On 29 January, Mattias Ekström once more proved his international calibre and adaptability. On an icy track in his native Sweden, the rally and circuit professional driver won the “Race of Champions,” a traditional battle between the world’s finest motorsport drivers. The two-time DTM champ and rallycross world champion had particularly poignant sentiments for his final opponent, Mick Schumacher, whom Ekstrom defeated despite a brief flare of smoke from his race car.
Warm temperatures in the vicinity of Pite Havsbad’s “Frozen Ocean”: Sunday’s individual classification of the best drivers was won by the 44-year-old Audi factory driver against all of his competitors. In the quarterfinals, he defeated his countryman Johan Kristoffersson, a previous World Rallycross Champion like himself. In the semifinals, Ekstrom faced perennial World Rally Championship runner-up Thierry Neuville. The Belgian was likewise defeated by the Swede. After Mattias Ekstrom had defeated Michael Schumacher in London in 2007 and Beijing in 2009, claiming two of his first three ROC titles, he faced Michael’s son Mick in the championship match.
In the first competition, the Swede was 10.6 seconds faster than the German in a Polaris race vehicle. In the second race, in the 320-hp Supercar Lites model, Ekstrom was unintentionally “on fire”: after half a lap, smoke emanated from the fuse box, but the professional racer was unfazed. His co-driver wanted to stop, but he wasn’t that interested in doing so, he stated amusedly at the finish after disconnecting the fuse at full speed. He did not stop moving forward along the track on the ice rink and maintained a lead of 1.3 seconds over Schumacher.
The ecstatic Mattias Ekstrom said the competition with Mick was all the more special because he has already won twice against Michael Schumacher. Mattias plans to continue competing for as long as he possibly can.
The fourth win of the Swede, who defeated World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb at the ROC hosted by Fredrik Johnsson in Paris for the first time in 2006, was not the only source of excitement for the numerous Swedish motorsport enthusiasts. On Saturday and Sunday, Mattias Ekström wowed the audience with demonstration laps of the iconic, more than 500 hp Group B Audi Sport Quattro S1 car. His partner, 14-time Dakar record holder Stéphane Peterhansel, also produced goosebumps: He chased over the ice circuit of Pite Havsbad in the groundbreaking Audi RS Q e-tron rally prototype, which led the Dakar Rally for the first time in recent weeks.
