Six-time FIA World Rallycross Championship winner Johan Kristoffersson will be back rallying next month when he contests round three of the FIA European Rally Championship, BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia.
Kristoffersson, who also has Extreme E titles, WRC2 podiums and World Touring Car Cup wins to his name, will contest the fast-paced gravel event in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 run by his family team, Kristofferson Motorsport.
The versatile Swede, 35, said: “Our loyal sponsor BAUHAUS unexpectedly asked if I wanted to jump in and compete in high-level rallying, and I accepted. I haven’t driven a gravel rally in the forest for five years, so expectations are low. It would have been nice to prepare properly, but there’s simply no time for that, so we’ll take it as it comes. It’s still fun to be the underdog for a change.”
Kristoffersson’s father Tommy, who runs Kristoffersson Motorsport, added: “Having a FIA European Rally Championship event in Värmland is really pleasing, especially since we no longer have the WRC here. And we’re also happy that our partner BAUHAUS has opened their store in Karlstad, not just because I want to go there and shop, but also because it feels good that they are represented here in Värmland.”
Norwegian Stig Rune Skjaermoen will co-drive Kristoffersson, who will be making his ERC debut on the event, which runs from 13 – 15 June.
Another exciting entry is that of Petter Solberg, whose workshop is close to the rally route. When asked why he’s choosing to compete he said:
“I will be 50 this year and I think this can be really good fun. Oliver is doing everything by himself now, Pernilla [my wife is the FIA WRC Commission president] and I’m alone. So this is more like a motivation thing to see through the rally what my speed can be. If you look at Carlos Sainz in Dakar I have quite a few years to drive to be honest and if I want to do something for the future I have to start again and build up. The rally is based so close to the workshop, my Polo was there, nobody is using it and it was asking, ‘Petter, please take me out for a ride,’ basically.”
“You know me, you know this family – rallying is everything to us. Last year I took my mother for a ride in my Citroën C4 WRC on one stage of Royal Rally. That was nice, but Oliver was having all the fun and winning the rally.
“I want to have some of that fun. The rally is really close for us, we have a lot of friends and family close by and, of course, we have Monster Energy, Pirelli and Castrol coming with us. We take the Polo and we do this together.”
