Bakkerud: We’re going bigger than ever before!

Bakkerud established Bergen Motorsport Evolution at the end of 2024, going on to race a self-built, 500bhp Ford Puma – an ‘absolute beast’ that he jokes ‘not even Liam Doran would have balls enough to drive’ – in the Norwegian Rallycross Championship’s top-tier, as the first stage of what he calls a ‘long-term plan to come back to the World Rallycross Championship inside the next three or four years’.

After finishing third in the standings in the domestic series, that plan accelerated last November, when the seven-time World RX event-winner announced his intention to contest a full campaign in Euro RX1 in 2026, for the first time since clinching his third European Championship crown in 2021 behind the wheel of an ESmotorsport-run Škoda Fabia.

Over the intervening period, Bakkerud has endured some tough times, struggling both personally and professionally during three seasons of Nitrocross competition, when he acknowledges he was trapped in negative cycles and mentally ‘in a bad place’. Having successfully shaken off those demons, he rejoins the European Championship in a very different mindset.

“It’s great to be back!” enthused the 34-year-old Bergen native, in an interview with the new Talking Loose podcast series, hosted by Hal Ridge. “I think it’s the right moment, the right time. [The sport has] been a little bit shaky over the last few years, but I have a feeling we’re now heading in the right direction. I think the FIA is doing a very good job [as series promoter] and last year was great, with good fights.

“I’m such a fan of rallycross in general, and I think the sport needs me – a character like myself, and the Bakkerud BLUE army. I’m taking on a new chapter in my career. It’s going to be hectic, it’s going to be carnage and it’s going to be chaotic, but it’s going to be a journey that I can look back at in a few years and hopefully feel proud. We’re going to go bigger than ever before!” 

When Bakkerud returns to the fray, he will do so equipped with an M-Sport built Ford Fiesta and bolstered by the support of Jussi Pinomäki’s SET Promotion outfit, with which he sped to back-to-back Super1600 (now Euro RX3) titles in 2011 and 2012 – results that catapulted him firmly into the international spotlight. He is confident it will once again prove to be a potent combination. 

“Of all the guys I’ve worked with, Jussi would always be my number one choice to run my team,” he mused. “He’s a strong leader – calm, collected with loads of knowledge of rallycross and overall a great guy – and I have also turned into a driver with a lot of experience.

“The European Championship this year is going to be awesome! I know a lot of drivers are interested and the calendar looks spectacular – it suits kind of everyone, with short start lines everywhere and maybe not so much engine tracks. I think it’s going to be a very close championship with a lot of action.

“Also, the regulations are coming back a little bit towards what we had before, which I think is good. I did a Hoosier test last year and they have developed a new tyre, which is way better and way closer to what we used in the past, and the cars we have now are the best on planet Earth – I’ve driven a lot, right, so I can say that as a fact. When we start the season in Rīga, there’s going to be a lot of excitement!”

Following the curtain-raising contest in Latvia on 9-10 May, competitors will do battle at Nyirád in Hungary (30-31 May), Höljes in Sweden (4-5 July), Mondello Park in Ireland (18-19 July), Lohéac in France (29-30 August) and finally Lousada in Portugal, where champions will be crowned on 12-13 September.