Holte’s Hyundai Return

Former FIA European Rallycross Championship front-runner Frode Holte is to return to the series for the last two rounds of the season in Austria in Germany as preparation for a full-time comeback to the sport for 2014.

Holte, whose last driving appearance at a rallycross event was in Holland last August (where he finished on the podium), will drive his Volvo C30 in the final two events in the RallycrossRX calendar to reacquaint himself with his Supercar before moving to a brand new Hyundai i20 for next season.

“We will race in the Volvo. It will just be to get to drive a little bit. It is one year since I last drove the car at an event, so I just want to prepare for next season. We will go to Germany in the next couple of weeks to test; the German event should be really great!” says Holte.

Despite Holte’s previously proven speed and indeed success rate, the former European event winner is playing down his chances at the events;

“Every time we are on the grid we want to win, but mainly I just want to get back out and drive. We had planned to go to France, but we have got so much work to do with the new car there isn’t time.”

The new Hyundai i20 is currently under construction, and Holte hopes that it can be readied in time to undergo significant testing prior to the 2014 season;

“Progress is a little but slow, we have changed some of our plans with the car but we hope that it will be ready by the end of December, or early January. I want to race in the full season next year. It’s especially nice to see that IMG have announced the World Championship this week, that will be really cool!”

Holte has always been keen to spread his wings into further afield than Europe. The Norwegian had a highly publicised split with Michael Crawford Motorsports  in America, who he had planned to contested the American Rallycross Championship with at the start of 2012. The inherent issues with the split have ruled Holte out of full-time driving since, but he hasn’t been wasting his time, running the Volvo on a handful of events for fellow Norwegian Daniel Holten.

“Daniel had a good couple of races in Norway and Sweden. He is a good young driver and he should do more. I know they are working on a budget for next year. When you are team manager you want everything to go as well as possible. It was cool to do that, but I think it’s a little early for me to do that all the time. I’m not ready to give up driving.”

Holte has tried without success to sell his Volvo Supercar, and since running Holten in the car is considering renting it out for next season. “We have tried to sell the Volvo, but we might keep it now. Then we can rent it out to another team like Holten next year. We can’t run as a two car team because I have links with Hyundai, but someone else can run it.”

Never wanting to not race, Holte has watched the new era of RallycrossRX from the sidelines with intent, and is excited at the prospect of a full-time return to competition next season.

“There are so many good drivers now. I’m not sure who will take the title this year, I think Timur [Timerzyanov] will probably get it, but we will have to see. It is just so cool. I was a little bit sceptical in the beginning with the format, but I really like keeping some of the old system and adding new bits. I think it’s brilliant. The whole thing is reaching much younger people, especially having people like Monster Energy involved. Before there were too many old people, we needed something new.

“For years I have dreamt of a rallycross world championship, it’s amazing. My main goal is to the first rallycross world champion. That’s what I want!

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