Rallycross is back to Trois-Rivières, in Canada, but this time with Nitro Rallycross in a heavily different scenario compared to the World RX days, as the horse racing track at the heart of the GP3R area became a snow ring in the first competitive experience at low temperatures for the FC1-X, and Oliver Eriksson showing the skill that moves Olsbergs MSE as he led a 1-2 finish with his brother Kevin.
The first Heat of 2023 saw the RX Cartel cars on the front row being trounced by Kevin Eriksson in a rocket launch, not even allowing the opponents to get near the Olsbergs driver. Despite the comfortable lead, Eriksson was risking everything to keep himself in front, and it paid off as Andreas Bakkerud could get within a second of Eriksson, but never threatened his position.
Heat 2 had Travis Pastrana outpacing everybody from the back while Oliver Eriksson wasn’t letting him go. Pastrana was trying to look at the line with more snow than slush but this almost hurt his progress, but later he had a broken left rear suspension to worry about, which allowed Eriksson to go ahead and dominate the remainder of the race with Fraser McConnell following him.
Semifinal 1 had a bit more contact at the start as Pastrana got his car fixed to hold Robin Larsson and Kris Meeke, but once on clean, Pastrana wasn’t getting all the slides right, so he approached it more precisely and left Larsson take the risks. Larsson threw his car into the corners but in the end he was going too deep to get closer to Pastrana, watching the No. 199 secure victory.
Bakkerud and McConnell were on the fight for the Semifinal 2 win, with Bakkerud getting the advantage at the start, which made McConnell switch the tactic to an early Joker, which didn’t work as Bakkerud stretched the gap enough to avoid a battle, proceeding to win the race without any trouble.
Meeke, Conner Martell and Oliver Bennett had the LCQ to get a spot in the Final, and maybe the desire to get the first place took the best of them at the first corner, as a ping-pong effect took place and left both XITE Racing entries in the barriers while Martell kept going, but with the red flag in place, the American just had to wait for the new start.
Meeke was the only knocked down with a bent right front corner, leaving Martell and Bennett on a personal battle. Seeing the lack of room to pass, Bennett tried to cover Martell with an early Joker, but Martell was flawless in his lines, pushing just enough to outpace Bennett and win the race.
The Final had fierce competitors having to deal with a track that was mix of snow, mud and frozen dirt, so the one who master these nuances would be the winner. The field blasted off without contact while Oliver Eriksson was leading an Olsbergs 1-2 with Larsson and Pastrana on the hunt. The Olsbergs pair cooperated to keep positions and distance from the threats, so Oliver went first to the Joker to protect Kevin, but in fact he was even faster than Kevin.
To not take risks, waited for the brother to complete his Joker and then gone away with the lead to not be caught. Larsson had the Olsbergs cars within range, but couldn’t mount an attack from third position.
Nitro RX Quebec - Event results
Larsson still has some cushion to keep his lead with 344 points against 286 from Andreas Bakkerud, and in third place, McConnell gets closer with 276 points and brings Oliver Eriksson with him as he has 265 points. There are two rounds to go, with the next stop being Calgary on 5 February.
PHOTO: Olsbergs MSE
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