The Finnish driver will represent The Racing Factory colors in the ERC 2023 races

São Paio de Oleiros, Jan-23 – The Racing Factory is proud to announce it has reached an agreement with reigning Finnish champion Mikko Heikkila to race in the European Rally Championship (ERC) in 2023. This is a 2-year partnership with the clear objective of developing a work that will allow him to win the championship and, later on, aim for higher flights.

2022 was a fantastic year for TRF, with the conquest of 3 titles (CPR, CPR2RM and CRCM) which was, until now, something never achieved by any Portuguese team. But 2022 is already past and Aloísio Monteiro, CEO of The Racing Factory, shares the latest news:

– “2023 will be a demanding year not only for the desire we have to revalidate the title with Armindo Araújo but also for our incursion into the ERC. We have already closed a project with the reigning Finnish champion Mikko Heikkila who will do the entire 2023 ERC season with The Racing Factory. This is a 2-year project that foresees a continuous development of the driver and the team and the main goal is to win the European championship”.

Driver Mikko Heikkila’s satisfaction is also unmistakable:

– “It is fantastic to be able to announce the next step in my career. I’ve been asked several times what my plans are for 2023 and I can finally announce that I will be with The Racing Factory in the ERC and with Samu Valeeri by my side.

Mikko didn’t hide his surprise with the facilities and palmarés of the young team from São Paio de Oleiros:

– ” I’ve been to TRF’s facilities and everything there has a professional look and feel! I am very motivated and eager to start working with them. We will start the season with a Skoda Fabia EVO but it is almost certain that we will get the new RS Rally2 in the middle of the season. When it comes to tires, we will be very well supported with Michelin all season.”

Notwithstanding his enormous experience in dirt races, Mikko is realistic when it comes to asphalt:

– ” We will give our best, as always, and bet everything on the dirt races to get the victories we want. On asphalt, I recognize that we need to run more kilometers but fortunately the ERC has a good amount of asphalt races and we will progressively increase the pace until we feel comfortable.”

With this agreement The Racing Factory secures one of two cars in the ERC. We will soon release more news about the 2023 season!