Dreux in France was the venue of pre-season test drives for the British-Swedish Scott-Eklund Racing Global Rallycross Championship team.

Scott-Eklund Racing successfully completed its first pre-season test at the Circuit de l’Ouest Parisien at Dreux in France on Tuesday, March 27, ahead of the teams’ debut Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) season.

Lead driver and Team Principal Andy Scott took both 2012 GRC-spec Saab 9-3 two-litre 16 Valve powerhouses rigorously through their paces, covering over 50 laps of the French circuit without a single glitch.

Running in the glorious sunshine in ambient temperatures of up to 24ºC, the racing crew, led by Rallycross stalwart and team Technical Director Per Eklund, seamlessly transitioned the cars through each installation phase before completing tyre cycles.

With the 600bhp Saabs responding well to technical input, the team gleaned an encouraging measure of performance on base settings and Scott turned up the pace to set continually improving lap times throughout the six hour session.

Founded three months ago, the Scott-Trawlers backed team’s maiden official test hailed not only the opportunity for the 2011 MSA British Rallycross Vice-Champion to take the wheel of his 2012 challenger for the first time, but also the first chance for many of the team personnel to actually meet and work together.

From Europe, the entire Scott-Eklund Racing operation now moves to the US to establish its base at Champion Racing’s Headquarters building in Pompano Beach, Florida, before recommencing its pre-season test programme ahead of the opening Global Rallycross Championship rounds on May 26 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Andy Scott, Scott-Eklund Racing Team Principal and Driver:

“Scott-Eklund Racing’s first test has just been fantastic. We’ve created an entirely new team in little more than three months yet both cars have run perfectly all day and everyone has worked really well together.”

“The Saabs have positively responded to every technical change we’ve made. A performance increase from the brief testing we did in the car’s previous spec last year is already evident. We were also really lucky with the weather. The conditions were as close to the temperatures we would expect in the US, or certainly as near as we’re going to get in Europe.”

“There’s already a great feeling of chemistry building in the team. Everybody is pulling together and we continue to work hard together.”

“Our next outing will be a two-day test in early May in Florida where we hope to run at full race temperatures and go through various tyre options. I have no doubt that we can continue our initial positive rate of progress and can’t wait to continue our development in the United States.”

Per Eklund, Scott-Eklund Racing Technical Director:

“I am very pleased with the results of today’s test. Everything is working perfectly. We knew that the cars looked good on the dyno, but to see them both running within hundredths of a second of each other is fantastic.”

“I am very happy with the power advance and to see that the extensive winter development programme is already bearing fruit. We have two months to go until the start of the Global Rallycross Championship and we have already successfully tested both cars. That puts us in the best possible position. I am very relaxed and we can now concentrate on the finer details.”