JC Raceteknik set to begin Euro RX title-challenge in Spain
Swedish rallycross team JC Raceteknik will embark on its second full-time assault on the FIA European Rallycross Championship for Supercar this weekend at Barcelona in Spain (April 13 – 15), with eyes on fighting for the coveted crown.
For the second consecutive season, drivers Thomas Bryntesson and Ola Froshaug will race a pair of 600 horsepower, four-wheel drive Ford Fiestas for the Kil-based squad, that have been redeveloped over the winter months and undertook a pre-season test at Loheac in France earlier this week.
The FIA European Rallycross Championship is held over five rounds in Spain, Belgium, Sweden, France and Latvia. Last season, in his first year in Supercar, Bryntesson won the French round of the series at Loheac in front of 80,000 spectators on his way to finishing second overall in the highly competitive and historic series. He also claimed the title in the RallyX Nordic series, and will again contest both championships in 2018.
Despite being vastly experienced in racing in rallycross, 2017 was also Froshaug’s first full Supercar campaign. Regularly a challenger in RallyX Nordic, Froshaug improved his pace throughout the season in Euro RX too and finished 10th overall. He is planning to take the next step this year in a bid to join his younger team mate in the finals of events, starting this weekend in Barcelona.
Joel Christoffersson, Team Principal :
"It's really exciting that the season starts now and the whole team is really ready to go. We had a good summer season last year where Thomas took finished second in Euro RX Supercar and won RallyX Nordic. We haven’t lowered our goals and the hope is to be the winner at the end of the season. We are looking forward to the first round in Barcelona, it’s a fun track and we aim to start the season with a podium.”
Supercar Driver: Thomas Bryntesson (NOR) :
"We have been waiting for the season to start for a long time. After the long winter break it will be exciting to see where we are. It will be fun to drive again and I hope to be able to fight at the top all the time. This is the fourth year that I will race in Barcelona and now they have moved the start to the other side of the circuit, so that will be interesting to see. I definitely want to be on the top of the podium this weekend, but the most important thing will be to pick up as many points for the championship as possible. On Monday and Tuesday we tested in France, it felt so good to drive for a couple of days and get into the rhythm. The team has made some developments to the cars that we have been testing and hopefully everything will work fine this weekend.”
Supercar Driver: Ola Froshaug (NOR) :
"I'm really excited to get started; 2018 will be an exciting year. Now we have a year of experience in the bag with Supercar and know more what we can expect. Some drivers have come out of the World Championship into Euro RX and more are coming too, so it’s hard to say anything about the competition other than that it will be tough. Barcelona is a lovely circuit and this weekend we will see where we stand against the other teams. We’ve made some improvements on the cars, I have developed as a driver and the goal is to get a better result than last year. Since it became such a long winter in both Sweden and Norway, we have not been able to test as much as planned at home, so instead I put everything into the two-day test in France. I'm really charged.”
