After an emotional triumph in the FIA Euro RX1 Championship, Lithuanian outfit ESMotorsport will step up their game with a return to the FIA World Rallycross Championship, now on the road to its RX1e era next year.
The Ernestas Staponkus-led team had the World RX on the radar for the whole 2021 season while competing in other categories, Euro RX1 included, and a late call to Janis Baumanis and Andreas Bakkerud just before the start of the season proved to be the best move made by the team in its whole history, as both drivers proved that the Skoda Fabia WRX Evo could compete on equal footing with the top class opponents, ultimately claiming the title with birthday boy Bakkerud at Spa-Francorchamps.
Compared to the disastrous initial run in World RX back in 2019, where the team nearly missed the podium twice but had trouble to keep a driver into the seat for most of the season while also missing the Silverstone RX, this 2022 campaign in more favourable in many ways for ESMotorsport, as most teams will have to actually accumulate experience in the new RX1e package, and should the team keep Bakkerud and Baumanis around, they will jump in the cars with competitive experience in electric machinery, having previous runs in Projekt E and RallyX Nordic. Bakkerud’s was specially worth watching, as he quickly got the hand of the STARD-Built ERX machine on site while keeping the pace with internal combustion opposition at Höljes.
Also, with the RX1e base car being a Skoda Fabia, as KREISEL uses the model in both rally and rallycross, the conversion of the current cars into EVs may not be that troublesome, so Staponkus and the team would know what to expect of it.
The size of the ESMotorsport program, as well the confirmation that Bakkerud and Baumanis will be retained by the team, was not announced now but will certainly come at a later date.
PHOTO: ESMotorsport
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