EKS in triple effort in 2017 as Nitiss gets in

What would you do after being a champion of a competition? Prepare yourself to be champion again, and after breaking the Solberg string in 2016, Mattias Ekström comes with increased effort and factory support as EKS tries to keep the drivers and teams titles.

Ekström mentioned in some occasions that factory support would be needed in order to stay competitive in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, and not only the EKS team secured the support from Audi for its S1 Quattro EKS RX models, but also a third driver will be in the team as Reinis Nitiss was announced to join Eki and Toomas Heikkinen.

Nitiss was a spectacular surprise once he jumped into World RX with Olsbergs MSE as he needed just three events to get his debut win in 2014 being only 18 years old, and a series of good results made him finish in third in the drivers' standings. Although the podiums still came in two opportunities, Nitiss failed to match his debut year performance, leaving Olsbergs MSE in the end of 2015, competing with Münnich Motorsport in 2016 and then returning to Olsbergs MSE in the final part of the season. This is the second car from the VW Group in the Latvian driver's history in World RX, as he drove a SEAT Ibiza RX last year when under René Münnich's wing.

Even though Nitiss has to fight with the strong competition in the World RX grid as a whole, he will have intense in-house opponents too, as Ekström is not only a strong finisher but also has consistency on his side, while Topi is equally fast and full of surprises.

PHOTO: EKS