Kenneth Eriksson (born 13 May 1956 in Äppelbo, in the

kommun The municipalities of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges kommuner) are its lower-level local government entities. There are 290 municipalities which are responsible for a large proportion of local services, including schools, emergency services and physica ...

Vansbro Vansbro () is a locality in Dalarna and the seat of Vansbro Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden. It had 2,026 inhabitants in 2010, out of a total municipal population of 7,000. The town is situated by the end of the rivulet Vanån (Van River), ...

) is a now retired

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and ...

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sports ...

driver. He drove for several manufacturer teams, including the Subaru World Rally Team, Mitsubishi,

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate (" chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai A ...

and Škoda. He was the

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal ent ...

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived vehicles intended for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles we ...

Champion in the competition's only year, his best performance, overshadowed by the fatalities that occurred in that season. His finest showing in the top-tier World Rally Championship was third place overall for Mitsubishi in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake stri ...

. He controversially won the

Swedish Rally The Rally Sweden ( sv, Svenska rallyt), formerly the International Swedish Rally, and later the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in February in Värmland, Sweden and relocated to Umeå in 2022. First held in 1950, a ...

that year under pressure on the road from second-placed young teammate

Tommi Mäkinen Tommi Antero Mäkinen (; born 26 June 1964) is a Finnish racing executive and former driver. Mäkinen is one of the most successful WRC drivers of all time, ranking fifth in rally wins (24) and third in championships (4), tied with Juha Kankkune ...

, as well as winning directly ahead of the Champion-elect, Subaru World Rally Team's

Colin McRae Colin Steele McRae, (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007) was a Scottish rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver and the youngest person to win the World Rally Championship ...

in Australia. He then switched to Subaru for the 1996 season to drive the Impreza WRC alongside McRae. He excelled for them as a second points-scorer on the championship's loose-surface rounds. Conversely, Italian

Piero Liatti Piero Liatti (born 7 March 1962) is an Italian rally driver. His specialty was driving on tarmac rallies like Monte Carlo, Catalunya, Corsica and the San Remo Rally. At the end of season 2021, Liatti is the last Italian driver to win a race in t ...

often took on the same responsibility for

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

rounds. By the end of the 1997 season Eriksson and regular co-driver

Staffan Parmander Staffan is a Swedish form of Stephen, attested since 1330. It may refer to: *Staffan Anger (born 1943), Swedish politician of the Moderate Party * Staffan Appelros (born 1950), Swedish politician of the Moderate Party *Staffan Danielsson (born 19 ...

had collected six individual World Rally victories. These included a famous win aboard the Impreza in New Zealand in 1997, on which occasion he took advantage of the altercation with a sheep that befell long-time leader,

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

's Carlos Sainz. Between 1995 and 1997, he also notched up a hat-trick of

Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isl ...

rally titles. Ke hyundai

After finishing fourth on the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

Swedish Rally, Eriksson was released from his contract at

Subaru ( or ; ) is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the twenty-first largest automaker by production worldwide in 2017. Subaru cars are k ...

in order to pursue a

kit-car A kit car is an automobile available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor ve ...

and latterly a

World Rally Car A World Rally Car is a racing automobile built to the specific regulations set by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and designed for competition in the World Rally Championship (WRC). The cars were introduced in 1997 as a repl ...

chance with Hyundai. He was joined as factory driver of both the

Hyundai Coupe The Hyundai Tiburon ( ko, 현대 티뷰론) known in Europe as the Hyundai Coupé (현대 쿠페) is a sports coupe that was produced by the South Korean manufacturer Hyundai from 1996 to 2008. The name "Tiburon", a slight variation of "tiburón ...

and eventual

Hyundai Accent WRC The Hyundai Accent WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Hyundai Castrol World Rally Team by Motor Sport Developments to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Hyundai Accent road car, and was debuted at the 2000 Rally ...

by fellow eventual one-time Subaru driver,

Alister McRae Alister McRae (born 20 December 1970) is a British rally driver who competed in the World Rally Championship. He is the son of the five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and the younger brother of the late 1995 World Rally Champion, ...

. 6th on the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

Rally Great Britain Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calen ...

marked his solitary points finish for the team, on his last outing with them. He then enjoyed his final season with Škoda, in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, alongside female navigator

Tina Thörner Maria Christina Thörner (born in Säffle, Sweden on February 24, 1966) is a Swedish rally co-driver. Tina Thörner's career in motor sports started in 1990. Since then, she has won three FIA Ladies' World Rally Championship titles, a third and a ...

in the light of Parmander's retirement and with his teammate in the sister Octavia WRC being the young Finn Toni Gardemeister. Eriksson departed the 'works' world rally scene at the end of 2002. He has since been competing in the Race to the Sky hillclimb event held in Cardrona Valley, New Zealand. He finished second in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

WRC victories

WRC results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eriksson, Kenneth World Rally Championship drivers Swedish rally drivers Living people 1956 births Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers Hyundai Motorsport drivers Volkswagen Motorsport drivers Škoda Motorsport drivers