Whenever there’s an international rallycross event at the Tykkimäki in Kouvola, it usually shakes things up, and with RallyX Nordic it wasn’t different, as Norwegian Thomas Bryntesson beat the clear favorites at once and won the Round 3 of the championship.
Despite not returning to the World RX calendar, Kouvola always has a big event when RallyX Nordic goes there, in special because some drivers from the Finnish Rallicross-SM try their luck against international opposition, like former World RX driver Jere Kalliokoski, who is keeping a Ford Fiesta ST RX in action despite having built a Mercedes A450 RX recently.
Things tend to get heated at Kouvola, but no one expected a three to four way battle for Qualifying supremacy, which went for Johan Kristoffersson thanks to the Q1 win, with things going downhill for him as the opposition stepped up the game, as shown by Yury Belevskiy’s Q2 win and Philip Gehrman’s triumph in Q3, but Niclas Grönholm and Jere Kalliokoski were the main threats to the champion, justifying the second and third places they got.
Semifinal 1 was elbows out between Kalliokoski and Kristoffersson while Andreas Carlsson and Anders Michalak found the natural barrier on Turn 2. Kalliokoski tried to hold Kristoffersson until the final lap, but the pressure that the 2021 champion was applying was too much, and crucial to turn the table, while Sondre Evjen came behind them in third, safely getting his place in the Final.
Semifinal 2 had more variety at the start, with Thomas Bryntesson snatching the lead from Grönholm, who was stuck in third behind Ole Christian Veiby, and keeping it a few inches from Veiby’s back bumper gave the opening for the SET Promotion Hyundai to go past, though Veiby wasn’t exactly wanting to compromise despite having a spot in the Final, taking the battle for as much as possible but ultimately staying behind Bryntesson and Grönholm.
The Final would be totally in anybody’s hands as the biggest favorites made it to the final grid, and Bryntesson got the lead of the all-Volkswagen front row, which then turned into the lead battle. Kristoffersson gave a quick reply once they completed their Joker Laps, but Bryntesson was up to a fight, and once the rear right tire from Kristoffersson’s Volkswagen Polo gave in, he started going wide on the Final Lap, so Bryntesson and Grönholm closed in and threw the challenge, and not even Kristoffersson’s block in the final corner could hold Bryntesson, who barged his way into first place and the win by a tiny margin over Grönholm while Kristoffersson ended in third, totally out of the line.
RallyX Nordic - Kouvola I event results
Kristoffersson still the absolute leader with 83 points against the 68 of Grönholm and event winner Bryntesson is third with 57.
PHOTO: TBRX
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