Tommy Rustad (born 3 September 1968) is a Norwegian

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

. He currently drives 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 ...

and occasionally in the

FIA World Rallycross Championship The FIA World Rallycross Championship (official abbreviation is World RX) is a rallycross series organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA in conjunction with series promoter Rallycross Promoter GmbH (founded by Red Bull G ...

. Tommy is the son of former well known Norwegian racer Ola Rustad.

Racing career

Early Rallycross Years

Rustad started his motor sport career in

karting Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motor ...

before racing in the Norwegian

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 ...

Championship, winning the so-called ''Supernasjonal'' title for six years in a row between 1987 and 1992. On 14 June 1992 he claimed overall victory in the Irish round of the

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 ...

Mondello Park Mondello Park is Ireland's only international motorsport venue and is located in Caragh, County Kildare off the R409 regional road, approximately from Dublin city centre. History The Mondello Park short circuit was designed on farmland ne ...

, racing one of the two 650bhp strong

Ford RS200 The Ford RS200 is a mid-engined, all-wheel-drive sports car that was produced by Ford Motorsport in Boreham, UK, from 1984 to 1986. The road-going RS200 was the basis for Ford's Group B rally car and was designed to comply with FIA homologati ...

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for Grand tourer, grand touring (GT) cars used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World S ...

cars of his compatriot and mentor Martin Schanche.

Single Seaters

In 1993 he switched to circuit racing, becoming the Swedish Formula Opel Champion in his first year. He drove in the Formula Opel Euroseries in 1994, finishing fifth in points, and finished sixth in the 1995

Eurocup Formula Renault Formula Renault Eurocup was a Formula Renault motor racing championship. Eurocup raced only on European circuits. It served as a support series to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series as part of the World Series by Renault from 2005 to 2015. Renault S ...

. In 1996 he was in the

Italian Formula Three Championship The Italian Formula Three Championship was the Formula Three racing competition in Italy. History Formula Three has traditionally been regarded as the first major stepping stone for F1 hopefuls - it is typically the first point in a driver's care ...

finishing ninth, and the Renault Spider Eurocup, finishing second in his first year, and was champion in 1997.

BTCC

In 1998 Rustad got a drive in the

British Touring Car Championship The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

. He drove a

Renault Laguna The Renault Laguna is a large family car that was manufactured and marketed by Renault for 21 years in three body styles: hatchback, coupé, and estate. The first generation Laguna was launched in 1994, the second generation was introduced in 20 ...

for the DC Cook Motorsport team in the Michelin Independents Cup, despite getting some backing from the Renault works team. With five class wins throughout the seasons, he was crowned independent champion. A sixteenth place overall finish saw him one place ahead of works

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

driver Tim Harvey.

STCC

Since his drive in the BTCC, he has spent most of his career driving in the

Swedish Touring Car Championship Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) was a touring car racing series based in Sweden, but also with rounds in Norway. They began operating in 1996, heavily influenced by the British Touring Car Championship and the success of BTCC racing on ...

. He was champion in both the STCC and the Norwegian Touring Car Championship in 2000, driving a works

Nissan Primera The is a Mid-size car, large family car which was produced by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1990 to 2007, for the markets in Japan and Europe. In Japan, it replaced the Nissan Stanza, Auster/Stanza, and was exclusive to ''Nissan Motor Comp ...

. After this he spent a couple of seasons racing in the

European Touring Car Championship The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World ...

, before returning to Sweden in 2003 in an

Opel Astra The Opel Astra is a compact car/ small family car ( C-segment) developed and produced by the German automaker Opel since 1991, currently at its sixth generation. It was first launched in September 1991 as a direct replacement to the Opel Kade ...

. After another rallycross year he returned to the STCC Opel Team in 2007. 2008 had him drive a works

Volvo C30 The Volvo C30 is a three-door, front-engine, front-wheel-drive Luxury vehicle#Premium compact segment, premium compact hatchback manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars from 2006 to 2013, in a single generation. Powered by Inline-four engine, inl ...

bio-ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the pseudoelement symbol f ...

for

Polestar Racing Cyan Racing is the official motorsport partner to Geely Group Motorsport, formerly the Volvo factory auto racing team, and runs the FIA WTCR programme for Lynk & Co, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The team’s current drivers are Thed Björk, Y ...

. He went on to win the championship for the second time in 2009 for Polestar.

WTCC

Rustad became the first Norwegian to drive in the

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sing ...

when his Polestar Racing team entered rounds 15 and 16 of the 2009 season at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hosts ...

. Rustad retired from both races.

Rallycross

In 2006 Rustad went back to rallycross for one year, forming a team with his compatriot

Sverre Isachsen Sverre Isachsen (born 11 November 1970) is a Norwegian rallycross driver. Career Isachsen started with motorsports in 1989 and became the Norwegian Rallycross Champion in 1999 and 2000. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, he became the European Rallycross ...

for to compete in the

FIA European Championships for Rallycross Drivers 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 ...

where he eventually finished third overall with a

Ford Focus The Ford Focus is a compact car (C-segment in Europe) manufactured by Ford Motor Company from 1998 until 2025. It was created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact vehicle worl ...

T16 4x4. After his retirement from tarmac racing, Rustad took the decision to return full-time to rallycross in 2013, driving a Volvo S40 Mk1 in all the rounds of the Norwegian Rallycross Championship for SuperNational cars with an engine capacity of over 2000cc. He was also seen in the two Scandinavian rounds (Norway and Sweden) of the 2013 European Rallycross Championship, driving a rented Volvo C30 SuperCar. In 2014 he participated in six of the twelve rounds of the inaugural FIA World Rallycross Championship, again racing a Volvo C30 SuperCar, but with little success. However, while finishing 27th of the final WorldRX standings only his sixth place overall in the EuroRX series was a much better result. For 2015 he was entrusted by his sponsor with a competitive VW Polo Mk5 SuperCar of the Volkswagen Team Marklund Motorsport, which he used successfully to claim his first European Rallycross title. Of the five rounds counting towards the EuroRX series Rustad won three, beating his strongest competitor Jérôme Grosset-Janin from France to second place.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded all races) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) (* signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap – 1 point awarded)

Complete European Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † — Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † – Not eligible for points, as a guest driver.

Complete FIA World Rallycross Championship results

( key)

Supercar

Complete FIA European Rallycross Championship results

( key)

Division 2*

^* ''Division 2 was rebranded as Division 1 in 1997.

Division 1

Supercar

External links

BTCC Pages Profile.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rustad, Tommy 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Oslo Norwegian racing drivers British Touring Car Championship drivers Swedish Touring Car Championship drivers World Touring Car Championship drivers EFDA Nations Cup drivers European Touring Car Championship drivers FIA European Rallycross Championship drivers World Rallycross Championship drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Cyan Racing drivers