What Is Icelandic Formula Offroad

The story of ”Formula Off Road” begins in Iceland May 2nd 1965 when the first Formula Off Road competition was hosted by Bifreiðaklúbbur Reykjavíkur a.k.a BKR (Reykjavik’s Car Club). After that race Egill Gunnar Ingólfsson claimed the title ”First winner of Formula Off road”. With that competition Þorkell Guðnason and fellow members of BKR made the foundation of what we call today a Formula Off Road Championship.

BKR kept hosting competition for years to come, but in 1969 The Volunteer Rescue Team Stakkur in Keflavík begun to host Formula Off Road competitions for fund-raising and soon The Volunteer Rescue Team on Hella began to do the same. Formula Off Road competition have been a big part of fund-raising for the Rescue Teams throughout the years.

With the advent of LIA 1979 the first Icelandic Championship was held and the first Icelandic Champion was Benedikt Eyjólfsson.

At the beginning there was only one class but in 1985 the second class was added to the competition because some of the contestants began to drive with multi-paddle tires. That’s when Modified Class and Unlimited Class came to exists. During these years contestants arrived on their daily drive cars, took off the equipment they didn’t need in the race itself, changed their tires to multi-paddle and started the race.

Back in the day roll-bars were the only requirement but not the complete roll-cage as it is today. It is worth noting that in 50 years of Icelandic Formula Off Road there hasn’t been any serious injuries that can be traced to lack of security measures in the cars.

Formula Off road competitions have always been a great part of the Icelandic motor-sport and is well known all over the world.