Ekstrom’s team pulls out of WRX

Mattias Ekstrom’s EKS World Rallycross team won’t take part in the series next year and will sell its Audi S1 Supercars.

Team owner and driver Ekstrom announced his departure from World RX as a full-time driver immediately after the final round in South Africa last month, following the loss of works Audi factory support for his squad in August.

The two-time DTM champion has now revealed that the team, which made its World RX debut in 2014 and won both the drivers’ and teams’ titles two years later, will take a break from the sport in 2019.

“After five amazing years where we had so much support, so much fun, a great team and the great support of all our partners, we have decided that we will take a break and we will not be on the grid for the 2019 season,” said Ekstrom via social media.

“When I started EKS back in 2014, my dream was to make a team that I always dreamed of being the driver for The Audi S1 in the new version was the dream car for this project and now five years later, we can only say it was a success.”

The team joins Olsbergs MSE and Peugeot Total in withdrawing from World RX for 2019.