Patrik Sandell

Sandell's interest in motorsport began as a teenager in Sweden, first trying rallycross at age 16 and competing in his first stage rally at 17. He won the Swedish Junior Championship in 2004, then followed it with the Swedish Group N3 Championship in 2005.

In 2006, Sandell contested the Junior World Rally Championship driving for Renault and won the title with one victory and three additional podiums across six starts. The JWRC ran as a subsidiary classification within WRC events for young drivers in smaller-capacity cars, making the title a meaningful credential in European rally circles.

After his JWRC title, Sandell continued to race in multiple WRC classifications simultaneously — the JWRC, the Production World Rally Championship, and the Super 2000 World Rally Championship — earning victories in all three categories. He became a Red Bull athlete in 2009. That year he claimed his first two PWRC wins, at Rally Norway and Rally Cyprus, on successive outings.

In 2012, Sandell was given a seat with the Mini WRC Team at his home Rally Sweden and finished eighth overall, a career-best result in the overall WRC standings. When BMW terminated its contract with team operator Prodrive at the end of that year, Sandell's full WRC programme ended. He did not return to the championship after 2012.

Sandell transitioned to North American competition in 2013 by joining Olsbergs MSE in the Global RallyCross Championship, driving a Ford Fiesta. He earned a podium finish in his very first GRC start at X Games Brazil and finished sixth in the overall standings. He repeated sixth place in 2014 and also recorded his first career GRC win that June at a race held at RFK Stadium in Washington DC.

In 2015, Sandell joined the newly formed Bryan Herta Rallysport team and spent two seasons there, winning once in both 2015 and 2016. For 2017, he moved to Subaru Rally Team USA and finished eighth in the championship, taking his first podium of the year in the opening Atlantic City round.

When the Global RallyCross Championship was succeeded by the Americas Rallycross series in 2018, Sandell continued to compete under the Subaru banner, finishing third in the championship standings. Alongside his rallycross commitments that year, he returned to stage rally, entering three American Rally Association events and winning all three. He continued with the rebranded Subaru Motorsports USA programme into the 2019 Americas Rallycross season.

Sandell's record spans European WRC junior and production categories, a full WRC works drive with Mini, and sustained success in North American rallycross across multiple series and team identities. His 2006 JWRC title remains the pinnacle of his European career, while his consistency and multiple race wins across the GRC and ARX series established him as one of the most respected Swedish exports to North American rally sport.