Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikkinen heads to Canada this weekend for the seventh round of the FIA World RallyCross Championship at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres on a high following his win in Belgium, with the Finn calling this his second home round after his GRC success last year.
The 23 year-old, who swept his way to the Global Rallycross Championship title last year with an unprecedented run of five consecutive wins, currently sits third in the WRX Championship just eight points off the lead after his victory at the Circuit Jules Tacheny, and with six rounds to go everything is to play for.
“We have to be optimistic,” said ‘Topi’. “We have a new car and new team and everything. But we are in a place where we should be if we’re going to win the championship this year. Everything is coming together. It’s really fun. We have seen six different winners this year. Somehow it’s a little bit strange because some cars work better on some tracks than others. But it’s good like this.”
Canada, however, is different from the other rounds of the WRX due to the fact that the heats, qualifying and finals all take place on one day, leaving no room for error until the floodlights go out after the final.
“It’s funny – I’ve been to the US so many times but actually I never made it over to Canada before,” he says. “So I really know nothing about the track at all. But it’s cool: I’m expecting a really good party and some really good racing! But we’re still concentrating hard on the big goal. We still need to be consistent and be in the final in every race.”
World RX of Canada takes place this Friday, August 8.
