Eklund Motorsport signs Gehrman and Braten for 2018 Euro RX assault

Swede Philip Gehrman and Norwegian Anders Braten have challenged for the Euro RX TouringCar title in recent years and will graduate to Supercar for 2018 with Eklund Motorsport’s 600 horsepower Beetles, run by rallycross and rally legend Per Eklund, the 1999 European Rallycross Champion.

 

In addition to the five-round Euro RX series, Gehrman will contest at least two rounds of the RallyX Nordic series while Braten will work on financing a wild card entry in his home round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Hell.

 

Gehrman made his Supercar debut with Eklund Motorsport at Holjes in Sweden last season and qualified for his first Supercar semi-final at Riga in Latvia, just four years after beginning his rallycross career at the sport’s lowest level in Sweden. “I wanted to take the next step in my career for this year and it’s perfect to do that with Eklund Motorsport. Driving a Supercar is in no way similar to the TouringCar, it’s double the horsepower, double the amount of driving wheels and twice as much fun too,” said the 22- year old Swede, who won the opening round of the 2017 Euro RX TouringCar series and finished third overall. “The Supercar is a rocket. I’ve been interested in rallycross all my life and my biggest goal has been to race a Supercar at Holjes like my idols, people like Per and Kenneth Hansen. Per is a really honest man, he isn’t running his team for economic reasons, he does it because he loves it. I know he will do everything in his power to make it as good as possible.”

 

25-year old Braten finished second in the Euro RX TouringCar series last season and is excited to progress his career with Eklund Motorsport. He made his Supercar debut in 2015, in Italy, and took class wins in the Norwegian Rally Championship in 2016. “I have a very good feeling about the team, the cars and everything. I think it’s going to be a great year, to commit for a full season in Supercar has always been a dream for my team and myself, and now we’re finally there,” said the Norwegian. “Me and Philip are good friends, the last couple of years we have always been together on the races. He’s a good driver, I think we can learn from each other while working together and improve too. Our goal is to get some good results. To go for a win in the first year is maybe to aim a little high, but we will do our very best! To get into the finals will be a good goal for me. I’ve been training a lot in a four-wheel drive rally car do what I can to prepare for the season. Per is a legend and it’s really good for us to work with him and have access to his experience from motorsport. “

 

Per Eklund is equally excited to be working with two of the sport’s brightest talents. “We’ve been working really hard to prepare the Beetles for the new season and have brought in some new updates too. We had two great events last season working with Philip in Holjes and Riga and I’m excited to work with him and Anders this year,” said Eklund. “We have worked with a lot of drivers over the last few years and they have all enjoyed driving the Beetle. A lot of the drivers who have come up from TouringCar, like Anton Marklund, Robin Larsson and Derek Tohill have gone on to be very fast in Supercar and I think our guys can do the same this year. We will do everything we can to give them

 

that opportunity.

 

http://www.fiaworldrallycross.com/article/9840/gehrman-and-braten-move-to