Ford OlsbergsMSE driver Reinis Nitiss scored the first podium finish of its 2015 FIA World Rallycross Championship campaign at Hockenheim.
In another weekend of mixed conditions that saw the second round of WorldRX take place over three days of competition, Nitiss took a consistent approach to the heats as he managed to stay within the top six positions to qualify for Semi-Final Two. A win in the Semi-Final race gave him the front row for the Final alongside Petter Solberg. Nitiss went on to secure second place.
The 19 year old Latvian was happy with his podium finish and his weekends work.
“Petter has been racing cars longer than I have been alive so he’s definitely got the edge when it comes to experience,” said Nitiss. “But we are getting closer and closer. We are coming for him.”
Andreas Bakkerud had another good weekend of WorldRX action as he looked to improve upon his fifth place in Portugal. Despite qualifying for Semi-Final One, contact in the Final broke the suspension on Bakkerud’s Fiesta, ruling him out of the action. However, Bakkerud is now in joint third place in the Drivers Championship.
Timur Timerzyanov had a productive weekend as he progressed with his cars set-up to stay within the top twelve, however he tagged the tyres in heat three, rolling his Ford Fiesta after contact with the tyres whilst leading. He managed to get the car restarted and finished the race.
“After the rollover, I put in one of the best laps of the race,” he said. “I didn’t care about my car or anything after that — it was full-attack driving and it felt great.”
Team Boss Andreas Eriksson was happy with the teams progress as it now lies in second place in the Teams Trophy, three points behind leader SDRX.
“In the United States we race on temporary tracks all the time so we’re used to making fast adjustments,” said Eriksson, whose Olsbergs MSE team has won four-straight titles in the Global Rallycross Championship in addition to taking the World RX teams’ title in 2015. “Our global experience makes us strong in any environment.”
The next round of WorldRX takes place next weekend at the Mettet circuit in Belgium.
