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WRX South Africa: PSRX freight late, full participation in peril

The PSRX Volkswagen Sweden World Rallycross squad faces a race against time to compete in this weekend's final round of 2018 due to late arriving equipment in South Africa

While the other teams are undertaking final preparations in the paddock at the Killarney circuit, the PSRX garage does not have the team's title-winning Volkswagen Polo Supercars and equipment.

The kit, in two containers, is yet to be unloaded in Cape Town's port and is currently on a ship in the bay off the nearby coast.

"For some reason the containers were not put on the ship they should have been on and they were almost 14 days late leaving Europe," PSRX team principal Pernilla Solberg told Autosport.

"The ship only came to the area here on Wednesday, but since then the winds have been quite strong, so it hasn't been able to dock to start unloading."

PSRX is tracking the vessel and hopes to receive the cars overnight in time for Saturday morning practice.

While the cars have been located on the ship and are expected to be in one of the first containers to be unloaded, the second container with tools and equipment could take longer to arrive.

"The cars are ready to race and they've got the carry-over tyres on them that we should bring from a previous event - it will be fairly quick as long as we can get the cars here," said Solberg.

"Petter [Solberg] and Johan [Kristoffersson] have their gear so they are ready to jump in. "We can get fuel and tyres here and we're trying to plan for all scenarios in case we can't get the second container."

PSRX is guaranteed to miss its scrutineering slot on Friday, which would earn a penalty of the team only being allowed to complete four laps in practice.

The rules state that each driver must complete at least one lap of practice in order to take part in the event.

"First, we need allowance to do scrutineering at the later time, then it's up to the discretion of the stewards to decide if you are allowed you to start or not, [or] if you would not do the practice," said Solberg.

"This is force majeure, so hopefully they would let us start. There are hurdles we need to clear but I haven't given up yet."

While triple world champion Petter Solberg is in a battle for second in the drivers' standings, Kristoffersson wrapped up the 2018 drivers' title two rounds ago in Austin.

PSRX successfully secured the defence of its teams' title at the penultimate round in Germany.

Kristoffersson says he would be more worried about the situation if the titles were still up for grabs.

"If there were only a few points in it for the championships, then it would be more stressful," he told Autosport.

"For sure it's still stressful and we would like to put the cars on the grid, but I think it will be sorted out."

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