NIKA Racing announced today its plan to run a Honda Civic TC1 car for Rickard Rydell in the 2015 FIA World Touring Car Championship.
Rydell, a former British and Swedish Touring Car Champion and five-time a race winner in WTCC, said: “I’m thrilled to be representing an all-Swedish team in the WTCC starting next year. The Honda Racing Team Sweden project is one of great promise, and I’ll approach it with full dedication. The WTCC is highly competitive and lots of fun, and the new TC1 rules will provide us with an interesting technical challenge. I’m really looking forward to getting testing underway later this year!”
Team Principal Nicklas Karlsson echoed: "This is an exciting step into the future for NIKA Racing. The prospect of fielding Rickard Rydell in a full-time, all-Swedish WTCC assault is obviously highly inspiring for everyone involved”
As announced earlier NIKA Racing is undertaking a part-time programme in the WTCC in 2014, running Japan’s Yukinori Taniguchi in a TC2 Honda Civic at selected rounds of the championship. The first appearance is planned for the third race meeting at the Hungaroring.
William De Braekeleer, Honda Motor Europe Motorsport Manager, commented: ”Ever since we joined the WTCC, it has always been in Honda’s policy to make our cars available to customer teams; we think it is giving the championship extra interest. Besides the private outfits of Zemgö Motorsport and Proteam Racing, we are delighted to welcome such a professional team as NIKA Racing to the Honda racing family!”