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Ford confirmed for France

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Germany-based RS-Line IPZ Racing will join the FIA World Touring Car Championship at Magny-Cours and contest the remaining events of the season with two Ford Focus ST170 cars. 23-year old German Frank Diefenbacher and 32-year old Sascha Plöderl from Austria are the two drivers selected for the campaign.

The team directed by Rainer Stiefel have considerably updated the two cars seen in last year’s FIA ETCC with Sebastian Grunert and Roland Asch, also replacing the “H” pattern 5-speed gearbox with a 6-speed sequential.

A former SEAT Sport works driver, Diefenbacher collected a few podium results in the 2003 and 2004 FIA ETCC seasons. His new team-mate Plöderl was a race winner in the Austrian Touring Car Challenge (ÖTC), in which he finished runner up for three consecutive years: third in 2001 and 2002, second in 2003 at the wheel of a Honda Integra and Civic cars. Last year he raced in the German Renault Clio Cup.