14-time FIA European Rallycross Champion Kenneth Hansen will drive the legendary Will Gollop-built Peugeot 306 at Lydden Legend Festival next month [July 19-21].
Today Hansen is Team Principal of the title-winning FIA World Rallycross Championship squad Hansen World RX team, but as a driver the Swede is one of the most decorated in the discipline’s rich history.
Hansen claimed 14 Euro RX titles in an incredible career, that included 249 Euro RX starts, 73 Euro RX wins, 170 Euro RX podiums, 10 Swedish titles and even 3 British Rallycross Grand Prix victories.
At the invitation of Rallycross Legend Show founder Philippe Tollemer last year, Hansen drove a Peugeot 205 T16 at the Loheac Legend Festival, and will now return to Lydden Hill at the invitation of 2007 British Rallycross Champion Ollie O’Donovan to drive the Gollop 306, with which O’Donovan claimed his British RX crown and was brought back into the Team RX Racing stable in 2021.
63-year old Hansen has already sampled the car at the Autosport International Show in the last two years, but hasn’t driven at Lydden Hill since he finished second in the third round of the 2010 Euro RX season. The Swede has a strong affiliation with the British circuit, having claimed his final top-flight rallycross win at the Kent venue in 2009. He will perform in the 90s Supercar category of the new Lydden Legend Festival.
Current Team RX Racing driver Patrick O’Donovan currently races a Hansen Motorsport-built Peugeot 208 in the FIA European Rallycross Championship, with Kenneth Hansen joining both Ollie and Patrick O’Donovan in the Team RX Racing line-up for the Lydden Legend Festival – the O’Donovan pair racing in the 5 Nations BRX double-header element of the event, while Ollie O’Donovan will also drive his genuine works-built Ford Escort Group A Cosworth in the Rally 4WD division.
The legendary Peugeot 306 was built for the 1994 Euro RX season and became one of the most successful cars in British Rallycross history, achieving 27 wins and four titles.
Kenneth Hansen:
“I love to be in a race car and I always had pleasure in doing that. I have a lot of good memories from Lydden and also from a right-hand-drive car – especially at beginning of my two-wheel-drive career in the European Championship [driving a Ford Sierra Cosworth]. When I was driving at the Autosport Show, Steve Hill [74-year-old 5 Nations BRX Supercar driver] told me that I need to get back in a race car because it keeps you young. I am quite sure that he is very right in that. It’s good to be young again, of course it’s not the same competition as it was, but I plan to enjoy it a lot. When I was in Loheac I was really enjoying to drive the 205, hopefully I can enjoy as much to be in the 306 this time. It will be an honour for me to drive Will Gollop’s car, especially at Lydden and I have to thank Ollie for trusting me with a car I know is very special to him. I don’t think I will have any practice before so we will just jump into and see how it goes.”
Hansen joins a growing list of star drivers and cars attending the Lydden Legend Festival, keep up with those announced so far on our social media channels: @lyddenlegend
