Martin Schanche

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Martin Schanche (left) and his arch-rival Swede Kenneth Hansen

Martin Schanche (born January 1, 1945), a.k.a. "Mister Rallycross", is a former Norwegian motorsport contestant. He started his racing career rather late, only in 1972 when he was already 27 years old. In 1975 he won a silver medal in the Norwegian Ice Racing Championships. Between 1976 and 2001 he competed in Rallycross, and became the FIA European champion of 1978, 1979, 1981, 1984, 1991 and 1995. Schanche is still yet the record holder concerning the amount of overall victories in rounds counting towards the FIA European Championships for Rallycross Drivers.

Schanche was born in Trondheim but grew up at Leirpollskogen (Austertana, Tana municipality, Finnmark county). Today he lives at Drøbak in Frogn in Akershus, together with his German born wife Birgit and his daughter Melissa. Martin Schanche has also two other children from a former marriage, his daughter Elisabeth and his son Martin junior.

Since retiring from motorsport he has embarked on a second career as a municipality politician in Frogn for Fremskrittspartiet. In 2003 he was the subject of a lot of nationwide attention after he slapped the chin of his political opponent Torgeir Micaelsen of the Norwegian Labour Party at the end of a school debate in Drammen because Micaelsen, during the debate and in front of the public, had called him a coward. That attention made him an often imitated character in Norwegian radio.