Revealed: the secret to Mikkelsen’s success

Andreas Mikkelsen has achieved considerable success in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and starts next month’s season-closing Cyprus Rally on course to make it two IRC titles in a row.

But what makes him so good? Is it his ŠKODA UK Motorsport team, Fabia Super 2000 rally car or ace co-driver Ola Fløene? The answer could actually be linked to one of the 23-year-old’s superstitions.

“I have one superstition that nobody knows about,” he said. “If I have not-such a good first day in my rally car and it’s a two-day event, for the second day I never shower! I don’t know why, but it gives me this wildman feeling!

“If I have some time to catch up on the second day, I say to myself ‘okay, I need to be a wildman tomorrow’ and not showering is part of being wild.

“In the Ukraine last year, when we needed to try and catch up 20 seconds on Jan Kopecký , I went straight to bed with no shower and jumped straight into the same clothes as I wore the day before. Then I’m a wildman – and it’s flat out!”