The EKS squad will begin a new adventure next year as they embark on rallying.
It was actually rallying where the EKS we see today was created. Janne Ljungberg and Mattias Ekström started back in 1999 at Ekström’s parents’ workshop. After just two seasons, Ljungberg and Ekström moved on to DTM.
More recently, EKS has been very successful in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. Ekström has been vital to the success with his aggressive and exciting driving style which saw him become the 2016 World RX champion whilst EKS won the teams’ title.
This year, Ekström stepped back from his rallycross commitments so Andreas Bakkerud and Liam Doran have been leading the team with Bakkerud taking the fight to Timmy and Kevin Hansen throughout 2019. EKS has a good chance of winning a second drivers’ title with Bakkerud in November.
EKS has already wrapped up the FIA European Rallycross Championship with Robin Larsson and look to stay committed to rallycross as well as rallying. At the moment, EKS should be competing in the World RX next year, the team is not done yet in rallycross.
The team are aiming to have similar results in rallying as they have had in rallycross, so preparations are already underway.
“During 2019 EKS has and will still do some warmup events and tests to get up to speed. We will prepare ourselves on the special stages, in the service park and we will analyse new ideas that will help us succeed and reach our goals in the future.” read the statement released by the team.
This is the team’s summary:
– EKS will start a rally team in 2020;
– EKS wants to stay involved in the rallycross world as a service team;
– We will be different to other rally teams;
– We will win;
– 2019 is just a warmup;
– We will present our plans for 2020 in December 2019;
– #gohardorgohome is still our motto.
It will be exciting to see whether EKS can be just as competitive in rallying as they have been in rallycross.
