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Entries for the 2017 FIA World Rallycross Championship have been released by the FIA this morning

Leading the charge will be World RX Teams’ Champions EKS which will be headed up by reigning Champion Mattias Ekstrom and his Finnish team-mate Topi Heikkinen. With official factory support from Audi, the team is also fielding a third car at all 12 World Championship rounds which will be driven by Latvia’s Reinis Nitiss. Team Peugeot-Hansen has also entered a third car this season with Kevin Hansen set to drive a Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar as an independent entry. Sebastien Loeb and Timmy Hansen will remain the nominated point-scorers for the Swedish-based team.

Double World RX Champion Petter Solberg and Sweden’s Johan Kristoffersson have joined forces to compete in the new PSRX Volkswagen Sweden team. They will pilot a pair of Volkswagen Polo RX Supercars that have been developed and engineered in Hanover, Germany. Solberg will be responsible for the sporting operations of the new team supported by Volkswagen Sweden and its distributors.

MJP Racing Team Austria (formerly World RX Team Austria) has made two driver changes as Kevin Eriksson and Timo Scheider will compete in a pair of Ford Fiesta Supercars.  Eriksson – who won Germany RX last year – moves from Olsbergs MSE while DTM Champion Scheider makes a full-time commitment to rallycross for the first time. 

New for 2017 is Austria’s Team STARD which is managed by former WRC driver Manfred Stohl’s operation, Stohl Racing.  Team-mates Janis Baumanis (Latvia) and Timur Timerzyanov (Russia) have both switched from Max Pucher’s MJP Racing Team to the all-new STARD team and will compete in two Ford Fiesta RXS Supercars.

The Hoonigan Racing Division team will remain unchanged this year - Ken Block and Andreas Bakkerud team-mates again in the Ford Focus RS RX which helped Bakkerud amass three victories last season.   

There will also be six individual entries who can compete for the 2017 Drivers’ Championship including Great Britain’s Guy Wilks who will compete in Kristoffersson’s 2016 Volkswagen Polo with the all-new Loco World RX Team. Hungary’s Kornel “CsuCsu” Lukacs will move up from the FIA European Rallycross Championship and will compete in Gigi Galli’s Kia Rio Supercar. Galli is set to return to World RX later in the season in another brand-new Rio as team-mate to Lukacs. 

Jean-Baptiste Dubourg confirmed earlier this week that he will enter a full World Championship campaign in the same Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar which was used by Kevin Hansen to win the 2016 Euro RX title. Niclas Gronholm – son of WRC legend Marcus – will drive an M-Sport Fiesta under the GRX banner.

Austria’s Max Pucher and Britain’s Andrew Jordan are also featured on the 2017 entry list.  Pucher has not yet nominated which events he will compete in but BTCC ace Jordan has confirmed he will replace Scheider at World RX of Great Britain at Lydden Hill in May.

The full FIA European Rallycross Championship line-up for Supercars, Super1600 and TouringCars will be released on Monday 6 March.

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Driving a Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar, Dubourg will be joined by WTCC driver Gregoire Demoustier who will contest five World RX rounds in the team’s second car. Andrea Dubourg will enter the FIA European Rallycross Championship (Euro RX) driving a Citroen DS3.

JB Dubourg is familiar with major international events having finished on the podium at the French round of World RX at Loheac back in 2015. He has since claimed back-to-back Andros Trophy titles in 2016 and 2017.

“It’s very exciting to be able to commit myself full-time to World RX,” explained JB Dubourg, who turns 30 later this year.

“Having the opportunity to compete with not only the best rallycross drivers, but from motorsport in general, is a childhood dream come true. The commitment of this programme is a new step in the ambitious Team DA Racing-Eurodatacar project which started in 2012."

"I will have the pleasure of driving a 208 WRX developed in Peugeot Sport’s workshops in recent years, whose reliability and performance are without question. I will take advantage of pre-season testing to continue the learning phase - we must seize every opportunity this year."

At just 26-years-old, Demoustier has developed significant experience in his motorsport career, predominantly in circuit racing by competing in the FIA GT1 World Championship, Blancpain Endurance Series and in WTCC. On top of a 16-round programme in French and European GT4, and the TCR International series this year, Demoustier has committed to World RX rounds in Barcelona, Portugal, Belgium, Canada and South Africa.

