Gehrman eager to ‘fight at the top’

Consistency has been the name of the game so far for Philip Gehrman, the young Swede has piloted his VW Polo GTI to two out of three finals and narrowly missed out on a podium last time out in Denmark. After encouraging results in the first three rounds of the season, Gehrman is hungry for more and aims to be battling for podiums very soon.

Both the VW Polo and his independent team banner – Gehrman Motorsport – are new to Philip for the 2019 season, having raced with the Per Eklund team and a VW Beetle in 2018. That leaves the Swede with an adjustment period as he learns more about the car and finds the optimum setup.

“The season so far is going to plan, we expected to be quite fast but as with every new car it has taken time to find all the adjustments and tweaks,” Gehrman commented. “I already have a lot of trust in the car and we are getting closer every race so when we get the right setup, we will be able to fight at the top with Oliver and Robin. RallyX Nordic is great training to be racing against guys in World and Euro RX.

“Before Latvia, I will be racing in my first ever World RX race at Höljes which is a big dream for me, it’s one that I have always wanted to race at because its such a big Rallycross event. I think we can learn a lot and make huge progress with the car every time we race, so if we are doing the World RX at Höljes and the test in Riga, I think we can continue to find a lot of extra speed for in the build-up to round four of the Nordic series.

“I have raced two or three times before in Riga, in the Touringcars I was on the podium and in the Supercars with Eklund I think I was fourth in the semi-final. It’s a track I enjoy very much, so I think we should be fast there.”

Philip currently sits sixth in the championship heading to Latvia, an event which could level the playing field due to varying degrees of experience throughout the grid.