FIA Junior ERC champion Mille Johansson from Sweden ended the season in the same way he started it—standing on the top step of the podium alongside co-driver Johan Grönvall.
Mille and Johan secured the FIA Junior European Rally Championship title during the penultimate round in Wales earlier this fall. As a reward for their ERC title, they earned a spot in next year’s FIA Junior World Rally Championship. In the Junior WRC, they will be driving four-wheel-drive Rally3 cars. To gain experience with this car on asphalt, they competed in the season-ending Rally Silesia in Poland in a Rally3 vehicle.
In their first rally with a four-wheel-drive car on asphalt, Mille and Johan impressed with a dominant performance, winning every stage of the rally and taking the ERC3 class victory by nearly four minutes over the runner-up. They also finished 14th overall in the competition.
“It’s been quite tricky for me coming from a two-wheel drive to a four-wheel drive and what tyres you should use, and it’s not been easy with this weather. We’ve made some decent decisions and the pace has been good but still I’m not quite happy with the pace we have shown, I have more to give,” says Mille.
“Thanks to Hankook and IK Sport we was able to be here and do this rally, which was really fun with a lot of learning as well.”
Throughout the ERC season, Mille and Johan competed for IKsport from Slovenia in a front-wheel-drive Opel Corsa Rally4. In five starts in the Junior ERC, they claimed two victories and three additional podium finishes, including a win in their home event, Royal Rally of Scandinavia in Sweden.
In addition to the FIA European Rally Championship, Mille and Johan made a guest appearance in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship at Rally Sweden, which also ended in victory. Over the summer, they also won the prestigious Slottssprinten on home soil in Katrineholm. Now, they close the season with another victory, this time in ERC3 at Rally Silesia.
Mille and Johan is now working hard to prepare for the Junior WRC next season.