Double European Rallycross champion Reinis Nitišs will be joining as a wildcard in the FIA World Rallycross Championship of Latvia – driving with the Lithuanian ESmotorsport team in a Škoda Fabia EVO RX.
Nitišs announced earlier this year he would be stepping-out from his rallycross career to focus on rallying this season, but now he will return for the two rounds that are held at his home track in Riga.
“I’m grateful to the ESmotorsport for this opportunity to be a part of an exciting project. I think everyone knows that rallycross is in my heart and it really feels good to be back in a 600bhp World RX Supercar.” Nitiss said.
“Especially do be doing it in my home country, in front of my Latvian fans. I know the team has been working hard on the development of the car and now it’s up to me to make use of that in real racing conditions. For sure, every team have been working hard over this long break, so we want to see where we stand against the best of the sport,”
The ESmotorsport team is owned by the former Lithuanian rallycross driver Ernestas Staponkus and the team made its debut last year with different drivers; Started off with Rokas Baciuska before he had to resign from the team due to bad relationships, entered with Francois Duval at Spa in Belgium, Kevin Abbring for Hell and Sweden where Abbring managed to finish fourth in both of the finals and rounded up the season with Matvey Furzahkin.
“I’ve known Reinis for some time and I know he is a perspective and fast driver. Above that, he is also a very positive person. I hope we can work with him not only on these two races in Riga, but other rounds as well” Staponkus added.
The team announced before the start of the 2020 season that they will have 20 drivers to test drive the Škoda Fabia, so we can expect more wildcards to be entering with them later during this season.
Rounds five and six will take place on 19/20 September at Riga in Latvia, hosting the last of the three double-headers of the 2020 World RX season.
