Swedish racing driver Mattias Ekström, a man with several titles under his belt, including two in the unique Race of Champions event, has found a new endeavor: the World Rallycross Championship. Ekström will compete in the inaugural season of World RX this year driving a rally car based on the latest Audi S1 hot hatch.

Ekström has competed primarily in DTM, together with Audi, but he’s also been active in rallying, having competed previously in the World Rally Championship. As Autoblog points out, he’s also enjoyed a few stints in rallycross--a sport where drivers race against the clock on a closed circuit that’s often littered with jumps--together with Marklund Motorsport in the Swedish Rallycross Championship.

Ekström and his EKS team will be competing against Marklund Motorsport in World RX, with the latter working with Volkswagen and drivers Toomas Heikkinen and Anton Marklund. EKS will also have two drivers onboard, with Ekström set to be joined by Pontus Tidemand.

The Audi S1 rally cars they will be driving are currently in the works and are being developed for World RX’s top category. This means they will get turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines tuned to deliver 600 horsepower. Drive will go to all four wheels and 0-60 mph acceleration should take as little as 1.9 seconds.

EKS is expected to make its debut late in May at the World RX of Great Britain. The first round of the 2014 World RX season gets underway in Montalegre, Portugal in early May.

_______________________________________

Follow Motor Authority on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.