Per Eklund

Swedish rally driver (born 1946)

Per Torsten Eklund (born 21 June 1946) is a Swedish Rally and Rallycross driver. His nickname is "Pekka". In rallying he never made it to the very top but he has been very successful in his later rallycross career.

After his education as a driving instructor, together with later teammate Stig Blomqvist at the Kvinnersta Folkhögskola outside of Örebro, Eklund was a Saab factory driver from 1970 till 1979. In 1982, however, the year after Saab discontinued its official rallying involvement, he achieved the brand's last top position in a World Championship event, finishing fourth in the Swedish Rally driving a privately entered, Clarion sponsored Saab 99 Turbo. He was always proud of that result, since the competition consisted mostly of four wheel drive cars, and the event was run in snow. This signified the end of the rally era at Saab, even though Eklund went on to drive an officially entered Saab 900 Turbo in the British round of the 1997 World Rally Championship. He was Swedish Champion in 1978, beating his team mate Stig Blomqvist. In 1982 Eklund finished 5th overall of the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers.

In 1971 Eklund started driving Rallycross at Valkenswaard in The Netherlands, and some months later he won the first ever Swedish Rallycross event at Hedemora, on 17 October 1971. He first drove a Saab 96 V4, in the early years of the Embassy/ERA European Rallycross Championship as teammate to his compatriot Stig Blomqvist. He was always prominent, became 7th overall respectively 4th overall in the first and second European Championship series of 1973 and 1974, but his greatest successes have been in later times. From the early 1990s till 2009, his last full season, he was one of the fastest competitors of the FIA European Championship for Rallycross Drivers. In 1999 Eklund claimed his first and only European title for Drivers of the Division 1, nowadays known as the SuperCars category.

Eklund joined Toyota Team Europe in 1980, and gave the 2nd generation Celica's one of its best WRC result by finished second in the 1981 Rallye Côte d'Ivoire. He drove the Group B Celica Twincam Turbo TA64 in selected 1983 and 1984 World Rally Championship events. Eklund also rallied Group A Corolla AE86 and Celica Supra 2800 GT in the British Rally Championship.

Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (USA): In 2000 Per Eklund achieved a record time of 11:21.58 in his Saab 9 3 Viggen 4x4 while racing the Pikes Peak Open category that was valid until being bettered in 2012 by Frenchman Romain Dumas. In 2002 Per Eklund took the Unlimited Class Victory. Eklund and his Saab's performance defeated the second place Unlimited Class entry and long time Swedish rival Stig Blomqvist by over 34 seconds with a time of 11:13.20.

En får ente ge sej (Värmland dialect for "One must not give up") is Eklund's motto and the title of his biography. By Per Eklund & Anders Tunberg, 210 pages, Sportförlaget 1998,

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ERC Points 1976 Saab Saab 96 V4 Turbo AUT14 GER16 FIN9 SWE BEL6 AUT2 NED GBR1 GER2 GBR2 10th 24 1977 Saab Saab 96 V4 Turbo AUT1 NED16 ITA SWE1 FIN BEL1 SWE2 NED2 BEL2 GER AUT2 24th 6 1978 Per Eklund Porsche Carrera 3.0 AUT ITASWE9 FIN3 BEL NED FRA GBR GER 27th 14