second person to own one privately. Having been on a family holiday in Edinburgh, the Indonesian gave M-Sport’s head of car sales Tom Krawszik a call and a deal was done there and then.
“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 told DirtFish.
“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 organize transport to get the car back here, get it stripped, get it painted, get it all fully rebuilt all within a two-week timeframe.
“So that’s a story in itself about this sale I think.”
The chassis was rushed back to the UK after a purchase deal was agreed
Intriguingly, Rizky and Sesks also know each other as Sesks has done some rally work in Indonesia. It would appear rather likely that Sesks has therefore helped sell the merits of the car.
M-Sport’s hope is that Rizky’s purchase acts as a snowball effect, with more and more customers placing orders for non-hybrid Rally1 Pumas.
“Malcolm is over the moon about this, he thinks it’s just phenomenal,” Krawszik said.
“We hope that people now see this car running in a national championship and that will encourage more global interest. What we’ve done over the years with the Fiesta WRCs is sell them, and customers did run them.
“The Puma is actually closer to Rally2 than it was as well, as an upright for example can be used on any corner – it’s designed a lot more to be user-friendly shall we say.”
M-Sport team principal Richard Millener added: “It’s just great to get a Puma out there, and a lot of this sale was down to the success of Sesks in Poland which is great to see how that initiative has paid off with a car sale.”
Rizky took delivery of the car earlier this week and has already wrapped it
