Mattias Ekström, founder of the former FIA World Rally Championship team EKS, is now switching focus over to rally this season as he partners with the Swedish national rally cup ‘Svenska RallyCupen’ to introduce a brand-new project called EKS Junior Cup.

The new class which will be run at the same events as the ‘Svenska RallyCupen‘ will have 10 competitors and teams that will be given an opportunity to write their own notes, as other competitors in the series are given ready-made ones.

This new concept will be for young rising stars to showcase what they are capable of when it comes to note knowledge. The maximum age for the drivers to participate is 23 and the cars they are allowed to compete with have to be from Group E, F, N and VOC regulations as well as two-wheel-drive.

Ekström is firing-up this new project with ‘Svenska RallyCupen’, he has also decided to pull-out from the World RX. Now his main focus is to run the EKS team in different Swedish Rally Championship rounds with brand-new Škoda Fabia R5 and Ford Fiesta R2 cars.

Credit: EKS

“I think notes and note writing are very important for those who are going to make an international career, so I have tried to get this project started,” Ekström said.

“This is going to be a bit like inviting back to Swedish car sports & rally, that in a simple way we give some basis to the junior team to prepare for further steps in their careers,”

“We received a question and a thought from EKS and Mattias this fall if it would be feasible at our cup competitions in the Swedish Rally Cup,” Crister Nystrand, who is part of the cup organization, said.

“We raised the issue at our organizers’ meeting and reasoned together and everyone was positive that it was feasible, which we now plan together with our organizers.”