EKSTROM TO GO INTO BAT FOR BAKKERUD
Team boss to support his driver’s World Rallycross Championship title aspirations
Former World Rallycross champion and EKS team owner Mattias Ekstrom will attend the penultimate round of the series next week in Latvia to support World RX points leader Andreas Bakkerud in his bid to win the drivers’ crown.
Having ended his full-time driving career at the end of last season following the EKS squad losing Audi support, Ekstrom made a one-off appearance in the Belgian round of the series this year at Spa but hasn’t attended an event since.
The Swede has subsequently been announced as ambassador for Cupra’s new electric touring car racer, and runs his Audi S1 Supercars for the RX Cartel team for which Bakkerud now drives.
“When the season comes towards the closing stages, I must admit that I miss the feeling of being in the championship battle,” Ekstrom said. “Since I was about 15 years old I have been full-time in the motorsport world and I have been enjoying that every day. This summer I have enjoyed more time with my family. But you know me, I am not the guy to just sit at home, so I’m planning to go to Riga and do my first World RX race as a team member. I will be mainly coaching Andreas to help him hunt his dream of becoming a world champion.”
Bakkerud, meanwhile, has been handed a one-day community service order by the FIA for inappropriate comments during an interview in the French World RX round last weekend. Interviewed on the championship’s live broadcast after Q1, Bakkerud vented his frustration at rival Anton Marklund and a tyre stack in the gravel trap inside Turn 2.
“The FIA destroy the track with putting tyre barriers in Turn 2,” Bakkerud said. “It was a big incident [between Bakkerud and Marklund in Turn 2] and that tyre stack is so stupid. I don’t know what the FIA is thinking putting the tyre stack there. Maybe they want us to crash and roll and die by putting it there I dunno, but it feels like it.”