Eklund Motorsport prepares Saabs for World Rallycross

Experienced Swedish rallycross team Eklund Motorsport are preparing their Saab 93 Supercars for participation in FIA World Rallycross Championship events this season.

Lead by Per Eklund, the team is nearing the completion of their three cars ahead of the coming season, although drivers are yet to be confirmed.

“We are working flat out to get the cars ready,” said Eklund. “Two of the cars will be identical for this year. The car that Henning [Solberg] drove at Loheac last year has had a lot of work done to it, we have taken out 30 kilograms and it is now right on the weight limit. Of course we want to do as much of the World championship as possible. We have been talking to lots of people, but nothing is confirmed yet, and we are open to anything.”

The Eklund Saabs are some of the most developed in the sport, and still have the pace to race at the sharp end, as proved by Henning Solberg on several occasions in RallycrossRX last season, finishing fourth in Sweden and making the semi-finals in France.

“Henning is a proper driver, and he would still like to do rallycross this year but nothing is confirmed yet. He would have made the final in France last year too but he had a small problem which slowed him down. He didn’t do any testing all year, it shows the Saab can be fast straight away.”

As well as running the elder Solberg brother in 2013, Eklund also ran Finnish driver Toni Lukander for two events, and would like to work with him more in the future. “Toni is very quick, he is trying to get a budget together at the moment. It is very good for him because there is a World championship event in Finland.”

No stranger to working with drivers from Finland, Eklund was the man behind Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikkinen’s early stages in rallycross. “Topi is a good example of how we work with people. In his first year with us he won the Finnish championship, then we went into the European championship in the second year and he was on the podium pretty quickly. Then he went to America and has won everything. We taught him from nothing,” says Eklund, who has a long career of experience to draw on when teaching young drivers. “In 50 years of racing you learn something at least.”

As with any professional race team, Eklund Motorsport are planning for any eventuality in 2014, and will have a third Saab 93 ready to go in case it is required. “We will run two cars, the third one will be a spare.” Eklund drove himself at the final round of RallycrossRX 2013 in Germany, and again at the finale of the Swedish championship at Kinnekulle. The 67 year old hasn’t ruled out driving himself this season; “I would like to, but we will see. That is the last option, our drivers have to come first.”

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