The rallycross season started recently, but one of the highlights before the European and World championships take place started this Saturday (22), as RallyX Nordic had the first of two events at Nysum, in Denmark, and proving not only his worth and also of the Hyundai i20 RX, a confident Peter Hedström was able to secure the win of the first event of the double header, being able to put in his resume that he held the five time World RX champion Johan Kristoffersson.
Johan Kristoffersson might have had to change to an ex-Marklund Motorsport Polo RX to race in RallyX Nordic, but he is still top notch stuff as a driver, progressing at every heat to win Qualifying, but Peter Hedström in an ex-GRX Hyundai i20 RX and an still injured Kevin Eriksson in the familiar Olsbergs Civic RX proved to be more than capable to establish a challenge to the five time World RX champion.
Semifinal 1 was quite peaceful with Kristoffersson jumping ahead of Eriksson while Andreas Bakkerud was third, and with all of them secure in the Final, there was no bumping and barging. While Kristoffersson and Eriksson had no problems to finish first and second, Bakkerud had to deal with Ole Christian Veiby, and Veiby’s dip in pace in the final two laps contributed to Bakkerud’s cause.
Yury Belevskiy started well the second Semifinal but lost the lead to Hedström, only to recover it when Hedström and Ulrik Linnemann decided to do some panel bashing. Belevskiy had no threats during the rest of the run, and neither had Hedström, but Maiko Tamm had to do some effort to hold Morten Schnack to hold the hard fought third place.
Tamm and Schnack were in the top row of the Pro-Am Final, keeping positions despite the first lap carnage behind them. On Lap 2, Viktor Vranckx became the leader and a contender as Schnack made a mistake and Tamm slowed down a bit. From then on, Vranckx guided his RX2e car cleanly to the line, avoiding the possible threat of Schnack getting closer with a theoretically better car. Stefan Kristensson completed the podium, while Tamm didn’t finish and couldn’t take part of the Pro Final.
The Pro Final had Kristoffersson and Hedström hogging the front row with grid positions giving an advantage in the dash to the first corner, and while Hedström bullied his way to the lead, Eriksson blasted his way to the second corner to create some chaos, but still keeping third place. With a deteriorating rear left tire due to body rubbing, Hedström was falling into Kristoffersson’s clutches, but to create room to outpace Hedström, he Jokered first on Lap 4. Hedström replied accordingly as he didn’t have to focus entirely on the defensive, so he racked up fast times to cover Kristoffersson’s undercut and seal the victory in the final corner.
RallyX Nordic - Nysum I event results
More action comes on Sunday morning as the second round completes the weekend at Nysum.
PHOTO: Hedströms Motorsport
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