Did you know that M-Sport Ford World Rally Team star Gus Greensmith gave up a potential football career with English Premier League champions Manchester City once he became hooked on rallying?
Greensmith told WRC+ Commentator Becks Williams on www.wrc.com: “I started off as a goalkeeper and that was something I was enjoying. From the age of seven or eight until about 12, and then I gave that up pretty quickly once I realised how much fun four wheels and an engine is.”
“Just before I quit, I was doing trials to get into Manchester City and then I quit. That’s how much I wanted to do motorsport instead of football because I was pretty happy to quit.”
A former junior goalkeeper for Manchester City FC and a karter before moving up into the ranks of rally driving, Greensmith also told Becks about how his fledgling motorsport career was put on hold when his school grades dipped.
The footballer-turned-rally driver will pilot one of the five Ford Puma Rally 1 cars for M-Sport in the forthcoming WRC Safari Rally. The iconic Kenyan fixture is sponsored by KCB Bank Kenya, Toyota Kenya, and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) among others.
Greensmith’s teammates in the five-car M-Sport Ford lineup for the 2022 WRC Safari (23-26 June) include Sebastien Loeb (France), Craig Breen (Ireland), Adrien Fourmaux (France), and Jourdan Serderidis (Greece).
As a karter who went to school in Manchester, Greensmith appeared in the CIK-FIA U18 World Karting Championship in 2012, racing alongside the likes of Charles Leclerc, Ben Barnicoat and Joey Mawson.
In 2014, he won the British Junior Rally Championship. In 2015, he appeared at Rally GB again this time paired with the co-driver for Ken Block, Alex Gelsomino.
Greensmith has made rapid progress through the ranks since his rallying debut in 2013. Much of his experience has been gained behind the wheel of Ford Fiestas in various classes.
ABOUT GUS GREENSMITH
NAME: Fergus "Gus" Greensmith
DATE OF BIRTH: 26.12.1996
BIRTHPLACE: Manchester, GBR
FIRST WRC: 2014, Wales Rally GB
CO-DRIVER: Elliott Edmondson
COUNTRY: Great Britain.
