The second day of RallyX Nordic‘s third round of the season at Arvika and the Westombanan track saw several spectacular crashes and various amazing battles.
Double World Rallycross Champion Johan Kristoffersson still tops the overall standings after three qualifying rounds following his win yesterday and continued his fine form at his home circuit by setting a pair of fastest times.
Jamaica’s Fraser McConnell followed up his second fastest time yesterday with another day of strong pace again proving even if he is new to Supercars, he can still challenge at the front end of the field.
The day ended early for him however in Q3 after he broke his right rear wheel bearing after a hard landing and he was forced to retire as a result.
Mats Öhman, who is 95% paralyzed due to a snowmobile crash several years ago, had a brilliant race in Q2 where he ended up third fastest overall before he claimed a well deserved fifth fastest in Q3 later in the day.
Double RX2 International Series champion Oliver Eriksson has proved he is someone who is capable of a strong result so far this weekend after a tough time at Hojes. He was third fastest in Q1 before taking the fourth fastest time in Q2 today along with a second fastest Q3 time, only being defeated by Kristoffersson.
Peter Hedström, who started the weekend in fine form after he set a top five best time again impressed in Q2. He finished the qualifier sixth fastest and this result could have been bettered in Q3, if not for a stall while taking the joker lap.
Another noticalbe mention is to rallycross legend Per Eklund, who makes his second appearance in the series this year after entering the All-Star ´Magic Weekend´ last month in the Legends class. He set a top ten fastest time yesterday, but Q2 turned into a disaster for him after jumping the start and being disqualified from the session as a result.
In the Supercar Lites category, Henrik Krogstad is, like Kristoffersson, dominating the class with a hat-trick of heat wins so far this weekend.
Championship contender Simon Olofsson, who was second fastest yesterday, had a difficult Saturday after being forced to deal with slower traffic that made him set only the fifth fastest in Q2 and fourth fastest in Q3 while rival Jesse Kallio also struggled and has only a best result of third in Q3 so far.
Linus Östlund, another driver expecting a strong result, could only manage a sixth fastest time in Q2 but would return to form in Q3 where he took the second fastest time.
Nils Andersson had a brilliant heat in Q2 where the Lites newcomer took the second fastest time while fellow rookie Gustav Johansson in also performed well, this time in Q3, where he set the third fastest time.
Patrik Hallberg has so far also dominated both sessions of the Crosscar/Crosskart class while in Crosscar Junior it was a close battle between Alex Gustafsson and Lukas Andersson for the top honours on both Friday and Saturday. World RX regular Kevin Hansen who was set to enter the Crosscar/Crosskart class for this event was forced to retire due to an illness.
This weekend sees the RallyX Nordic series also welcome the Swedish Rallycross Championship, where the most talked about news came in the form of two roll overs and several pieces of drama.
In the RM2150 class it was Jim Jansson who unbelievably jumped the start in Q2 but despite taking two joker laps as a result, still set set the fastest time of the heat, before going onto take the win in Q3 also.
The Junior SM class, which is similar to the RM2150 regulation-wise but allows younger drivers to enter, saw Filip Martinsson continue to lead the way with a set of fastest times as championship regular Klara Andersson struggled to find the pace to match him.
In the 2400 class it saw two different winners, with championship contender Simon Cleasson recovering from a lost wheel in Q2 to take the Q3 win after Per Berglund made the most of Cleasson’s problems by taking the Q2 victory.
Finally in the Supernational class, it was Simon Tiger who won the both sessions of today, despite having to battle it out hard in Q2 against his rivals in the class.
The racing continues tomorrow morning with Q4 and the finals of each class with live coverage from the event on SBFplay, SVT and RallyX.TV.
