The oil well dries up

Norway, commonly know as a rich country, in possession of large gas and oil fields, which, together with shipping and trade are the pillars of the national economy. Oil and gas provide employment in Norway, but also increased inflation and a vulnerability to fluctuations in the world oil market. This appears to be the background that is making it difficult for some Norwegian drivers to get the budget to race in the European Rallycross Championship. It seems  that the oil well of sponsors for Rallycross is drying out in Norway. RallycrossWorld.com decided to ask several drivers how hard the economic crisis is hitting those Norwegians in Rallycross.

European champion for the last three years, Sverre Isachsen, 2011 TouringCar champion Lars Øivind Enerberg. And Super1600 champ Andreas Bakkerud were first on our list that also included Supercar drivers Frode Holte, Ludvig Hunsbedt and Mats Lysen who are either not racing this year, or are starting the season with (very) tight budgets.

Having gained his first ERC event win and placed fourth in the 2011 series, Frode Holte was heading for an adventure in the United States, but returned disappointed from the USA in the middle of December. “So far there is no more news to tell from the USA,” said Holte. Just a few days before the start of the racing season, the status for the Volvo C30 Supercar driver is not good. “Maybe I can do a couple of races this year. Our target is to be ready to race in Austria,” he said. The team is currently working on a deal with a Norwegian driver who will probably do one race in the Volvo C30 and perhaps a few more. It’s the first time that the name Martin Schanche is mentioned together with publicity in the Norwegian media. “Rallycross in Norway is not as big in the media as it was in the days of Martin,” Holte said.

Mats Lysen is ready and set to go for the opening race at Lydden and has found, in the past couple of months, a budget for the first part of the season. “It’s hard to find sponsors these days,” said Lysen who allowed that the situation in which he finds himself is, ‘not the most perfect one’. “My focus is on the first five races and to put some good results down.” Lysen continues to work to find the budget for the second part of the ERC season and, asked how he sees the development in sponsorship in his home country, says that companies in Norway seem to be putting a lot of their marketing budget into football and winter sports. Happy with the coverage he can achieve in local media Lysen says, “In the bigger newspapers there is not so much to find about Rallycross.”

Ludvig Hunsbedt is out for the 2012 season following the decision taken by sponsor Nomaco to close down its in-house racing team. “Nomaco is not interested in racing anymore so they have decided to sell the car and close the team. The economy across Europe is not so good and business in Norway is not as easy as it used to be,” said Hunsbedt a few weeks ago to RallycrossWorld.com. That left the 1993 and 1997 European champion without a seat for the 2012 season.

The team of TouringCar champion Lars Oivind Enerberg has recently been forced to scrap its 2012 plans. “We feel that we have been cheated by a marketing agency that promised us a budget for the whole season against 10-percent commission. Seemed a fair deal to us. Last week the final figures came on the table. It was not at all what they promised and told us in the months before and a lot less then we did by ourselves in 2011. The grapes are very sour when you have the car ready and one week before the season starts you have to make the decision to leave it in the workshop,” said Enerberg who will try to race in the Norwegian championship and the ERC events in Norway and Sweden. “It was my dream to defend the title in 2012. This situation is shit!”. For the second time the name Schanche is mentioned. “In the days when Martin Schanche drove in the European championship media attention and sponsorship seemed to be much better. It feels sometimes that we are treated like criminals nowadays in Norway because we do motor sport,” said Enerberg.

Super1600 star Andreas Bakkerud claims that he has the budget for six rounds of the ERC. “This was not an easy job in the last few months. It was much more difficult to find a budget than in previous years. It looks if there is some budget in a company it goes all into the local football team,” said Bakkerud. According to Bakkerud the ERC events were shown on the national Norwegian TV broadcaster NRK, late on Sunday nights last year. “As Norwegian drivers we have to pay a lot of extra money to get some TV coverage,” Bakkerud says before the name of Schanche pops up again.  “When I was a little boy I saw Martin racing live, on TV, in magazines and newspapers. In those days it looked easier to get the attention of the media.”

Triple champion Sverre Isachsen is not on the entry list for Lydden, or rather, was not on the lists published so far. Isachsen is facing the same challenges as his Rallycross compatriots and has spent the entire winter in the hunt for a budget to go racing. The decision on whether to race or not has been pushed back several times. Now he’s in England, and says that he will know tonight if he will race at Lydden. Must call him tomorrow…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.