Last year’s World RX of Sweden winner Sebastian Eriksson will return to the FIA World Rallycross Championship as he attempts to make it back to back victories in Holjes.
Eriksson will be behind the wheel of Olsbergs MSE’s Honda Civic with which he claimed six podium finishes, including a race win, in Global Rallycross in 2016/17.
His win at Holjes in 2019 was one of the highlights of a thrilling season and he says he is going all-out to repeat his success.
The 27-year-old said: “It felt like everything just went our way at Höljes last year. It was the race I wanted to win more than any other and the biggest result of my career, and it was nice to see the reaction of everybody in the paddock – that meant a lot.
“I’m really excited to be going back again. Höljes is the most iconic rallycross track in the world, and this year, we get double the chances to win and double the fun. It’s the first time the World Championship has staged a double-header so the regular drivers might not be so used to that format, but I did a lot of it in GRC back in the day so hopefully that might give me a little bit of an advantage.“
The big question for Eriksson and Olsbergs MSE is whether they can shows the same speed in the Honda Civic at the season-opener which takes place on 20-23 August as Eriksson did in the Ford Fiesta 12 months ago.
Eriksson added:“It will be interesting to see how the Honda shapes up on the World Championship stage. It’s obviously a completely different shape and has different characteristics to the Fiesta, but in testing, we’ve achieved very similar lap times with the two cars.
“We’ve worked hard to update the Civic in recent months, which should make it a bit more competitive so I’m positive we can be up at the sharp end again – and how cool would it be to win back-to-back in two different cars?
“I might be the guy with the target on my back as the defending race-winner, but I actually don’t feel under any pressure. For me, this is a one-off event so I can just go all-out. The drivers entered for the full season need to be a bit more conservative and think about the points situation, but for me, points don’t matter.“
With Eriksson’s presence there is no doubt it will only add to the intensity and drama of what is set to be an exciting start to the long-awaited 2020 World RX season.
