Andreas Carlsson, a regular driver in RallyX Nordic is now aiming to do a full-season campaign in the FIA European Rallycross Championship in his home-built Renault Clio supercar this year.
Carlsson has been an active driver in the Nordic championship, and after two years in the series, he is looking to step-up in his career to fight at the top in the Euro RX championship.
In an exclusive interview with The Checkered Flag, Carlsson spoke about how his career has been so far and how he is keen to do his best for the future of his career.
“Our plans for the 2020 season will be to race the full-season in Euro RX with our Renault Clio” Carlsson said.
“The goal for 2020 will be to finish at least in top-five and to further develop our car, team and myself as a driver, to be as great as possible.
“This year it will be the third season in rallycross for me. Before the first race in my first season, I have never driven a supercar. Our car was completed on the same day as the season-opener in RallyX Nordic at Höljes in 2018 was. So that was really exciting for me.”
“As our car was newly built and we didn’t have any tests with it, we finished sixth overall in the RallyX Nordic standing in 2018. Finishing on fourth place two-times as the best result.” Carlsson added.
In 2019 Carlsson further developed his car, the amazing and rare sound of a Volvo 5-cylinder engine would be heard out on the tracks again. With stiff competition from older World RX cars and low budget, Carlsson ended the season with strong results.
“2019 did we further developed the car with small optimisation on the chassis and suspension that made the car feel a lot better,”
“We came fifth overall in RallyX Nordic against stiff competition on the grid and many former World RX cars. With the thoughts on the low budget we ran with against the others in the top and with little time in the car with only one test besides the events, we are really pleased with the results we took.” Carlsson continued.
“Now we have bought a custom-made engine to replace the old Volvo 5-cylinder engine we have used, this is what has been missing against the top competitors. So now I hope I can be at the top of the fight in Euro RX.”
“My team built the car by ourselves with some help from Nilssons Plåtindustri AB and UNIC-Transmissions. We started to build the car from an original Renault Clio body at the end of October in 2017 and it was completed just-in-time for the first round at Höljes in May 2018.”
“We were in the garage every day after work, so we spent many long hours in the evening there. This tells a lot about the team I got behind me, they are really tough!” Carlsson added.
“There weren’t many that believed we could get the car done in-time, but we did it! We are doing most of the things on the car by ourselves on the spare-time, after work and on the weekends. Our team consists of friends, family and sponsors that are invaluable, so that makes it extra fun when everything goes great.”
“I’m looking positive towards the future of rallycross, my goal is to be in the fight of the world title at some years,” Carlsson added.
