The last time Mattias Ekström was the “Champion of Champions”, he was a DTM regular in his early thirties. Now forty-four and an ace in rallycross and rally raid, Ekström still has it. His Race of Champions individual tournament win on Sunday ties him with Didier Auriol and Sébastien Loeb for the most in the event’s history with four.
Despite an early scare when his Supercar Lites briefly caught fire, Ekström won both his races against Mick Schumacher in the final to secure the win in front of his home country. Incidentally, two of his other three victories came against Schumacher’s father Michael in 2007 and 2009 (the first in 2006 came against Loeb). He now has five career ROC wins if including the 2005 Nations Cup alongside Tom Kristensen.
“It’s very special to have four wins and even more special to do it in Sweden,” commented Ekström. “I won my first final at the Stade de France in Paris against Sébastien Loeb, then I had two finals with Michael Schumacher in London and Beijing, so to see Mick in the final today was very emotional for me.
“This is even more special than winning. Michael’s always been one of the guys I admire most in the sport, for his dedication, hard work and talent. I only got to know Michael at the Race of Champions. We had many battles and I have only great memories with Michael from this event. I’m super proud because Mick also rode with me on Friday in the Dakar car and we had a nice time. Michael was always humble with me and I can see Mick is also very humble. Mick is such a huge talent and his time is ahead of him, so I look forward to more battles in the future. I know it won’t take long until I get beaten, but against Mick I would have no problem with finishing second.”
The bracket of twenty was split into two halves, one for predominantly circuit racers and the other for rally drivers.
Ekström’s road to the final began with a run through Swedes and Americans in the Rally tournament as he held off Team USA‘s Travis Pastrana and his Team Sweden partner Johan Kristoffersson, who took down Pastrana’s team-mate Tanner Foust. He swept Thierry Neuville of Belgium in the semi-final.
Nations Cup winners Petter and Oliver Solberg squared off in the opening round, with the latter beating his father. Oliver, who “switched” his nationality to Sweden for the individual tournament after winning Saturday’s Nations Cup for Team Norway, fell to Neuville after suffering a ten-second time penalty. Neuville had beaten Loeb in the first round, marking another one-and-done for the defending ROC winner after he suffered the same fate in the Nations Cup.
Schumacher arrived by sweeping his German team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who in turn beat Kristensen, in the Circuit final. In the battle of Formula 2 champions, Schumacher was tied with Felipe Drugovich but edged him out on overall time. The run came after being relegated to the preliminary round, where Felix Rosenqvist looked poised to beat Schumacher in the second race before spinning on lap two. Schumacher took down Adrien Tambay, victor over David Coulthard, to set up the match with Drugovich.
“[Mattias is] an exceptional driver and that really proves it,” commented Schumacher. “He’s done an amazing job all weekend. I was trying my best out there, but it was just not enough.
“What we do in circuit racing is very different to what Mattias does and I agree with what Seb said on Friday: we arrive at a corner and we have a screwdriver and a hammer, whereas they have a complete toolbox. The amount of knowledge they can bring towards this event, to feel the car and to know exactly what to do in each moment, is something I don’t have yet, so it’s a matter of putting in the hours—on dirt tracks too—learning and trying to improve. Then hopefully next year I can give him a run for his money.”
Kristensen and Vettel respectively beat Valtteri Bottas and Jamie Chadwick in their first races.
