Albatec Racing have confirmed their first new signing for the 2017 FIA European Rallycross Championship for Supercars with 2016 Finnish Rallycross Champion Jere Kalliokoski joining the Dumfries-based team.
Kalliokoski, who recently tested one of the teams Peugeot 208 RX Supercars at the Dreux circuit in France, made the move into Rallycross in 2014 and last year moved in the Supercar category of Finnish RX where the teenager quickly established himself as a serious championship contender against a quality field, and clinched the title with a third place finish in the final round in Tampere.
With the calendar for next years Euro RX series already confirmed, Team Principal Andy Scott is excited to bring the young Finnish driver on board.
“I’m very excited about Jere joining Albatec, it’s great to be bringing fresh young talent into Euro RX at such an early age. He will I’m sure be an asset to the team and will hopefully have a great future in RX. His recent test at Dreux was successful and I was very impressed with his mature approach. I’m sure with more seat time he will be a strong contender and the whole team will work hard to bring him success.”
The Albatec Racing Peugeot 208 RX Supercars taking part in the 2016 FIA European Rallycross Championship. Credit: Albatec Racing
Team Boss Scott is also looking forward to what will be another exciting and close season of racing.
“I’m also incredibly excited about the 2017 Euro RX schedule that IMG have introduced, which brings together a great mixture of three classic rallycross tracks, Hell, Höljes and Lohéac, as well as two of the newest tracks to RX in Barcelona and Riga. It looks like being a fantastic season.”
Kalliokoski is eager to get the challenge of competing in Euro RX underway whilst he has a long term goal in mind.
“It feels great to announce my decision to compete in Euro RX with Albatec. It’s a big step forward but Albatec is a top level, experienced and professional RX team competing in different international series, which has proved itself over the past two seasons,” explained Kalliokoski.
“It’s a big step for me and I don’t have any false illusions that competition will be the toughest that I have faced so far. It will be my first in international competition, I’m only 19 and have time to learn the necessary tricks, but my target is to learn step by step and do my best. For sure I’m there to win but at the same time I need to be realistic. My long term goal is to win the World Championship title some day and there is no short cut to achieve that!”
In 2016, Albatec Racing ran full season campaigns in the FIA European Rallycross Championship for Supercars, MSA British Rallycross Championship, French Rallycross Championship and took part in selected FIA World Rallycross Championship events.
