World RX reveals 17-car entry list for 2016
Reigning champion Petter Solberg heads the list of permanent FIA World Rallycross Championship teams and drivers released by championship organisers on Thursday.
Start action
FIA World Rallycross
The Norwegian will run #1 on the side of his Citroen DS3 for the second year in succession.
Seven teams will compete for the teams’ championship in 2016, with Solberg, Swede Robin Larsson and British driver Liam Doran entering as individual entrants, as part of the 17 permanent driver line-up.
Team Peugeot-Hansen will field a pair of Peugeot 208 WRX Supercars for nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb and multiple World RX event winner Timmy Hansen.
While new team Hoonigan Racing Division will run a pair of Ford Focus RS RXs for American Ken Block and Norwegian Andreas Bakkerud.
Bakkerud’s former team mate Reinis Nitiss has switched to All-Ink.com Munnich Motorsport for 2016, and will drive a Seat Ibiza RX Supercar alongside team owner Rene Munnich.
Both OlsbergsMSE and World RX Team Austria will run Ford Fiesta Supercars for the campaign, former teams’ champions OMSE fielding cars for 19-year-olds Kevin Eriksson, and Niclas Gronholm, son of double WRC champion Marcus.
In contrast to the OMSE machines, which run more traditional longitudinally mounted engines, World RX Team Austria’s Fiesta run a transverse setup, and will field a brace of cars for reigning European Super1600 champion Janis Baumanis and two-time European Rallycross Champion, Timur Timerzyanov.
2015 outfits Marklund Motorsport and Volkswagen Team Sweden, run by Kristoffersson Motorsport, have amalgamated to form Volkswagen RX Sweden for this term, with Swedes Anton Marklund and Johan Kristoffersson driving the squad’s Volkswagen Polo RX Supercars.
Double DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom announced on Monday that he will be joined by Finn Toomas Heikkinen in the EKS team this season in the Swedish outfit’s Audi S1 Supercars.
Ekstrom plans to compete in as many events as possible this season alongside his DTM commitments.
Of the three individual entrants, Solberg will drive his 2015 Citroen DS3, hopeful of attracting manufacturer support for 2016.
While Larsson will continue to race his privately-run Audi A1 and Doran will swap his LD Motorsports prepared Citroen DS3 for a JRM Racing Mini RX this season.
In addition to the World RX line-up, 23 drivers have signed up for a full campaign in the FIA European Rallycross Championship, which runs at five of the European-based World RX events.
2016 Entry List:
No. | Driver | Car | Team |
---|---|---|---|
#21 | Timmy Hansen | Peugeot 208 WRX | Team Peugeot Hansen |
#9 | Sebastien Loeb | Peugeot 208 WRX | Team Peugeot Hansen |
#77 | Rene Munnich | Seat Ibiza RX | All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport |
#15 | Reinis Nitniss | Seat Ibiza RX | All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport |
#7 | Timur Timerzyanov | Ford Fiesta | World RX Team Austria |
#6 | Janis Baumanis | Ford Fiesta | World RX Team Austria |
#3 | Johan Kristoffersson | Volkswagen Polo RX | Volkswagen RX Sweden |
#92 | Anton Marklund | Volkswagen Polo RX | Volkswagen RX Sweden |
#43 | Ken Block | Ford Focus RS RX | Hoonigan Racing Division |
#13 | Andreas Bakkerud | Ford Focus RS RX | Hoonigan Racing Division |
#96 | Kevin Eriksson | Ford Fiesta ST | Olsbergs MSE |
#68 | Niclas Gronholm | Ford Fiesta ST | Olsbergs MSE |
#10 | Mattias Ekstrom | Audi S1 EKSRX quattro | EKS |
#57 | Toomas Heikkinen | Audi S1 EKSRX quattro | EKS |
#1 | Petter Solberg | Citroen DS3 | Petter Solberg World RX Team |
#4 | Robin Larsson | Audi A1 | Robin Larsson |
#33 | Liam Doran | Mini RX | JRM Racing Ltd |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments