Kristoffersson ‘so happy rallycross is back’
Johan Kristoffersson came, saw and conquered on his FIA European Rallycross Championship return in the 2026 curtain-raising contest in Rīga – and after vanquishing a large and supremely high-calibre Euro RX1 grid, he expressed his conviction that the sport is ‘on a good path’.
A one-off appearance on home soil at Höljes in 2022 aside, Kristoffersson’s latest Euro RX outing prior to last weekend dated all the way back to 2014 – which he had similarly won. Since then, of course, the super Swede has gone on to notch up an extraordinary eight world championship crowns in the dual-surface discipline – making him by some margin the most successful driver of the modern era – but his addition to the field in Latvia was only confirmed at the 11th hour. He was glad he didn’t miss out.
“I said at the end of last season that it’s a bit sad there’s no world championship this year, but at the same time, if I had been sat at home watching this grid and not being a part of it, I would have been very disappointed,” Kristoffersson reflected.
“Rīga is always a special place – especially for me since (winning his first world title there in) 2017. I was super happy to see so many spectators; they have so much passion for rallycross, and the action on-track was great – every heat was really worth watching.
“All of us are so, so happy that rallycross is back to what it should be, with 30 Supercars in the field and a lot of youngsters climbing the ladder from the lower categories. If we can build from here to attract more fans and more media recognition, I believe the sport will grow even further. I’m confident rallycross is on a good path.”
With an early seven-point championship lead – over team-mate, Ole Christian Veiby – Kristoffersson is also clearly on a good path at the moment, although that path was peppered with obstacles around the historic Biķernieku trase. That was largely due to a series of sluggish starts from the Kristoffersson Motorsport-run Volkswagen Polos, leaving its drivers buried in the pack and needing to recover.
“We had great pace – the car was super-fast – but we didn’t have everything go our way,” the Arvika native acknowledged. “We haven’t used this kind of launch system for many years – electric cars are very different. Our competitors have done a very good job there, so we have some catching-up to do, but while you obviously want to keep racking up the 50-point scores in the heats, at the same time, it was fun to have a proper fight on our hands!”
Kristoffersson uncharacteristically only topped the timesheets once during the qualifiers, but top four efforts in every other session nonetheless proved sufficient to secure him first place in the intermediate classification. At the quarter-final stage, he again had to overcome a lacklustre launch to narrowly pip rising star Joni Turpeinen to the race win, and in the semi-final, he hunted down and overhauled old nemesis, Andreas Bakkerud.
That earned the 37-year-old pole position for the all-important final, and when he really needed a good start, he got it. Notwithstanding another issue that deprived him of all radio communications and information from his spotter, he was not to be denied...
“In the final, we had a bit more traction on warmer tyres and both Ole Christian and I had better starts,” Kristoffersson explained. “A win like this, having had to fight for it, is even more rewarding. On my helmet, I have the Latin words for ‘humble in success and strong in adversity’, and I think that’s really what the weekend was about.
“I have to compliment our competitors; they have clearly prepared well and there are a lot of fast drivers and strong teams in Euro RX1 this year – they didn’t make my life easy and you cannot underestimate anybody!
“Despite the problems with the launches, we managed to produce some magic. In situations like that, you end up in positions on-track that are not ideal; quick decisions are required, and I was very happy with my own performance in that respect.
“Huge thanks to all the guys at KMS – they worked so hard to give Ole Christian and myself great cars, and while we had to battle a few technical gremlins here-and-there, we overcame them and we were there when it mattered. To finish P1 and P2 – we’re very pleased.”
Indeed, bad starts aside, it was a pretty perfect start for the reigning world champions in Rīga...
