In November 2017, the FIA World Rallycross championship will head to Killarney in Cape Town for the season-closer (find ticket prices here), bringing rallycross to the continent of Africa for the very first time (have a sneak peek at the track here).
We caught up with 2016 champion Mattias Ekström, who grabbed the title just two years after building the 25-strong EKS team from the ground up, to gain more insight into this growing motorsport discipline and find out what makes him tick.
Last year, Ekström (alongside Finnish team-mate Topi Heikkinen) competed in an Audi S1 EKS RX quattro. In 2017, the team will receive factory support from Audi Sport, and field a third car (with Latvia’s Reinis Nitiss behind the wheel).
While we’ve already covered exactly how the sport works (read that piece here), we were keen to find out from the veteran Swedish driver – who also has two DTM titles to his name, having started 177 races for Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline and collected 22 race victories – exactly what it’s like to drive a rallycross car.
“The biggest difference to racing circuit cars? Well, when you have quattro or all-wheel drive, the cars have a lot of traction and the cars also have very little downforce. That means you rely only on the grip from the tyres and suspension,” Ekström told CARmag.co.za.
“And the tyres we have are very, very soft, which means we have a lot of grip. But the tyres don’t last so long. For a short time, the grip is fantastic. Also, the engine power we have is around 600 hp [about 450 kW] and 860 N.m of torque, and that means the acceleration is very, very good.”
The 38-year-old told us that the start of a rallycross event tended to be particularly special.
“The sport itself is adrenaline-filled because when you start a heat, you are side-by-side, and in the finals you are staggered in three rows. So, the start is very important and produces a lot of adrenaline.”
More so than other forms of motorsport?
“By miles. The start moment is really, really something special. But very often we also have jumps, and then you have tracks with gravel and tarmac mixed, and some have concrete and tarmac, so you have to learn to read the track a lot more than you do in [other] championships,” Ekström said.
The Swede – who told us that his very first car was a Volkswagen Caddy pickup (and that he recently ordered an Audi SQ7) – said that while he had not visited South Africa before, he had some friends here. And he added that he had some fond memories of another famous circuit in Mzansi.
“When I was a kid, I played computer games, racing on the Kyalami track. And while I was growing up, F1 still used to be there, so I can remember that name,” he told us.
We also asked Ekström to name his favourite event on the current calendar.
“I must say, there are many nice ones. I like all of the tracks because I think they all have their own challenges, their own charms. But I would say Barcelona is probably my very favourite. More in terms of the atmosphere, but the track is also great. I really like all of them. It’s not like circuit racing when you go to a track where you struggle,” he said.
Ekström, of course, has plenty of experience in circuit racing, having twice won the DTM championship, and he will continue to juggle World Rallycross and German Touring Cars in 2017. When asked whether he would ever consider quitting DTM to spend all of his time in rallycross, Ekström admitted that it was something that had crossed his mind.
“But as long as I’m good enough to deserve a place there, I still feel I have some unfinished business – I’d like to win one more [DTM] title. So, I will do my very best to try to keep my place and do a good job,” he said.
And if he had to choose between dirt and tarmac?
“I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Circuit racing is like a fillet steak and rallycross is more like a sausage. So, you might expect me to say, ‘for sure, circuit racing is best’. But I’ve been doing it for nearly 16 years now, and after a while it’s nice to have sausage as well. Eating fillet steak every day can get boring,” Ekström quipped.
“It depends on what you like,” he continued. “Fancy hospitality and really clean, old-school racing or really wild, crazy rallycross? It’s two completely different things. For me, the best weekend of the year in that sense is Hockenheim, where you have both sports on the same weekend, then I don’t have to choose; I can do both.”
Ekström admitted that his 2016 FIA World Rallycross title win was the highlight of his career thus far, considering he had essentially built the team from the ground up.
“To start building everything from scratch, everything from people, from cars, from equipment, media strategy and everything … it means quite a lot when you have done everything from day one.
And to do it in a little Audi made it all the more satisfying, he added.
“When I was growing up, I admired the Audi [Quattro] S1. So, to take the modern Audi S1, the road car, and convert it into a very similar Group B-style rallycross car was always going to be a challenge. But then to manage to win the world title was, for sure, very nice.”
We also asked Ekström who he most admired in the history of motorsport.
“[Michael] Schumacher and [Sébastien] Loeb. I have loads of respect for them. To win one year, if you’re in a good team with a good car, anyone can probably do it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arrogant, but doing it for year after year and being able to motivate yourself and keep winning is admirable.”
Ekström, of course, has beaten both Schumacher and Loeb in the Race of Champions, something he clearly savoured.
“Even if you say it was in a ‘fun’ event, I did not take it for fun. I wanted to beat them and I’m sure they were not going there and waiting for me to beat them. For sure, it’s fun, but fun is always when you win,” he said.
The Swede went on to add that he really admired “guys like Walter Röhrl, who are able to drive different categories”.
It’s a trait Ekström has managed to emulate, earning success across various disciplines over his long racing career. What has made him so successful at this sort of multitasking?
“When growing up, I was really interested in the technical side of racing. I spent loads of hours improving my technical understanding. That means I can now talk to a mechanic, an engineer, a constructor. I put a lot of effort into being a racing driver with a big technical understanding and a big technical knowledge. And I would say that’s my biggest asset.”
In his younger days, Ekström had a taste of single-seater racing, finding some degree of success in the likes of Renault 5 Junior Cup, Formula Ford, Formula Vauxhall Junior and Formula Opel. Why did he not continue on this path?
“I must admit, I liked it. But my father very early said he doesn’t have any idea how we could fund that, because it’s too much money and we can’t afford it. For me, that was very clearly communicated. He said we can probably make something happen if you do a touring car career, because it is much cheaper,” Ekström explained.
And his one piece of advice for a budding racer?
“Ask yourself if you’re ready to give everything of your life. Most of the young kids say to me: ‘I want to be a racer. What should I do?’. And I say: ‘Okay, good. Are you ready to do what it takes?’ And they say: ‘yes, I’m ready to do everything’. And I say: ‘Do you really know what it means to give everything? How big of a sacrifice are you ready to make?
“How much are you ready to invest of your life? Because if you spend all of your time away, hunting for sponsors, improving setups, doing physical training, and doing all of this, I think you will succeed, because it is only the mind-set and how much you want to invest that will decide how good you will become,” he explained.
Of course, there’s also the question of money…
“To go fast in motorsport, you need to practice. To practice costs money. To get money – unless you have very wealthy parents – you need to attract people, you need to be good in marketing, in press, and also be a good salesperson. So understand that it’s a business in a way.
“Motorsport is a marketing tool, and not a sport. If you play chess, it’s not very expensive to buy the chess board and then train. But motorsport is much more expensive, so you have to be a marketing expert as well,” Ekström said.
That’s sage advice from someone who continues to excel as both a driver and a team boss.
And a closing word on Killarney? Well Ekström said he hoped “some of the Van der Linde kids” would “pitch up as wildcars for the race”…
