Norwegian Andreas Bakkerud is set to replace Nelson Piquet Junior in the Austin X Games, to be held June 4 to 7, due to a clash with the Brazilian’s FIA Formula e Championship programme.
Today it was made known that OlsbergsMSE driver Andreas Bakkerud will be the X Games stand-in for former Formula One driver Nelson Piquet Junior in Austin, Texas. The prestigious action sports event will be held from June 4 to 7, but is clashing with Round 9 of the 2014/2015 FIA Formula e Championship in Moscow, Russia. Therefore, the American SH Racing Team was in need for a replacement driver and will be helped out by OMSE’s FIA World Rallycross Championship regular from Bergen in Norway.
ESPN published the following AP press release on its website: “Nelson Piquet Jr. will skip the X Games to compete in Formula E, where he’s a championship contender in the new fully electric racing series. Andreas Bakkerud will replace Piquet in the SH Racing Ford Fiesta at next weekend’s X Games in Austin, Texas. Piquet is leading the Formula E standings but is in a four-way battle with three races left. He’ll compete June 6 in Moscow instead of participating in the X Games, where he won a bronze medal last year. SH Rallycross team owner James Sullivan says Piquet was given his release for X Games because the team wants to support him in his quest to win the inaugural Formula E championship. Bakkerud is an experienced Rallycross driver who is third in the FIA World Rallycross Championship SuperCar category.”
“I’m going to show them how Thor is whirling his hammer Mjölnir!” © JKR/ERC24
Top photo: Bakkerud will swap his WRX Ford Fiesta Mk7 for a GRC SuperCar of the same make and model. © JKR/ERC24