Dumfries based Albatec Racing returns to Riga this weekend determined to end the season with another FIA European Rallycross Championship victory at the Latvian track. The team fields a pair of Peugeot 208 RX Supercars for Tommy Rustad and Jere Kalliokoski, with former champion Tommy winner of the inaugural Eastern European event last year.
This year, Tommy heads into the final round in third place, 29 points adrift of leader Anton Marklund, and knows that claiming his second Euro RX crown is out of reach. However, there are just 11 points separating the Norwegian and the second placed driver Thomas Bryntesson, leaving the HTB Racing-backed ace eager to win to move him ahead in the title standings.
Joining Tommy in the Albatec line-up, 20 year-old Jere heads to the Baltic region for his first visit to the 1.295km track, in this his debut season. The reigning Finnish Rallycross Champion is dovetailing his Euro RX campaign with a season in the domestic championship where he’s currently challenging for second overall, and has an eye on a place in the Euro RX Final on Sunday.
The state-of-the-art Bikernieki National Sports Base is located close to the capital city, and features a tight and challenging first corner, three jumps within the gravel section, and the joker positioned at the end of the lap. Last year variable weather conditions added to the challenge, however collectively they allowed Albatec to shine, with overall race victory and the team’s second successive Euro RX runner-up position.
Albatec bids for Euro RX honours for the last time this season on 16&17 September, starting with open practice at 09:00 on Saturday, and the first of four qualifying races from 12:00. Sunday starts with warm-up at 08:30, immediately followed by qualifying three and four from 09:30 before the semi-finals at 13:30 and Final at 15:00. All times CEST. Live timing will be available across the weekend from https://www.fiaworldrallycross.com/times.
Andy Scott, Team Principal Albatec Racing:
“We go to Riga as winners of the first event there, so naturally we’re keen to leave Latvia with a second successive victory to our name. That victory last year didn’t come easily, it was a hard-fought race and I don’t expect anything different this weekend but I think we’ve proved at every race that we have the speed and reliability, and two very quick and competent drivers in Tommy and Jere. We’ve had some bad luck along the way so hopefully we can put that right this weekend and come away with a solid result across both cars. We’ve finished second in the drivers’ championship for the last two years; it would be great to win this year, but realistically our aim is to move up to the silver medal-winning position.”
Tommy Rustad, Driver Albatec Racing:
“I’m ready for Riga. I really like the circuit layout, but it’s tight in places with no room for error. The first corner is particularly tight, with many possibilities for incidents! The grip level is very good, even in the rain, but the weather switching between dry and wet adds additional complications, so I’m hoping for dry conditions for a change. The Peugeot 208 and Albatec are much better than our results indicate. The team is constantly developing the car, but this season has been incredibly strong and we’ve suffered some bad luck at the races where we should have won. In that strong entry, there are around eight to ten drivers all capable of race victory and we’re certainly among them, so we just need to pull it all together this weekend.”
“I’m ready for Riga. I really like the circuit layout, but it’s tight in places with no room for error. The first corner is particularly tight, with many possibilities for incidents! The grip level is very good, even in the rain, but the weather switching between dry and wet adds additional complications, so I’m hoping for dry conditions for a change. The Peugeot 208 and Albatec are much better than our results indicate. The team is constantly developing the car, but this season has been incredibly strong and we’ve suffered some bad luck at the races where we should have won. In that strong entry, there are around eight to ten drivers all capable of race victory and we’re certainly among them, so we just need to pull it all together this weekend.”Jere Kalliokoski, Driver Albatec Racing:
“I’m feeling excited to go to Riga as I know a lot of Finnish fans will be there. I haven’t raced there before but I did do some practice runs in the summer with my Group N rally car and took on-board videos to try and learn the characteristics of the track. I’m sure there will be a lot of good set up data from the team as they had a good result there last year, which can be applied to our car this weekend. I have to try to avoid errors and get some good starts. It’s vital to lead and win races in order to have good results time wise.”Images: McKlein
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