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Furuseth to take on “the best” in ERC Junior Under 27

Sindre Furuseth will take on "the best" young drivers in Europe when he completes the FIA ERC Junior Under 27 Championship season, starting with this week's Rally di Roma Capitale.

The 24-year-old from Norway becomes driver 14 to join the Pirelli supported line-up in an Opel ADAM R2, but he's determined that he won't be making up the numbers alongside co-driver Jim Hjerpe.

Furuseth, who lists Norwegian former world champion Petter Solberg as his inspiration, said: "We are in the championship to get noticed. Therefore, our goal is to win. I know it will be difficult when we are only doing four rallies, but our rally coach agrees that we are now ready to compete against other juniors of the same age and in the same situation as us. When I say ready, I mean ready to fight for wins. The best juniors in Europe are in this and to get noticed as a fast driver you need to beat other fast drivers. Also, we can run our own car in ERC Junior U27 with our own team, which I very much believe in."

As well as experience of competing in his native Norway, Furuseth has rallied in Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Rally di Roma Capitale will provide his first taste of Italian stages, however. "I really look forward to measuring myself against the best on Rally di Roma Capitale and getting stuck into what looks like a very challenging rally," he said.

"My long-term goal is to be a world champion, but before that it is to be a factory driver. To get there it is difficult to have a detailed plan because I work to find the budget by myself. Because of the limited budget we don't have a lot of options and we need to take every door that opens on the way and see where it leads us. ERC Junior is the right place to be now."

Starting out in karting, Furuseth began rallying at youth level in Norway. Since 2009, he's been building his experience of stage events with the aim of competing further afield and learning to drive on Tarmac. "I have done motorsport all my life," he said. "It started with karting with a little help from my dad and mum, and they could also help a bit during the first couple of years in rally when we drove in the youth class in Norway. From there we have built a budget step by step and gained experience. In the last couple of years, we have done more international rallies and more Tarmac events. After lots of hard work, we have now found the budget to join the ERC Junior Under 27 Championship."

ERC Junior has been helping young drivers in R2 cars on Pirelli tyres to learn, shine and climb since 2014 with graduates including Fabio Andolfi, Emil Bergkvist, Jan Černý, Marijan Griebel, Nikolay Gryazin, Jari Huttunen, Chris Ingram, Stéphane Lefebvre, Łukasz Pieniazek and Julius Tannert.

Zdroj: fiaerc.com