Before establishing himself in the World Rally Championship proper, Eriksson competed for the Mitsubishi manufacturer squad in the Cross-Country World Cup and Dakar events in 1991 and 1992, finishing fourth overall in the 1991 edition. He was also the 1986 Group A Champion, the only year that competition ran, though the season was overshadowed by fatalities that left its legacy complicated.
Eriksson's most significant year with Mitsubishi came in 1995, when he finished third overall in the World Rally Championship — his highest points position across his career. He won the Swedish Rally that year in circumstances that attracted attention: he applied pressure on the road to his young teammate Tommi Makinen, who finished second. He also won in Australia that season, finishing directly ahead of Colin McRae of the Subaru World Rally Team, who would go on to claim the championship. Between 1995 and 1997, Eriksson secured a hat-trick of Asia-Pacific rally titles, underlining his dominance on the regional calendar during this period.
For 1996, Eriksson crossed from Mitsubishi to Subaru, where he drove the Impreza WRC alongside McRae. His role at Subaru was as a second points-scorer focused on loose-surface rounds, with Italian Piero Liatti taking on similar responsibilities on asphalt events. The partnership proved productive: by the end of the 1997 season, Eriksson and his regular co-driver Staffan Parmander had accumulated six individual WRC victories across their careers.
The 1997 New Zealand Rally produced one of the more memorable wins of the era. Eriksson had been tracking long-time leader Carlos Sainz of Ford and benefited when Sainz encountered a sheep on the road, handing Eriksson the lead and ultimately the victory — a result that drew as much comment for its circumstances as for its competitive merit.
After finishing fourth at the 1998 Swedish Rally, Eriksson was released from his Subaru contract to join Hyundai's developing World Rally Car programme. He drove both the Hyundai Coupe and the Hyundai Accent WRC, alongside fellow former Subaru driver Alister McRae. His solitary points finish for Hyundai came with a sixth place at the 2001 Rally Great Britain, his last outing for the team.
His final works season came with Skoda in 2002, where he competed in the Octavia WRC alongside young Finnish driver Toni Gardemeister. Parmander had retired from co-driving by this point, and Tina Thorner navigated Eriksson through the season. He left the works scene at the end of 2002.
After departing factory-backed competition, Eriksson took part in the Race to the Sky hillclimb held in the Cardrona Valley in New Zealand, an event that suited his loose-surface skills. He finished second there in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
Eriksson's career spanned the most competitive era in WRC history, when manufacturer budgets and driver quality were at their peak. His six victories, three Asia-Pacific titles, and a third-place overall championship finish mark him as one of the more accomplished Swedish rally drivers of his generation, operating in a period when compatriots such as Mats Jonsson and later Marcus Gronholm also competed at the highest level. His reputation rested primarily on gravel and loose-surface events, where his precision and pace were particularly evident.
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