For the 2023 season, Heikkilä turned his attention to the European Rally Championship (ERC) and also competed in selected WRC events. This year, the same approach has continued, with the Finnish driver participating in both series. However, there hasn’t been enough budget to commit to a full season in either, but work continues towards next season.
Heikkilä has reached the podium this year in both the WRC and ERC, and has also secured victories in Italy’s national gravel series.
“The plans for the rest of the season are a bit uncertain. We have the Italian series in October and one small race in between in Spain. Even that’s a bit uncertain still. I don’t know if we’ll be able to compete in these big races anymore. We are pretty close to the limit with the budget,” Heikkilä admitted to RallyJournal.com during Rally Latvia.
In the ERC, most of the races are on tarmac. Heikkilä’s favourite surface is gravel, so the rest of the season will likely be spent mainly building next year’s budget. Of course, he will be seen in this week’s Rally Finland, where the goal is to achieve at least a performance equivalent to the second place in the WRC2 class he secured in Latvia.
“There are no sensible races left for us in the ERC. I’m not going to mess around on tarmac in the Czech Republic or Poland. There are only quite expensive races left in the WRC. In that sense, it might be more sensible to focus on next year,” Heikkilä said.
Next year, his biggest dream is to compete in a full seven-round WRC2 season.
“If the ERC is asphalt-heavy again, then it needs careful consideration. Of course, I should learn asphalt, but that learning is quite costly. When you’re barely in the top ten, it doesn’t really bring anything, it’s just pure tuition,” Heikkilä summarised.
“Of course, I would always like to compete in WRC rallies, but the ERC is somewhat cheaper. We’ll see if I have to do selected races again next year. It would be nice to compete in a full series, and the WRC side would be amazing. However, we need to see how things develop from here.”
Heikkilä already has podium results from Latvia and the ERC round in Sweden. He should show speed again on the gravel roads of Central Finland.
“Good results would help a lot with fundraising,” Heikkilä reminded.
