GC Kompetition has split into three teams for the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship, with the Monster Energy GCK RX Cartel squad now also going up against the GCK Unkorrupted and GCK Bilstein teams this season.
GCK Bilstein is a single-car entry for the season for, Anton Marklund, as he aims for a maiden win after heartbreak in Norway last year when he crossed the finish line in first place, only for victory to be taken away due to a technical infringement.
Marklund was GCK‘s leading driver in 2019 and the aim for the upcoming season is not just wins but to challenge for the World RX title.
In an exclusive interview with The Checkered Flag, Susann Hansen pointed out that she believes Marklund is a driver that will challenge for the title this year.
If the championship is as dramatic as last year then consistency will be pivotal. This is how Marklund could come into play. On pure pace you would expect Marklund to just be slightly off the pace against the likes of Johan Kristoffersson, Andreas Bakkerud and Timmy Hansen.
But should there be plenty of mistakes and carnage during the action this year, then Marklund can surely use his experience and keep collecting points by making it to the final in as many events as possible.
With Marklund looking for victories, GCK Unkorrupted‘s Guerlain Chicherit and Rokas Baciuska are aiming to take the pair of Renault Clio RXs from the back of the field towards the front in 2020.
Last year, Guillaume De Ridder and Cyril Raymond struggled to get the most out of the car, but a raft of upgrades and developments have undergone the vehicle in the long off-season including a new engine supplied from Oreca.
Upgrades like this suggest there is a certainly a lot of potential with the Clio and the team just need to fine tune their setup to extract the maximum performance this season.
Founder of GCK, Chicherit has been in the rally and rallycross scene for a long time now and this new project with GCK Unkorrupted has therefore got him very excited about what could happen to his cars this season.
2018 Super 1600 champion Baciuska will compete in his first full season in World RX and last year showed fine form, even in just the few races with GCK he entered last year.
Getting to grips with the car quickly last season will certainly have given him a lot of confidence going into 2020. With four rounds in the space of eight days, GCK Unkorrupted will be hoping that their work in the off-season has paid off.
There may only be 14 permanent entries this year, but the list is certainly a case of quality over quantity, and therefore GCK Unkorrupted will need to take every possible opportunity to make the headlines in the championship for 2020.
Prediction
Anton Marklund: 6th
Rokas Baciuska: 8th
Guerlain Chicherit: 13th
