Gronholm To Take Hyundai Into World Rallycross

Double World Rally champion Marcus Gronholm is closing on a deal with Hyundai Motorsport to head up a two-car Hyundai i20 team in the World Rallycross Championship next season.

- Hal Ridge

The Finn is planning to run a pair of former World Rally Championship-specification i20s in World RX for his son Niclas and a second driver.

The programme will initially be a private effort using 2016-based cars, run by Gronholm’s GRX concern together with multiple European Rallycross champion SET Promotion, led by Jussi Pinomaki. However, the former works Peugeot and Ford WRC driver is in discussions with Hyundai about technical support and is hoping to attract official backing in the future.

“We have discussed with them [Hyundai], but the final decision will be soon,” Gronholm told Motorsport News. “I hope everything goes together, it’s not yet there and time is running quickly because we are in late November already.”

Asked of his motivation behind targeting the rally-based machine, Gronholm said: “We are hoping to get some support. We are working on that. It will not be a factory team at this point. A two-car team would be nice; we are working on that as well.”

The former European Rallycross race winner has already been contacted by a number of drivers about the second seat in the squad, with only a few drives officially confirmed for World RX 2018 so far.

“There are people who have contacted us, quite a lot actually. Of course this is the time that people are running around looking for deals. I cannot say anything, we will see,” he said.

Gronholm’s GRX Management Team set-up currently has 2014 Global Rallycross champion Joni Wiman and rising rally star Jari Huttunen on its books, alongside his son Niclas. Huttunen recently won Hyundai’s young driver shootout and secured a WRC2 programme with the marque for 2018, strengthening links between the Finn and the Alzenau-based WRC team.

Gronholm says Wiman is not in the frame for a drive in World RX with his squad.