Ekström rejoins World RX as a wildcard entry

Swedish driver and team owner Mattias Ekström announced his retirement from competition at the end of the last season, then focusing his energy managing his EKS team, but he thought on a return and so he will do, although in what seems to be a one-off appearance in the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

Ekström will be part of a two car lineup from JC Raceteknik for the Spa RX alongside home driver Enzo Ide, and there are two reasons for this return, with one of them being giving help to JC Raceteknik to get used to the World RX environment, and the second one being just for the fun of it, as Ekström won’t do any managerial work during this weekend, focusing only in his drive.

JC Raceteknik recently acquired two of the Audis that were part of the EKS team, and with all the most recent S1 EKS RX machines being used by different squads, Ekström agreed with Joel Christoffersson, JC Raceteknik owner, on using the 2016 spec S1 EKS RX in which he conquered his World RX title. Ekström admitted that his comeback needed to be with the title winning car, or else he wouldn’t do it.

The Swede was emphatic on how different and relaxing is the experience of just going to rallycross to focus on the race and have fun, which is something that’s hard to achieve if you’re serving a factory program, like he was in the final year of the Audi Sport EKS program.

As for Enzo Ide, he was testing the Audi S1 RX for quite some time, hinted to join the World RX grid with touring car outfit ComToYou Racing. Ide also has his achievements in circuit racing, and if not for his extensive testing, he would be thrown into unknown territory, though those like this who partner with Ekström tend to deliver results, as it was the case of Nico Müller.

Along with Ekström and Ide, other wildcards joining at the Spa RX will be former Olsbergs star Joni Wiman, driving the third Hyundai i20 from GRX TANECO in place of Reinis Nitiss, and Hervé Knapick in his own DS 3 RX. By the way, Ekström doesn’t have a livery set, so he launched a competition on his Facebook page for those creative enough to send him some ideas.

PHOTO: Mattias Ekström