Once direct rivals in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, Kristoffersson Motorsport and Grönholm RX are following different paths in the first moment after the provisional end of the worldwide competition, and even their rallycross programs don’t seem to be that secure for the whole 2026 season for many different reasons.
Kristoffersson Motorsport’s Johan Kristoffersson and Ole Chrsitian Veiby announced this weekend that they will return to rallycross in the FIA European Rallycross Championship opener at Riga, with the pair of Volkswagen Polo KMS 601 RXs they had in the first moments of the Battle of Technologies part of the World RX. The internal combustion Polos soon were replaced by the Volkswagen Polo RX1es as the fire breathing cars were heavily penalized by the Equivalence of Technology, but in Euro RX, the Polo KMS 601s revert back to their original state, especially considering they will be in good maintenance state as they competed recently and KMS sold examples of the car to other drivers.
Despite the announcement of the return and the wish to be competitive right away, team owner Tommy Kristoffersson admits that their 2026 Euro RX season is still unclear after Bikernieki, with the need to secure funding for the other rounds being on top of their concerns. This can also affect the prospects of appearing in the Rallycross World Cup in Jakarta, which comes as a surprise for the fanbase since the expectation was that KMS would return in the Indonesian event rather than in Euro RX first.
In Niclas Grönholm’s case, regarding rallycross, he had nowhere to go once the RX1e regulation was axed, with him admitting at the 2025 Istanbul RX that he would be evaluating possibilities outside rallycross once the RX1e program with Construction Equipment Dealer Team was over, which essentially allowed Volvo Construction Equipment, PWR, SET Promotion and Grönholm RX to go to their own paths. Grönholm stood on his rallying schedule as he is taking part in the Finnish Rally Championship, but apparently, rallycross called him back, but unlike Kristoffersson Motorsport, his choice was RallyX Europe.
With CEDT being disbanded, Grönholm essentially has no rallycross supercar to go back immediately, as the fleet of Hyundai i20 RXs that GRX had went either to Betomik Racing, PGRX, or more recently, to João Ribeiro in the Portuguese RX Championship. So, the choice was to jump into a FirstCorner FC2, which has its own class in RallyX Europe but also composes the Open 4WD class that is the headline act of the competition. This will be Niclas’ first time in the car, but the support structure is known by him, since he was an Olsbergs MSE driver almost a decade ago before switching to the familiar GRX operation.
GRX owner Marcus Grönholm puts this RallyX outing in the same way Tommy Kristoffersson puts his Euro RX program, with the Valkenswaard round being an one-off entry while further rounds remain under evaluation.
Grönholm starts his season first as the RallyX Europe season starts with the RallyX South event at Valkenswaard, Netherlands, on 26 April, with at least nine FC2 confirmed within the 11 drivers confirmed. As for Kristoffersson and Veiby, the Euro RX season starts on 10 May at Riga, with other 17 drivers confirmed for the season, plus Anton Seppä in a partial schedule and further wildcards joining through the year.
PHOTOS: Kristoffersson Motorsport, Grönholm RX
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