Rising star Enlund ready to ‘send it’ full-throttle into full season in Euro RX1

A consistent front-runner in recent years in his native Scandinavia and on the US scene in Nitrocross, Enlund made his debut in Euro RX1 last year – and immediately turned heads. Across three outings – at Lousada in Portugal, Höljes in Sweden and Finland’s KymiRing, two of which he was discovering for the first time – the Västerås-born ace achieved an impressive eight top five qualifying performances out of 12, five of them inside the top two. 

Despite only contesting 60 per cent of the campaign, his stellar showing secured Enlund fifth in the end-of-season standings – best amongst those not to have participated in every round. In 2026, he is going all-in...

“Last year, we got a little taste of Euro RX1, and I feel it’s the right place for me to develop and grow as a driver,” he explained. “This year, we will do the full championship and then we have a few more years in the plan after that – it’s not a single-year project. 

“It will be very, very tough. Andreas Bakkerud is extremely quick and has a very good car underneath him – he wants to be back on top and he’s really on it. Patrick O’Donovan has also won the title in the past and Damian Litwinowicz did a great job last year, and I believe we’ll see some other big names joining as well. I think it’s quite open, to be honest, and on our side, while it will be a bit of a learning year, we obviously aren’t coming in not trying to win...

“I think it will be very exciting for the fans to get a proper championship with a lot of Supercars and a strong field of drivers. There will be plenty of pops and bangs, and that’s what people love. Hopefully, we will see the fans come together again and come to the tracks to support this awesome sport that we all love – that would be amazing!”

Enlund is already familiar with three of the venues on the calendar, but the other three – Nyirád in Hungary, Mondello Park in Ireland and Lohéac in France – will be uncharted territory for the young Swede, who recently turned 25. As he demonstrated last season, that is unlikely to hold him back...

“Rīga is a special place, Höljes is my home circuit and Lousada is very cool,” he reflected. “You go fast downhill and you have the very, very fast banked gravel corner where you just throw the car in. As for the others, I always enjoy getting to know new tracks, because there’s always more you can learn. 

“My dad has driven at Lohéac and has told me quite a lot about it. Everybody talks about how incredible the crowd is there, so it will be fun to actually see it for real.” 

The rising star’s spectacular, tail-happy driving style has earned him a legion of loyal followers – as well as the paddock sobriquet, ‘Sendlund’ – and while acknowledging that he might need to rein it in a little if he wishes to fight for podium finishes on a regular basis at the sport’s highest level, he insists he will not be curbing his enthusiasm altogether.

“The first year I drove a Supercar (in 2024), I was so, so ‘sendy’ and that’s where I picked up the nickname, but last year I began to maybe be a bit calmer and more precise in my driving, which I’m trying to refine even more,” Enlund revealed. “It’s slightly sad for the fans obviously because ‘sending’ is a very good way to introduce them to rallycross as it’s the most exciting thing to watch, but I promise we’ll still do some ‘sending’ as well. I’ll be putting on a show, for sure!”