Seven days, December 5

The big story of the week is the FIA’s approval of the calendar for the first ever World Rallycross Championship and the revelation that there will be three events outside of Europe as the championship takes in events in Canada, Turkey and Argentina – spreading its wings to four continents.

In Sweden, Kristoffersson Motorsport launched its plans for the 2014 season. Revealing Norwegian Ole Christian Veiby as driving partner for Johan Kristoffersson, the VW Dealer Team Sweden outfit announced that it will run a pair of new VW Polos in the RallyX Supercar Scandinavia series that will alongside the STCC. The squad will also drive in at least the Swedish round of the World champ[ionship, and may add more events if its season is progressing well.

The STCC package will include Supercar Lites as well as Supercars, and OMSE will field a Fiesta a for Sebastien Eriksson as well as a pair of Lites for Kevin Eriksson and Sandra Hultgren. Moving up from Lites to the Supercar, Sebastien Eriksson said: “I feel pretty safe. I have tested Supercar car and the pace was there immediately. We have the best car and the best team – it’s entirely up to me to deliver.” Former downhill ski athlete Hultgren has emerged from Folkracing and impressed with her first rallycross drive in a Super1600 Skoda Fabia in the Swedish round of the European championship at Holjes this year. “It feels amazing to have this opportunity. It will be great and I will do my best to manage this opportunity in a good way,” said Hultgren. The rallycross series will run over five events at Knutstorp (May 9-10), Goteborg (June 6-7); Strangnas (standalone rallycross evening race June 26); Knutstorp August 22-23 and Solvalla (September 5-6).

Finnish star Toomas Heikkinen collected the AKK Award, presented by the Finnish ASN for outstanding achievement. The prestigious award has previously been won by Kimi Raikkonen, Marcus Gronholm and Keke Rosberg. “This prize means a lot to me, if you think about some of the people who have won it before. It’s a real privilege to be recognised in this way. But I think people were quite surprised, because it’s not normal for somebody from rallycross to win it: normally it’s circuit drivers or rally drivers. I think that just goes to show how the whole image of rallycross is increasing all over the world, so it’s very good news for the sport,” said Heikkinen.

American Rallycross organisers have schedule April 5 as the first of its dates in 2014. After a successful low-key event at Pocono in October, there are now plans to run a multi-round series next year. For more of this year’s event, see the video below.

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