Three-time Race of Champions champ Mattias Ekstrom will compete in this year 24th running of the event at Dusseldorf's ESPRIT arena on Dec. 3-4.
Ekstrom, a double DTM champion, has reached at least one final in every year he has competed in the RoC, a run which dates back to 2005, when he and Tom Kristensen took Nations Cup glory for Scandinavia. He also won the "Champion of Champions" title on his last visit in 2009, beating Michael Schumacher at the Grand Final in Beijing's Olympic Stadium. A date clash prevented him from competing in 2010.
""I have many happy memories from the Race Of Champions so I'm delighted to be returning this year," Ekstrom said. "I've been lucky to race many good touring cars, sports cars and rally cars, (which) helps me at this event and I've had some good results, beating Michael Schumacher in two Grand Finals and Sébastien Loeb in another.
"It was hard to have to watch the action from afar in 2010 so it didn't take me long to agree to come back."
Ekstrom is the third driver to be confirmed for the 2011 Race of Champions, alongside reigning F1 champion Sebastian Vettel and his compatriot Michael Schumacher.