Eklund not at start EC Belgium

from http://www.erc24.com/:

The most notable absentee from the paddock in Belgium is former champion Per Eklund.

The Saab driver has been forced to remain home because he does not have the budget to compete in all events this year, but he has been left in that position as a direct result of the crash in the Austrian ERC round at Melk where one of his Saab 93s sustained heavy damage. “Money is the problem, but it’s because I should have had one car rented out at some events this year. When the old car was damaged in Austria we built up the new one so that I could race but that means I had only car and nothing to rent out,” said Eklund, “We had no time to look at the old car until last week and the damage is even worse than I thought at first, everything behind the driver’s seat is destroyed, we cut it in half and have replaced the whole back end of the car. We decided to stay home and work on the car instead of going to Belgium. I will see how things go, perhaps we can go to Germany next week.”

Eklund remains critical of the organisers at the Austrian ERC event in which his car was damaged. “This has happened because of the crash in Austria, the organisers need to learn that making bad decisions is bloody dangerous but also costs us [teams] a lot of money – if it stops us going racing it is bad for everybody,” said Eklund.