Andersson focussed on 2011 after S-WRC campaign falters

Per Gunnar Andersson says he is working to secure a ’proper’ World Rally Championship campaign for 2011 after his bid for this year’s S-WRC title came off the rails in Japan.

Swede Andersson was lying second in S-WRC after Rallye Deutschland but lost 58 championship points, and any realistic chance of the title, last weekend when his entrant, RUFA Sport, failed to contest Rally Japan and was excluded from the series.

Andersson has contested four rallies under the RUFA banner since his wild-card win in the S2000 class on Rally Sweden in February. All of these points were annulled although the 25 he scored in Sweden still stand.

“After Sweden they [RUFA] came with a proposal and I said I would be able to do four rallies, and that anything extra would be a bonus,” Andersson told wrc.com. “I could do Wales and Japan to count the correct points in the championship or someone else could do Japan and I could do France. In the end they couldn’t find any driver for Japan and I didn’t have the budget.”

“If I had been in a better position in the championship - or was leading it - then yes we could have tried to something more but where I am now I wasn’t too bothered. It’s quite simple. I tried the best as possible in the beginning of the year and tried to achieve as much as I could; now I’m looking to the future.”

Andersson said he was hoping to use the time between now and the end of the season to put together a more stable WRC campaign for 2011. “Everything happened very quickly this year. It was a start and we’ll try to keep on [next year]. Which championship it will be I don’t know but I want it to be proper. WRC would be the first choice, but if not then I will try to do S-WRC.”

Despite being linked to drives at Ford and MINI Andersson insisted no deal had yet been done. “There are a lot of rumours around but so far nothing concrete,” he said. “All I can say about the future is that I’ll try to be in Wales. I can still do more rallies, just not in the S-WRC championship. If I’m going to do it I’d like to try a S2000 Ford - but this is only a possibility, nothing has been discussed, yet.”

RUFA, meanwhile, has been hit with several penalties for being absent in Japan including a suspended fine of 3000 Euros. Team manager Miroslav Houst has blamed Andersson for the team’s no-show. In an email to Rally Japan Stewards, Houst said the Swede’s ‘other commitments’ had made it impossible for them to continue in the S-WRC season.