Bakkerud gets title winning car for Euro RX campaign

2025 didn’t even end and Andreas Bakkerud announced a giant leap in his program, bringing the plans forward in regard to his full time international schedule, as he will take his team, Bergen Motorsport Evolution, and a Ford Fiesta ST RX to the FIA European Rallycross Championship.
 
Back when Nitrocross was ended prematurely and Bakkerud got no full time program in his hands, he decided to redo the journey from home, at Bergen, by not only creating Bergen Motorsport Evolution and build a Ford Puma to compete in the Norwegian Rallycross Championship, but he also set a three year goal to move from national rallycross all the way back to Euro RX and more.
 
While his main focus was in Norway, he did some side quests here and there that kept his name in the spotlight, like being the test driver of all 2025 World RX cars for Balance of Performance purposes, along with an one-off appearance in Rallycross France, where was a runner-up at the prestigious Lohéac round just because of track limits. He also spent some time in the booth, acting as support commentator for Andrew Coley during the World RX season.
 
With the season being over, the movement was to secure a program for 2026, and thanks to the support of Tertnes Holding, Bakkerud was able to get a fitting car for him, a title winning car. The car in question is the Ford Fiesta ST RX that was used by Ken Block around a decade ago, and that recently got the Euro RX title with SET Promotion and Anton Marklund before the Swedish driver departed to STCC.
 
This year, this same Fiesta was used in an impressive appearance of a debutant Lukas Andersson, as his runner-up finish behind 2025 champion Yury Belevskiy raised eyebrows because of how young Andersson, but also because the 17 years old Swede was competing for the first time in a rallycross supercar, and in an international competition off all places, making a solid jump from the Supercar Lites.
 
While the World RX is no more, at least until 2027 or 2028, Bakkerud can’t check this box for a while, though he can put a more grounded program than the wild ride that was his Euro RX title winning effort with ESMotorsport in 2021, where he went from the couch to the title as he was a last hour call from Ernestas Staponkus to partner with Janis Baumanis in the pair of Skoda Fabia RX Evos, which aren’t with the team as they were acquired by Paulius Pleskovas and the current Rallycross France champion Davy Jeanney.
 
While Bakkerud now has an Euro RX program, his Ford Puma was getting some adjustments, meaning that he might continue in the Norwegian Rallycross Championship, which will also allow supercars and FC2s in a different class, all while potentially returning to Extreme H after his stint with Hansen Motorsport this season.
 
PHOTO: Andreas Bakkerud