“It was impossible to resist the lure of rallycross,” admitted Demoustier. “I’ve watched World RX live on L'Equipe, the starts are very impressive and the races are physical, it reminds me of my experience from the Andros Trophy."

"In World RX, I’m entering a new universe – I have everything to discover. The race format with the qualifying races, the elimination system for the final stages and of course the joker lap is totally different from what I’m used to, but I think it's a very interesting format."

"The Andros Trophy allowed me to grasp changes in grip levels and that will be a bonus in helping me to familiarise myself with loose surface in rallycross, which is totally new to me.”

Dominique Dubourg, Team Principal for DA Racing-Eurodatacar, concluded: “We will be fighting against the best drivers and the biggest manufacturers in World RX, which is live on the L’Equipe television channel. We know that rallycross is an uncompromising and difficult discipline – we are here to learn and to cement a permanent place in World RX. I would like to thank all of our partners and friends who have supported us in this project.”

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GRX team will compete in all 12 rounds of the World Championship in a partnership with multiple FIA European Rallycross Championship winning team, Set Promotion.

The Fiesta RX is currently being prepared at M-Sport’s base in Cumbria, north England.

Gronholm, 20, raced in the full FIA World Rallycross Championship in 2016, his first full-time campaign having made just one previous start in the series, in Sweden 2015.

In a year of learning and development, the Finn made the semi-finals twice: in Sweden and in Canada. The 2015 Finnish Rallycross Champion now has experience of every circuit on the World RX schedule, with the exception of the final round in South Africa, which is a new addition to the World Championship from 2017.

“Everything should be much easier this year. I know how the races work, and I know the tracks – that’s a big plus if you compare it to last year,” explained Grönholm Jnr.

“We’ve been doing a lot of winter driving at home in Finland on the ice. Last year we only did one or two days and then a couple of tests in the rallycross car, but this year we’re much better prepared."

"I know everyone who is working in the team, and I think everything will be much better this year. Everything is in our own hands and easier to control." He added.

The Finn continued: “With new teams and new cars nobody really knows where everybody is at the moment. I think we have the chance to score some good results."

"I’m working closely with Jussi [Pinomaki, Set Promotion owner] again this season, he’s a good guy and knows what he is doing. He will be my spotter again too. We’ll take it race-by-race, but the target is to always be in the semi-finals and then move onto the final. That’s the plan for this year.”

GRX owner, Marcus Grönholm, concluded: “We have a new car for this year - it’s the Fiesta RX that was raced previously by Ken Block. Our GRX mechanics are working at M-Sport at the moment to prepare it, and it will be ready in a couple of weeks so we can have some time to do some testing before the season."

"Last year was difficult for Niclas because we came as beginners directly into the World Championship. Now I think it should be a little easier because he knows the tracks and has had the time to practice over the winter with some rally driving."

"The Fiesta RX will hopefully have some small updates, especially on the engine side. It will be very competitive in World RX this year, and I think we can achieve some good results."

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Wilks – a two-time British Rally Champion and ex-WRC driver – will compete in Johan Kristoffersson’s old Supercar, the same vehicle which helped the Swede finish runner-up in last year’s drivers’ standings.

Wilks has previously competed in five World RX events (Lydden Hill 2015 and 2016, France, Barcelona and Latvia). In 2015, the Englishman reached the final at World RX of Great Britain but was denied a podium spot due to a puncture.

“To get an opportunity to do a full World Championship is something I've always wished for,” explained an elated Wilks, who will enter as an independent entry and be backed by energy drink LOCO.  

The 36-year-old added: “To compete in a car that finished second in the Championship last year adds pressure but is the ingredient that can make it realistic for me mix it at the top, even though the bar in World RX is getting raised year on year."

"I want to thank LOCO energy drink and Marc Blackburn for this opportunity - he saw me drive at Lydden and Loheac in 2015 and believed in me from the start."

I'm going to give it absolutely everything to prove his beliefs and also my own and we want to put ourselves up against the best. There's still a lot of work to do but 2017 is going to be an awesome journey!" He added.

Paul Bellamy, World RX Managing Director for IMG, concluded said: “Guy is very familiar with rallycross – he’s regularly commentated alongside Andrew Coley on our TV show."

"There’s no denying he’s a talent behind the wheel and proved this when he reached the final on his RX debut at Lydden Hill back in 2015."

LOCO will also back World RX driver Janis Baumanis, who yesterday confirmed he will drive for the all-new STARD team.

 

 

         

 

 

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