July 11th 2023, Barcelona – The Latvian driver Roberts Vitols will return to the RX2e Championship for one race this season. He will be racing in Lydden Hill, UK, on July 22nd-23rd. Although he only has one race of experience with the ZEROID X1, he hopes to extract all the performance of the car: “We like the RX2e Championship because everyone has the same car. Of course, these cars still provide a lot of room to play with settings and there is still extra performance to be found that we see from championship regulars who have spent significant time in these cars racing or testing them almost every weekend for the past 2/3 years and certainly have found these extra advantages. I will not have that much time next weekend to get to know the car to the smallest detail and extract all the performance it can provide but this is the gap we are looking forward to close and surpass with the driving skills on track, same as we did last year in Riga and same as I have done successfully so far in my career”.
The young driver debuted in RX2e Riga’s race last season, with an astonishing performance. He was battling for the victory against more experienced drivers, until a technical problem forced him to retire. That is, in fact, one of the reasons why the Latvian driver wanted to come back to RX2e: “I made my RX2e debut last year in Riga -my hometown- in the World RX of Latvia. We were setting the fastest lap times and showing great pace all weekend long. I was leading the final and managed to secure the necessary time gap from second place to do the joker lap and win the race but unfortunately one lap before the end, the car went into safety mode and that’s where we lost a sensational result on RX2e debut in front of my home crowd and this feeling of unfinished job has been with me since Riga”.
After the good performance last year in Riga, Vitols feels confident ahead of his next race in the RX2e Championship: “We proved that we are one of the leading young drivers in rallycross and that I can jump in any car and deliver results instantly – this is our plan also for Lydden Hill. I know the track, I have raced there and taken multiple wins within the British Rallycross Championship Supercar, S1600 and Junior categories and have full confidence in myself and the team around me. I have been working hard on my personal performance as an athlete and have given everything from my side to prepare and be ready for whatever is coming next in my career”.
Vitols started his racing career when he was only 5 years old. Winning already in his second race ever in Mini Buggy class, Vitols became the Latvian MiniBuggy Champion with 6 years. Roberts continued to progress through the years winning races and championship titles across Baltic and Scandinavian regions, also becoming the youngest ever North European Rallycross Champion at only 14 years old.
Roberts Vitols now is one of the fastest and most promising young rallycross and racing drivers in Europe with his ultimate goal to become World Champion. In 2020 he became ‘5 Nations British Rallycross S1600’ Champion, a triumph that would open the door to the supercars category of the British Rallycross Championship, in which he would debut in 2021. By racing against well-known British rallycross drivers, he finished that season by being the Driver with most wins and podiums – 3/7 race wins & 6/7 podiums.
WRX is going back to the historic track of Lydden Hill and the Latvian driver is sure that it will be an exciting weekend for all the fans: “I have spent last 3 years of my racing career in UK, British Rallycross Championship and I am looking forward to see all the loyal fans and familiar faces there again and of course, World Rallycross is coming back to Lydden Hill – the home of rallycross – after 6 years break so it is going to be an exciting weekend for both drivers and motorsport fans in UK and worldwide”.
