Mattias Ekstrom has branded winning the 2006 Race of Champions as ‘unbelievable' after he came out on top in a thrilling Grand Final for the title of ‘Champion of Champions' against World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb.
Ekstrom had been the surprise of the individual event having crashed out early alongside Tom Kristensen in the Nations Cup when his counterpart was beaten twice by
Heikki Kovalainen, making the Swede's impressive win over Marcus Gronholm in vain.
Nonetheless, Ekstrom came out fighting in the main event, firstly dispatching DTM Champion and rival Bernd Schneider in the quarter-final to set up a semi-final with the day's so far unbeaten star Kovalainen.
Battling away with the Renault Megane Trophy's, there was barely anything to separate the two throughout the four lap encounter to the point that when the duo dived across the line, just 0.0002 seconds told them apart, with the momentum swinging in Ekstrom's favour, much to the frustration of Kovalainen.
"There's not much to say really,” the Finn said. “Mattias drove very well and I only lost by a small margin. I'm not happy because I wanted to make it a Nations Cup and Race of Champions double. There's no point complaining but I had a small problem with the car – the Mégane Trophy – but that's racing and we do this for charity which is a good cause. I just hope Mattias beats Loeb in the final now, which will mean I was eliminated by the winner..."
The win put Ekstrom in the final of the race drivers where he would meet
Sebastien Bourdais, who in turn had only managed to sneak through by the smallest of margins against French counterpart Yvan Muller.
Nonetheless, Ekstrom was the comprehensive winner in that tussle to put himself into the Grand Final up against 2005 overall winner Sebastian Loeb in a ‘best of three' head-to-head taking in rally cars, race cars and buggy's if necessary.
![Mattias Ekstrom celebrates winning Race of Champions 2006 [pic credit: www.raceofchampions.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/283351.jpg)
