A chip of the old block

Per-Egil Nordgård’s son David set to enter the ERC.

Sometimes mixed up with his namesake and compatriot Jan-Willy Nordgaard, during the 1980s and 1990s that man Per-Egil Nordgård was quite a well-known competitor in Rallycross. The Norwegian was often seen with different makes and models in ERC rounds and other events. If I remember correctly I first saw Per-Egil in 1982 racing a white Ford Escort RS1800 in the top category of our sport. Later on the man from Skien in Telemark did Rallycross in the Group A and Group N Division with Volvo 240 Turbo, Ford Sierra Cosworth 4×4, Ford Escort RS Cosworth and Subaru Impreza.

Over the Easter weekend the Rallycross scene will become familiar with a chip of the old block. Per-Egil’s son David Nordgård is doing his first ERC round at the season opener at Lydden Hill in England. After picking up his first laurels in Karting, Hillclimbing, Iceracing, Drifting, Rallying and “Rallycross events for the smaller purse” in the autumn of last year David took the decision to focus on a higher level of Rallycross from 2011 on. After a search for an appropriate car the 21-year-old and the other motorsports addicts of his family agreed with Belgian Jos Sterkens to buy his rear-wheel driven Ford Focus Mk2. The Norwegians went down to Buxtehude on October 16 and 17 to take over the new toy and to test it immediately in the final round of the German championship at the Estering. At the end of the weekend David Nordgård lost the overall victory of the Division 4 by throwing the Focus into the greenery while leading the A final, but also surprised a lot of people with good times.

Over the winter the team around the youngster has stripped the Sterkens Focus down to its tin to build it up from almost point zero. All fuel lines, all brake hoses and the complete wiring loom are new. The position of the steering wheel was changed and a new steering wheel, new seat and new pedal box were mounted. There is not much left of the original interior any more. Underneath the car all the uniballs were changed, the wheel angels fixed and the shocks upgraded. The 280+bhp engine, the gearbox and the differential remained untouched. However, during a Sunday test session at the Grenland Motorsport Senter near Skien, the home track of Nordgård, the diff broke, but will be replaced at Lydden Circuit prior to the start of the event.

According to David’s cousin and manager Jan Fredrik Larsen the broken diff is the least problem for the moment, while the economical situation is the cause of some headaches. “So far we have paid a lot of the fun out of our own pockets. But we cannot continue with that for very long, we need to find some more sponsoring soon. We are very pleased with those sponsors we already got, but a full ten rounds ERC engagement is still not in sight. We go as far as our wallets can manage, currently we hope to do at least six of the ten rounds, but there is of course a limit. Lydden is a must and we hope to score a good result there to make the sponsor money flow,” said Larsen with a big grin on his face.

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