Today it has been revealed that reigning Global RallyCross Champion Finn Toomas “Topi” Heikkinen will lead Swedish team Marklund Motorsport in the 2014 WorldRX series.
“Topi” Heikkinen was among the handful of drivers rumoured to be one of the two candidates for the 2014 Global RallyCross programme of Volkswagen of America with Volkswagen Motorsport. After today’s announcement that the Finn is joining Marklund Motorsport for a full WorldRX programme together with teammate Anton Marklund (21) it is clear that the target is different, while the make and model of car was correctly guessed. With Travis Pastrana having recently revealed his return to Subaru and Tanner Foust being expected to stay with Ford and OlsbergsMSE our list of “suspects” is shorter now, currently containing an American and a Swede as potential drivers for the two 2013 Marklund Motorsport Polos to be used during the entire 2014 GRC, as we understood that the entry of the new Beetles has been postponed to 2015.
The 22 years old Heikkinen, who scored five victories in a row on his way to become the 2013 Global RallyCross Champion, is pretty certain that he took the right decision in joining Marklund Motorsport: “After a successful year winning the 2013 Global RallyCross Championship my goal now is to win the new FIA World Rallycross Championship with Marklund Motorsport: nothing less! I’m confident that together we can develop a winning car and team. I want to thank team owner Jan Marklund for this great opportunity to join them. I’m pumped for the season ahead.”
According to Marklund Senior their in-house built VW Polo SuperCars are in a strong position to fight for the title, after a year of testing and development. “Signing ‘Topi’ shows the sort of progress that Marklund Motorsport is making going into the new season. His results of last year speak for themselves and we are incredibly happy to have a champion leading our driver line-up. It’s a very exciting period in our project and shows the hard work and planning that we have put in is really paying off,” said the father of Anton today.
Photo: Jan Marklund and “Topi” have agreed upon a full WRX programme and an attempt on the 2014 Summer X Games. © MM/ERC24