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Finnish champion Kalliokoski joins Albatec for Euro RX 2017

British team Albatec Racing will field a Peugeot 208 Supercar in the FIA European Rallycross Championship next season for Finnish Rallycross Champion, Jere Kalliokoski.

The Finn tested one of the squad's cars at Dreux in France last month, where the 19 year-old completed a number of runs. "Racing in Euro RX a big step forward, but Albatec is a top level, experienced and professional rallycross team competing in different international series, which has proved itself over the past two seasons," said Kalliokoski. "The recent test went very well. My approach was to learn and get a good feeling for the car. I did ten runs and between them we made small set up changes. Every time I went out I was faster and did my best lap on a last run. The Peugeot 208 RX Supercar is a modern, top league RX car with all bells and whistles and lots of power and drivability, it feels really good and there is more to come. I just need more seat time to make it more suitable to my driving style."

Kalliokoski has featured on the World RX bill before. Having begun his career in karting, the Finn raced in the World RX of Finland in 2014, in the RX Lites Cup category, and qualified for the semi-finals. This season, Kalliokoski raced a Skoda Fabia to Finnish Championship success. "I feel that this year I mentally grew a lot," he said. "I learned to focus on racing and shut everything else out of my mind. That will certainly help me next year in Euro RX. For sure I'm there to win but at same time I need to be realistic. My long term goal is to win the World Championship title some day and there is no short cut to achieve that!"

The first round of Euro RX 2017 will join the opening round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Barcelona next April.

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com