Thomas Rådström (born 22 January 1966), nicknamed "''Rådis''", is a

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sport ...

and

rallycross Rallycross is a form of sprint style motorsport held on a mixed-surface circuit (racing), racing circuit using modified production touring automobile, cars or prototype racing cars. It began in the 1960s as a cross between rallying and autocross ...

driver from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Career

Rådström was one of the leading drivers of the National Swedish Rallycross Championship series during the second half of the 1980s. He then started rallying and competed in the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

for nine consecutive years during 1994–2002, and returned in 2006. He won the Swedish Rally Championship in 1996, and his most significant international successes have been in his home event, the

Swedish Rally The Rally Sweden (), formerly the KAK-Rally, the International Swedish Rally, and later the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in February in Värmland, Sweden and relocated to Umeå in 2022. First held in 1950, as a ...

, which he won in 1994 when the event was not part of the WRC schedule. This was the first of four podiums and seven top ten finishes in nine attempts at this event. Rådström was a

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

works driver from 1991–98, before switching to

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

for a season, competing as the team's star signing

Colin McRae Colin Steele McRae, (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007), was a British rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver to win the World Rally Championship Drivers' title. At 27, ...

's gravel and snow event wingman in the debut season of the

Ford Focus WRC The Ford Focus RS WRC is a car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport and based on the Ford Focus Climate 2-litre production hatchback, developed to compete in the World Rally Championship. The RS stands for ''Rallye S ...

. He returned to Toyota in 2000, and from 2001–02 was employed by the then Championship newcomers,

Citroën Citroën ()The double-dot diacritic over the 'e' is a diaeresis () indicating the two vowels are sounded separately, and not as a diphthong. is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded on 4 June 19 ...

, with the exception of one outing in the

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived touring cars for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles wer ...

Lancer Evolution The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, popularly referred to as the "Evo", is a sports sedan and rally car based on the Lancer that was manufactured by Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors from 1992 until 2016. There have been ten official version ...

for

Mitsubishi Ralliart Ralliart is the high-performance division of Mitsubishi Motors. It was responsible for development and preparation of the company's Rallying, rally development of high-performance models and parts available to the public. Ralliart scaled down it ...

at the 2001 Swedish Rally, where he finished second. He scored another podium, now aboard the Xsara WRC, in 2002: a third place on the gruelling

Safari Rally The Safari Rally is an automobile rally held in Kenya. It was first held in 1953 as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The event was part of the World Rally Championship from 1973 until 2002, before returning in 2021. It is h ...

, on his team's first visit to the event. Between 2003 and 2007, Rådström drove a 500+bhp strong

Hyundai Accent The Hyundai Accent (), or Hyundai Verna (현대 베르나) is a subcompact car produced by Hyundai. In Australia, the first generation models carried over the Hyundai Excel name used by the Accent's predecessor. The Accent was replaced in 2000 ...

T16 4x4 in both, the Swedish Rallycross Championship (4th overall in 2006 as well as in 2007) and in the FIA

European Rallycross Championship The European Rallycross Championship (former abbreviation ERC, now Euro RX or ERX) is a rallycross competition held in Europe, organised under the auspices of the FIA. History The predecessor championship began in 1973 as the Embassy/ERA Europ ...

. His plans to continue driving Rallycross with a

Hyundai i30 The Hyundai i30 is a small family car manufactured by the South Korean manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company since 2006. The i30 shares its platform with the Kia Ceed, available as a three-door hatchback (2012–2017), five-door hatchback, five-d ...

T16 4x4 were paused due to economical reasons.

Complete WRC results

External links

Official websiteDriver profile
Rallybase.nl website {{DEFAULTSORT:Radstrom, Thomas 1966 births World Rally Championship drivers Swedish rally drivers Living people Citroën Racing drivers Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers Sportspeople from Umeå