Kevin Eriksson didn’t let an injured leg get the best of him, and the Olsbergs MSE driver got a deserving victory in the second RallyX Nordic event at Nysum by squeezing everything out of the well known Honda Civic RX, which suited the flamboyant moveset required by the Swede to be on top of the competition, which expectedly gave the maximum in the final day of the weekend.
Following the process from the Qualifying on Saturday, Johan Kristoffersson topped the heats on Sunday by progressing on the table and on the track, as Ulrik Linnemann finally emerged as a contender with his Ford Fiesta RX and Kevin Eriksson kept his Honda Civic RX on par with Kristoffersson’s Volkswagen Polo RX, in a top-4 that also had Andreas Bakkerud still chasing consistency in his Audi S1 RX.
Things were actually so flipped over in the Qualifying that Saturday winner Peter Hedström had to get a second place in Q3 to advance after troubled appearances in Q1 and Q2, and Viktor Vranckx qualified in fifth despite having only a single top-5 finish in Q1, easily outpacing the national contenders in his RX2e machine.
Semifinal 1 had Bakkerud starting sideways to outpace and block Kristoffersson, showing the best of his Euro RX1 winning skill while leaving the World RX champion as prey to Yury Belevskiy in third. Bakkerud knows for experience that giving open way to Kristoffersson is the worst mistake possible, so he stood in line to force Kristoffersson to an early Joker, and dealing with Belevskiy actually held the Swede enough for Bakkerud to stay in front and keep Kristoffersson on his back bumper until the finish.
For Semifinal 2, Eriksson won the sideways battle with Linnemann while Ole-Christian Veiby thanked for the open door and took second place. An early Joker would keep Veiby out of the pack with Linnemann and Hedström, but the plan backfired on the KMS driver due to a misfire and an engine break in the Volkswagen Polo RX. Once the Joker laps were done, Eriksson was still dominant until the finish, with Hedström coming in second while Linnemann’s late Joker held him in third.
While some of the drivers said goodbye to the main Final, there was still an Am Final to race, and Linnemann was caught napping with a slow start and then a spin while Vranckx was leading after outpacing Morten Schnack despite despite having a toed out wheel from Lap 1.
Despite the power deficit to the combustion powered supercars and the suspension issue, Vranckx was not only holding it, but was also clocking faster laps than the competition, which secured the Am victory for the Belgian while Maiko Tamm rescued a late second place and Stefan Kristensson came late to complete the podium.
The main supercar Final was stacked with talent despite a missing Ulrik Linnemann due to Am Final damages. Hedström had a rocket start from row 2 but Eriksson covered it quickly while Kristoffersson retired on Lap 1. Belevskiy holding Bakkerud was perfect for Eriksson, which is why the JC Raceteknik driver went to the Joker on Lap 2 while the Volland Racing driver went on Lap 3, with the two Audis banging doors mid-race.
With Joker laps done, Eriksson had the advantage but Bakkerud and Belevskiy weren’t far away, and a desperate late braking with two corners to go sent both Bakkerud to the wrong way while Eriksson was almost perfectly rotated to the corner, just having to bring it home to secure victory while Belevskiy snatched second place, with Hedström collecting the final podium spot after Bakkerud’s misfortune.
RallyX Nordic - Nysum II event results
Eriksson leads the standings with 52 points against the 50 of Kristoffersson, with Hedström having 46 third and Bakkerud and Belevskiy sharing the fourth place with 41 points. Next up in the calendar is the visit to the Tierp Arena on 6 and 7 May in the same double header format.
PHOTO: RallyX Nordic
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