Oliver Eriksson, the two-time RX2 International Series champion and two-time runner-up in the RallyX Nordic series is aiming to turn his luck around to clinch the title after two previous seasons of heartbreak during the final round.
Eriksson dominated most of Saturday, winning two out of the three qualifying sessions but lost out in the second session to Ben-Philip Gundersen. Eriksson won his semi-final by going around the outside as they headed towards the second turn.
In the final Eriksson took also an early lead from start and crossed the finish line in first place to take his first win of the season in the series. After his dominant performance, he has passed the championship leader Johan Kristoffersson who is missing the event, so if everything go well for Eriksson later today he is looking to take home the championship on his third attempt.
Fraser McConnell, who is teammate to Eriksson and also running his first season in the Supercar class has showed impressive results since the start of the season and he was the closest to Eriksson in the championship.
But the bad luck continued for McConnell for a second time in a row in a final, just like in Arvika last time out, as he ended up in the gravel trap after what it seemed was an incident with either a barrier or contact with Ulrik Linnemann. The incident damaged his steering and therefore Eriksson ahead now has a 19 point advantage as they enter the final day of the season.
Linnemann, who finished third in the final, was the only Danish driver to make it to the last race of the day. Dennis Rømer hadn’t entered a single race on Saturday, while Tobias Daarkbak had to retire due to an heavy crash on the jokerlap merge with Stene Johansen.
Linnemann looked set to take a second place finish,but that went to Gundersen and Linnemann revealed later in the post-race interview that he lost the power steering, although was happy with his results in the first outting in the new car.
Fourth place went to Johansen, who has impressed a lot on the two outtings in the series this season and he put a lot of pressure on Linnemann throughout the final but had to settle for a place off the podium.
Linus Westman also retired from the final due to broken left-rear suspension, but it was still a great result to make his second final appearance this season. He claimed a third place finish in Arvika last time out.
In the RX2 International Series shoot-out round, that runs in conjuction with the Supercar Lites class of RallyX Nordic, it was the former RX2 and World RX driver Guillaume De Ridder who won the final.
De Ridder is looking strong to claim the championship title this weekend as he leads the RX2 category at the only event for the World RX support series. The championship will be wound up after the weekend as it will be replaced by the upcoming FIA eRX2 Championship next year.
The winner of the shoot-out event will recieve an eRX2 fully-funded race next season and there are two titles up for grab for the Supercar Lites drivers this weekend as a result.
Simon Olofsson had great pace throughout the day and he was challenging De Ridder in the qualifying sessions, and was the top qualifier and also won his semi-final.
In the final he took an early lead but as De Ridder headed in to the joker, Henrik Krogstad, who is the current championship leader in the Supercar Lites closed in on Olofsson.
As they both went on the very fast downhill section before the tight left-hander, Krogstad sneaked up on the inside which led to a contact with Olofsson that broke something on the car. As Olofsson continued towards the following corner he then hit the barrier on the inside that forced him to retire.
Olofsson tried to put in a protest to the stewards but that was rejected, so Krogstad claimed second place.
Jesse Kallio sat tied on points with Krogstad as they headed to Nysum but as Krogstad out qualified Kallio in the qualifying sessions, Kallio is currently sitting second going into Sunday afte he finished third in the final. Linus Östlund finished fourth ahead of Jimmie Walfridson in fifth.
The biggest loser on Saturday in the Supercar Lites / RX2 class was Mats Oskarsson. He lost his front-left wheel after contact in turn two in the semi-final, that led to the car jumping over its own tyre up in the air and he was hit by the debutant Grégory Fosse who couldn’t avoid the incident.
In the support classes of CrossCar/Crosskart and the new Crosskart Junior it was also tight in the championship standings as they headed to Nysum this weekend.
Home hero Søren Jelsbak won the final on Saturday after taking an early lead that he held on to really well. Fellow Dane Nicklas Jensen had dominated in qualifying and sat in the top qualifier spot, but missed out a spot in the final after a poor run in the semi-final. Jimmie Österberg finished in second place ahead of Isac Egonsson.
The biggest story in the class however was when championship contender Isak Reirsen was disqualified for an illegal push and pass in the semi-final that led to Max Rundberg, who finished fourth, take a 12 point lead going into today’s final day of action.
World RX driver Kevin Hansen entered at Nysum to further develope the LifeLive TN5 chassis but he missed out the semi-finals by just one point.
In Crosskart Junior it was Erik Andersson who took his maiden win in the class and after he sat in the top qualifier spot, clinched 24 vital points in the battle for the championship. He has now a 2 point lead over Alex Gustafsson who is second. Raoul Dahlqvist, Lukas Andersson and Rasmus Persson are not far behind with only 10 points separating all five drivers.
Peder Jensen took a victory on home soil in the one-off SuperNational class that is for ‘older’ home-built two-wheel-drive rallycross machines. Fellow countryman Kenneth Konge topped qualifying and lead in the final, but he made a costly mistake in the joker lap so he had to settle for second and Micke Nilsson finished in third.
Fredrik Tinnsten had bad luck at the second corner, first getting forced out in the gravel trap by Nilsson and later in the final clipped the same tyre stack that made him roll over. Tinnsten was one of the many who retired from the event.
Olsbergs MSE and RallyX Nordic promoter CEO Andreas Eriksson is looking to possibly help the SuperNational class return next season – the same class has been ran in the series before under its own name as well as later being called Supercar 2WD.
The event continues today with the final round of the RallyX Nordic series as well as the second round of the RX2 International championship where a total of five champions will be crowned.
