VW adds second World Rallycross team

Volkswagen has increased its World Rallycross presence, with VW Sweden helping Kristoffersson Motorsport step up to a full-time program for 2015.

At a press conference in Stockholm on Monday morning, VW Sweden presented Kristoffersson alongside existing works VW squad Marklund Motorsport, also confirming that 2014 World RX runner-up Toomas Heikkinen will stay at Marklund alongside double Junior World Rally champion PG Andersson.

In the Kristoffersson Motorsport team, 2014 driver Johan Kristofferson will be joined by Norwegian driver Tord Linnerud, who has raced a Renault Clio in international rallycross in recent years.

Kristoffersson is best known for winning the Superstars, Scandinavian Touring Car and Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia titles in a single season in 2012. He made a handful of World RX appearances last year alongside a Swedish rallycross campaign.

"This is the second year of a three-year plan to get to the top for us," said Kristoffersson, whose team-owning father Tommy was a European Rallycross frontrunner in the 1990s. "I'm really excited to be doing the full season and I'm looking forward to doing as much testing as we can before Portugal."

VW motorsport chief Jost Capito said both Marklund and Kristoffersson would carry out their RX development independently.

"With Marklund Motorsport and Kristoffersson Motorsport, Volkswagen is represented by two extremely professional privateer teams who develop and race their Polo RX Supercars independently," he said. "The lineup and the calendar promise an exciting World RX season and we are confident that the Volkswagen drivers will be up there battling for races and the championship."

Both VW teams will field drivers in the parallel European Rallycross Championship. Former British Touring Car Championship driver Tommy Rustad will drive for the Marklund team, while WRC3 driver Ole Christian Veiby will drive the Kristoffersson Polo.

Originally on Autosport.com