After his plan to race with MINI in WorldRX Kouvola went down Finnish Rally ace Riku Tahko has been invited to join the Liam Doran Motorsports team.

Finnish national Rally driver and Monster Energy athlete Riku Tahko is set to make his FIA World Rallycross Championship debut this weekend, with a guest drive for LD Motorsports. The 29-year-old from the town of Porvoo will be racing a 600bhp LD Motorsports Citroën DS3 in the SuperCar category, sharing a pit garage alongside double European TouringCar champion Derek Tohill from Ireland.

After nearly a decade of competing successfully in Rallying, Riku will be putting his racing experience to the test in his first ever Rallycross event, against a formidable entry of 26 SuperCars. “It was just perfect timing to make it all together within time for the race,” said Riku. “It was looking like I wasn’t going to be able to race in Kouvola, after my plan with MINI went down, and I was only going to be able to work as the Live RX commentator for Finnish TV. However I’m really pleased I got the offer from LD Motorsports to drive one of their cars. To be part of the top team in my RX debut is just a dream come true for me.”

“After ten years of experience in Rallying I have seen how much Rallycross has been growing, so for my own career development I need to jump into this sport which has so much potential. I have seen RX close for five years now, but never raced in, so it will be a great learning curve as well as full enjoyment. I’m also happy to offer all my sponsors a huge amount of visibility in one of the biggest motorsports events in Scandinavia.”

Monster Energy World RX Team driver and LD Motorsports boss Liam Doran added: “It’s set to be a huge weekend in Kouvola. Riku has a lot of experience in Rallying and at WRC level competition, so he should adjust to Rallycross quickly. We have four LD Motorsports prepared cars competing at the weekend, so we are gunning to lock out as many of the top places as possible.”

Photo: Tahko is racing the almost 600bhp strong Citroën DS3 SuperCar of Pat Doran at Kouvola. © Toni Ollikainen/ERC24