Bakkerud back for more

Super1600 champion Andreas Bakkerud will return to the European Rallycross Championship and bid to retain his title, the first time that the category has had a defending champion present since 2004 when Dutchman Ron Snoeck was successful in keeping his crown.

Bakkerud has agreed terms to return to multi-title winning team SetPromotion but will drive the Finnish team’s Renault Twingo II in place of the Clio II that he raced to the title last year. The Norwegian had hoped to use his 2011 title success as the springboard to graduate to a Supercar drive this year, but has now decided to return for another year in Super1600.

“I’ve spent a lot of time, all my time, since October trying to get a major sponsor,” said Bakkerud, “I’ve had a lot of meetings and there has been progress and some good contacts made, but so far nothing has come from that and I had to make decisions [about where to race this year]. You have to have the best equipment so I prefer to be at the top of Super1600 and I am very happy to go back to SetPromotion.

“I had a test in the Twingo in the Czech Republic after the final round of the championship last year. The Clio is a good car but there is no development left, the Twingo is an amazing new car and is still improving. There is a new engine for this year and that is better than the old ones, so I’m really looking forward to March when we will have a test in France before the championship.” said Bakkerud.

The 20-year-old is still working on sponsorship options and says he can also continue to develop as a driver at SetPromotion. “It’s great working with Jussi [Pinomäki, the SetPromotion boss], he knows exactly what it needs for a driver to be successful and I learned a lot from him last year. There are still areas where I can be stronger and we will work on those this year. I know that I can be fast in a Supercar and my aim is to be the best driver that I can be; when I get a Supercar chance I want to be able to challenge for top three places from the first race.

“Finding the budget for racing is never easy but I really hoped that being champion would help. So far, I am not sure that it has made any difference, for me the situation is fairly normal, I have almost the full budget I need for Super1600 and going to work my ass off to make sure I get the rest. The Supercar budget is a lot more and this year I couldn’t make it,” said Bakkerud.

Rallycross World believes that Bakkerud’s favoured Supercar option was with Kenneth Hansen Motorsport, a door that closed when, as Bakkerud did not have the necessary funding, Alexander Hvaal secured the Citroën team’s second Supercar drive alongside lead driver Timur Timerzyanov.

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