Norwegian racing all-rounder Tommy Rustad has revealed his plans to participate in a minimum of six but in as many as possible of the 2014 RallycrossRX rounds.
Rallycross returnee Tommy Rustad has today announced to run the ex-Ludvig Hunsbedt Volvo C30/4 SuperCar, now owned by HTB Racing in Bergen, in “as many as possible 2014 European and World Rallycross Championship rounds”. Earlier this year the Norwegian participated in the ERC events at his native Hell as well as in the Swedish round at Höljes, invited and backed by HTB and Nyborg Motorsport Service. “We realised a guest appearance of Tommy earlier this year. Then he proved that both our Volvo C30 and he himself were competitive against most of the major ERC regulars. He set a fastest time both in Hell and in Höljes, and as this was promising we decided to expand our efforts to make him drive in the RallycrossRX series of next year,” said Ronny Laastad, the General Manager of Helgesen Tekniske Bygg (HTB).
“Rallycross had a European championship status for over 40 years, but now the FIA has given the series the green light for a World Championship in 2014. The schedule needs to be approved by the FIA WMSC on December 4 in Paris. It looks as if the World series is going to run over a total of eleven rounds, of which nine races take place in Europe, while two will be held on two other continents. Of the nine WRXC events in Europe five shall count for a separate European series. With a sponsor group of us here in the Bergen area and Tommy’s own sponsors we have currently a budget to further develop the car, and to run a minimum of six races next year. However, we will work on to acquire more partners, and we hope to run as many as possible of the World championship rounds in addition to the ERC events,” claimed Ronny Laastad to the press.
Nyborg Motorsport Service will be responsible for the technical operation of the car again, while Morten Flåt, who built the Volvo C30, will overlook and maintain the project from his workshops in Romerike.
Although Tommy Rustad has done Touring Car races with Volvo in Sweden in recent years he still followed up the sport of Rallycross as close as possible. The last time that the former protégé of Martin Schanche committed to Rallycross was in 2006, when he claimed the bronze medal in the Division 1 (now the SuperCars category) of the ERC. “It is an incredibly wonderful feeling to know that we already have most of our budget in place to be ready for next year. It allows us to be well prepared. And my own 2013 commitment to SuperNational Rallycross here in Norway has been a good start with a view to 2014. I am really looking forward to next year already. There will probably be a long winter ahead,” said Tommy Rustad in joyful anticipation.
