GRONHOLM LINKED TO HYUNDAI WRX DEAL
Wrc legend to head up campaign in world rally cross
Rally legend Marcus Gronholm is nearing a deal to run a pair of Hyundai i20 machines in next year’s World Rallycross Championship.
The two-time world beater has been in talks with top brass at the Korean firm and is close to a deal which will lead to him running two EX-WRC Hyundai i20s. One of the cars will be driven by his son Niclas, while a driver for the other has yet to be confirmed.
The cars will be run as a private venture initially. Hyundai’s WRC boss Michel Nandan said: “We have spoken about rallycross and we have talked to Marcus Gronholm. We are looking at some ways to do something next season with him.”
Double World Rally champion Marcus Gronholm is closing on a deal with Hyundai Motorsport to head up a two-car Hyundai i20 team in the World Rallycross Championship next season.
The Finn is planning to run a pair of former World Rally Championship-specification i20s in World RX for his son Niclas and a second driver.
The programme will initially be a private effort using 2016-based cars, run by Gronholm’s GRX concern together with multiple European Rallycross champion SET Promotion, led by Jussi Pinomaki. However, the former works Peugeot and Ford WRC driver is in discussions with Hyundai about technical support and is hoping to attract official backing in the future.
“We have discussed with them [Hyundai], but the final decision will be soon,” Gronholm told Motorsport News. “I hope everything goes together, it’s not yet there and time is running quickly because we are in late November already.”
Asked of his motivation behind targeting the rally-based machine, Gronholm said: “We are hoping to get some support. We are working on that. It will not be a factory team at this point. A two-car team would be nice; we are working on that as well.”
The former European Rallycross race winner has already been contacted by a number of drivers about the second seat in the squad, with only a few drives officially confirmed for World RX 2018 so far.
“There are people who have contacted us, quite a lot actually. Of course this is the time that people are running around looking for deals. I cannot say anything, we will see,” he said.
Gronholm’s GRX Management Team set-up currently has 2014 Global Rallycross champion Joni Wiman and rising rally star Jari Huttunen on its books, alongside his son Niclas. Huttunen recently won Hyundai’s young driver shootout and secured a WRC2 programme with the marque for 2018, strengthening links between the Finn and the Alzenau-based WRC team.
Gronholm says Wiman is not in the frame for a drive in World RX with his squad.
“Joni would be of course very interesting, but when we don’t have the money we need a driver who comes in with some budget,” he confirmed. “I would like to run Joni but I don’t think that’s possible. We have to see what we are going to do with him.”
Hyundai Motorsport team principal Michel Nandan told MN: “We have spoken about rallycross and we have talked to Marcus. We are looking at some ways to do something next season with him.”
Asked about speculation regarding Dani Sordo’s switch from the World Rally Championship to World RX, Nandan added: “There is always a lot of talk and that’s all this is.”
Gronholm won his WRC titles in 2000 and 2002 driving a Peugeot 206 for the French marque, before switching to Ford in 2006. He just missed out on a third title,
finishing one point behind Sebastien Loeb in 2006.
Having retired from full-time WRC competition in 2007, Gronholm senior raced in three European Rallycross events with the Olsbergsmse team in 2008, winning on his debut at Holjes.
He returned to the Swedish squad for an assault on the American-based Global Rallycross Championship in 2011 and finished second in the points, and won the opening two rounds of the 2012 season. However, his driving career was effectively ended by an injury sustained in a crash at X Games.
The Finn, who is a regular test driver for several manufacturers and teams in rallying, says his motivation for running his team in World RX is largely to help son Niclas’s career.
“It’s interesting and I’ll do it to try and push Niclas and help him,” he said. “But, I have to see also that he is capable of doing it, I don’t want to spend time and money if the results are not there. Running around to find the budget is not so easy [though], it’s big money you have to put together.”
Driving for GRX, Gronholm Jr raced an ex-ken Block M-sport- built Ford Fiesta Supercar in World RX this year. Despite only making the final on one occasion, at the penultimate round in Germany (with a career best result of fifth), Gronholm senior says increased testing helped to find pace in the latter part of the campaign.
“In the beginning of the year we were not testing enough. Niclas was in the army and we thought our car should be quite OK and it was just Niclas that is not driving so well yet,” he explained. “At the end of the season we did a few tests and immediately you could see that the speed went up and the times were much better. Still there could be a job done with testing, we have not done so much on the differentials. Maybe it’s not possible to win races [with the Fiesta], I think it’s a top-five car.”
While the M-sport Fiesta was adapted by the Cumbrian firm for rallycross use (with the cooling package mounted in the rear), Petter Solberg’s PSRX Volkswagen Sweden fielded a pair of Volkswagen Motorsport-prepared EX-WRC Polo Gtis in World RX 2017, with the radiators remaining in the front of the car, and won both the drivers’ and teams’ titles. Gronholm says, although interesting, he is unconvinced by leaving the cooling system in its conventional location, suggesting the Hyundais will be converted to a rear-mounted radiator, as is traditional for rallycross Supercars.
Gronholm Sr said: “I think Volkswagen has done a good job from modifying the rally car to rallycross. It’s not such a big job. Of course, there is big changes from the rally car, engine and transmission, but otherwise the set-up is not that magic to do. It’s interesting [the front cooling package], but I don’t think they gain so much. I don’t know, but maybe they took a risk because there was not time enough to do the work and change it into the rear. But, it seemed to work.”
GRX’S current Fiesta uses a Pipo Moteurs engine. Gronholm has confirmed that a similar unit will almost certainly be used in the adapted Hyundai, the 1600cc engine making way for a two-litre unit, and will utilise custom engine regulations. Introduced in 2015, the ‘custom’ rules allow for a block not from the original manufacturer of the chassis to be used, opening options for different marques, like the Hyundai, to be entered in the series without the requirement of developing an engine from scratch. The latest evolution of Pipo’s World RX engine is understood to fit within Custom regulations.
While his focus is on getting a two-car deal across the line with Hyundai, Gronholm’s team could run just one i20 for Niclas next season, or remain with the Fiesta if the Hyundai plans fall through.
“I hope we go through with the Hyundai, but otherwise we could run this one [Fiesta] which is not a bad solution, but of course everybody is going up. There is still a step in the engine after this [current] one, which Timo Scheider and Kevin Eriksson [in the MJP Racing Team Austria squad] have used, but it’s not far away.”
Norwegian driver Frode Holte has previously raced a privately-built Hyundai i20 in World RX events, and was reportedly in talks about a possible manufacturer deal in 2014, when WRC ace Thierry Neuville was also linked to a one-off rallycross appearance in the car, but poor performance and reliability halted such talks.