Audi may have quit the World Endurance Championship but that doesn't mean it's closed off to other forms of motorsport. The automaker also competes in the German touring car series DTM and is committed to the next season of the Formula E Championship. It turns out Audi will also be competing in the World Rallycross Championship.
The brand with the four rings is teaming up with reigning World RX champion EKS for the 2017 season. EKS is led by Swedish rally driver Mattias Ekström and in 2016 secured both the Drivers’ and Teams’ titles, using an Audi S1-based rally car. Ekström also competes in DTM for Audi.
While EKS already had access to Audi suppliers and partners before, the further technical development of the S1 rally car will now take place with support from Audi’s official motorsport department, Audi Sport.
“We laid a lot of groundwork as a team in the first three years, gathered important experiences and set new standards with EKS,” Ekström said in statement. “But it was also clear to us that we’d need support for the future in order to be able to continue on this level.”
The first round of the 2017 World RX season will take place in Barcelona, Spain from April 1-2. Other automakers similarly involved in the sport include Citroën, Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F], Peugeot and Volkswagen.
