The Hansens love it and everybody knows why. Nitro Rallycross took off this weekend at the Utah Motorsports Campus, and Timmy Hansen was in charge of keeping the winning streak in favor of Red Bull Hansen WRXT.
The grid reunited at Salt Lake City would hardly be better than what was presented, with Timmy and Kevin Hansen having the company of Nitro RX founder Travis Pastrana alongside Scott Speed and Andreas Bakkerud for Subaru, Tanner Foust and Cabot Bigham jumping into Audi S1 EKS RXs at Dreyer & Reinbold, Liam Doran bringing Monster Energy RX Cartel with Robin Larsson, Olsbergs MSE returning with Fraser McConnell, Oliver and Kevin Eriksson, Steve Arpin being the link between Loenbro Motorsports and Grönholm RX, and Oliver Bennett back to America with his XITE Mini Cooper SX1.
Although the Hansens showed their claws on the solo qualifying, with Timmy Hansen being the fastest car, the all-Subaru final between Scott Speed and Travis Pastrana in the 1 vs. 1 battle brackets showed that the Hansen Peugeots would find some resistance along the way.
Heat 1 had Kevin Hansen being initially threatened by Kevin Eriksson and Scott Speed, but their own mistakes and problems left the door open for the Swede to dominate it, with Oliver Eriksson coming home second.
Nitro RX Utah - Heat 1 results
On Heat 2, Travis Pastrana and Andreas Bakkerud monopolized the top positions by initially staying close, but Steve Arpin was determined to ruin the party by splitting the two, eventually getting in second, just behind a dominant Pastrana.
Nitro RX Utah - Heat 2 results
On Semifinal 1, Scott Speed had control but Fraser McConnell and Kevin Eriksson were hot in his back bumper. The Swede couldn’t keep on because of a puncture, but the Jamaican followed Speed to the flag, but never got the chance to mount an attack, and the second place worked well too in terms of advancing to the Final.
Nitro RX Utah - Semifinal 1 results
Semifinal 2 had Andreas Bakkerud outpace leader Tanner Foust and defend hard the first place. Foust and the others kept the chase, but with Kevin Hansen finding the way to the barriers thanks to Liam Doran, only Foust and Doran himself would be threats to Bakkerud. Foust tried to catch up with the Norwegian but had to settle for second.
Nitro RX Utah - Semifinal 2 results
Some big names were present in the Last Chance Qualifying, and while Oliver Bennett opted for the early Joker from second place, Doran and Larsson were chasing Kevin Hansen, but both RX Cartel cars had their issues, with Doran crashing and Larsson rolling, and adding Kevin Eriksson’s Honda Civic losing power, a red flag was the best thing to happen, since no one was getting near Kevin Hansen.
When the race restarted, Bennett challenged Hansen, but his good performance lasted only one lap as he stopped with problems. Larson joined the list of drivers with problems, and wtih Cabot Bigham finishing second while the suspension of his Audi S1 collapsed on the front left in spectacular fashion, Hansen’s Peugeot 208 wasn’t only the winner, but also the only car in one piece after the race.
Bigham’s shattered suspension didn’t let him get into the Final, so nine cars were aligned, and while Timmy Hansen was leading from the go, everybody wanted a piece of him, like Oliver Eriksson and Steve Arpin. Arpin made an effort to catch up with Hansen, but Timmy was almost flawless while the competition was facing their issues, to a point that even some bad lines didn’t take the win out of the 2018 NRX champion.
Timmy Hansen leads the standings with 51 points against 47 from Steve Arpin and 41 from Kevin Hansen, and the battle to dethrone the Hansens goes on next week, as the ERX Motor Park on Minnesota is the venue for round 2, on 3 October.
PHOTO: Nitro Circus
Comments
Post a Comment
Do you have an opinion? Feel free to comment.