Tom Kristensson to return to WA in search of maiden ARC victory

Swedish rally star Tom Kristensson will make his return to the EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) this year after entering May’s ARC Plant Hire Forest Rally.

The 2020 WRC Junior Champion made his ARC debut last year in Western Australia and will once again get behind the wheel of the Maximum Motorsport-prepared Skoda Fabia R5.

With regular co-driver Andreas Johansson by his side again, the pair will be looking to improve on their impressive maiden performance last year, where the Swedish duo finished on the outright podium.

Kristensson had a dream start to the event, winning the first stage of the popular event and finishing second in the next before ending the day comfortably in the top five – despite having a puncture during the morning loop of Saturday stages.

The Swede began Heat 2 as he did the first, with a victory on the opening stage, before producing top-three times in all but one of the day’s remaining stages.

His highly consistent performance earned him third for the event as a whole – giving him a memorable debut in his first rally outside of Europe and quickly becoming a fan favourite thanks to his exciting driving style and friendly personality.

A highly acclaimed rally driver across Europe, Kristensson has competed at the top level in the continent for a number of years, with his biggest highlight securing the Junior World Rally Championship in 2020.

The 2022 Polish Rally Champion has long been a contender in his native Sweden and returns to Australia off the back of a successful 2025 campaign, where he enjoyed a perfect record of event wins on home soil.

Kristensson and Johansson return to the EROAD Australian Rally Championship for the 2026 ARC Plant Hire Forest Rally in and around the forests of Nannup on 22-24 May.

QUOTES

Tom Kristensson
Maximum Motorsport Skoda Fabia R5

“I’m really proud and happy to have the opportunity again from Dean and Maximum Motorsport, and I really appreciate the support they are giving me and the opportunity to come back to Australia,” Kristensson said.

“I’m now working flat out to sort out the final details to confirm it at the end, so it will happen, but there are still some things to sort out.

“It’s great to be back in the same car for the same rally again, as we have some knowledge of the stages, which hopefully allows us to do better than we did last year. I am also hopeful we can avoid having the same moment we did on the Saturday morning and we can have a nice, clean rally.

“It looks like people there are supporting us very much and appreciate our driving style. So hopefully we can do very well, and I’m really happy to come back again.”