20-year-old Linus Östlund has confirmed that he will continue to run another full-season in the Supercar Lites in RallyX Nordic this year with the Olsberg MSE team.
Östlund was runner-up in Supercar Lites last season after a fierce fight with Ben-Philip Gundersen from Norway went down to the wire at the season-finale at Tierp Arena. He stood on the podium five times by seven races, two of which he won.
With a good experience and great knowledge of how the car works, Östlund will be in the title chase again this year.
He made two wildcard appearances with his team Olsbergs MSE last year in the RX2 International Series, at his home track in Höljes where he stepped up on the podium when he finished in second place and at the season-finale which was held at Cape Town in South Africa, he ended up with a fifth place finish.
“The whole Nordic season last year was better than we had hoped for, it was our first full campaign in Supercar Lites and we didn’t expect to finish where we did, so we were very happy with the results.” Östlund said.
“The victories were very special, Tierp more so because we didn’t really have the speed that weekend, but we were there when it counted and were able to win.”
“To fight with the other guys who have a lot of knowledge was great experience. I had wanted more at Höljes, but we had some problems on the first day. On the second day I was hoping for a win, but of course we were happy to come away with a podium.” Östlund continued.
“We had some struggles on the first two days of the RX2 event at Höljes, but we kept the pace on Sunday and had a really good semi-final which put us on pole for the final.”
“It was an emotional rollercoaster of a weekend with my home crowd there, and my best event of the year – some childhood dreams were definitely achieved that day. We’ll be back this year for the ‘Magic Weekend’ and we’re working on more events in RX2.”
“I’m aiming for the top spot in the Nordic championship. Of course it’s not a bad result if we finish second or third but I think we have the pace and the tools to do the job.”
“There is lots to watch out for with the new guys coming in this season. Martin Enlund was quick at Höljes and Nils Andersson knows how to drive a car – I’ve known him since we were kids. Everybody is really fast and it is quite unpredictable right now, so I’m looking forward to it.” Östlund added.
