Swedish star Mattias Ekström will continue to race for KYB Team JC in the third double-header weekend of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship this weekend in Latvia (September 19-20).
2016 World RX Drivers’ Champion Ekström was drafted into the team just before the first rounds of the season at Höljes in Sweden, where driving the Audi S1 built by his EKS team, Ekström took a win and a second-place finish.
The very next weekend in Finland, Ekström didn’t make the final in round three, but bounced back by finishing second in round four at the Kouvola circuit. He lies second in the Drivers’ Championship, 17 points off the lead, and together with team mate Robin Larsson, who is sixth in the Drivers’ points, KYB Team JC also leads the World RX Teams’ standings by 19 points.
Ekström was announced as the driver for CUPRA’s entry into Extreme E next year on Monday, and he will continue to stay race sharp by racing with KYB Team JC in Riga this weekend.
In his three previous starts at the Latvian round in Riga, Ekström has finished second in the final every time (2016,17,18) and will continue to race for points for the Teams’ and Drivers’ Championship together with Larsson on Saturday and Sunday.
We are very happy to have Mattias back in the team. I didn’t know if it would be possible for him to come to Latvia, but I’m thankful to CUPRA for letting us have him in the team for the event. It’s great that we can continue with the same team setup that we have had so far this year, because we were very successful in the first two weekends of the season. I’m looking forward to continuing the fight for the Teams’ Championship but obviously we are second in the Drivers’ Championship too and we are not giving up that fight in trying to do our best to close the gap up to Johan [Kristoffersson].
Joel Christoffersson, KYB Team JC, Team Principal
It’s been a pretty cool week for me, with the launch of the Extreme E programme with CUPRA for 2021. That’s really exciting, and big thanks to ABT and CUPRA for allowing me to go to Riga for the next World RX races. The first four races turned out pretty fine with three podiums, so being second in the championship and to be leading the Teams’ Championship, I’m in a situation I didn’t expect. I felt a bit obliged to do my very best to go to Riga, I want to continue supporting the JC team as much as I can.
Mattias Ekström