With most commitments in rallycross either paused or finished, drivers from different championships gathered at Grenland for the penultimate round of the 2023 RallyX Nordic season, the first single header along with the Höljes finale. In Norway, Johan Kristoffersson didn’t lose the authority and triumphed to put himself in contention for this season’s title.
Oliver and Kevin Eriksson were coming back from their Nitrocross commitments, while Yury Belevskiy and Viktor Vranckx came off from Euro RX1 and FIA RX2e, with Vranckx racing for the first time since the announcement of the early exit after disagreements with the FIA. For Kristoffersson and Ole Christian Veiby, it was their second different spec in a month, as they came off from FIA RX2e participation at Mettet as the World RX is paused for the moment. It was also a chance to impress for some young guns, like Thomas Murstad, who was splitting his time with the Crosskart class and also making the jump in the highest spec.
Track condition was all over the place in the Heats, with basically three Heats of pouring rain while the third one had some sort of a break to show us a really blank slate in terms of grip, but the changing conditions, in special the wet mess that was present in Heat 4, didn’t matter for Johan Kristoffersson, as the five time World RX champion dominated without question, with gaps to second placed drivers varying between 1 to 4 seconds depending on the track conditions.
Ole Christian Veiby was the first of the inconsistent group and second in the Intermediate table, beating Kevin Eriksson in a quite comfortable run while Sondre Evjen came from the back of the table to fourth, with Oliver Eriksson, Yury Belevskiy, Hans-Joran Ostreng, Jens Hvaal, Maiko Tamm and Mats Öhman quite close of each other, both in the table and in on track performance, though with the number of situations where doors and bumpers were banging, it remained to be judged if there was total pace from any of them.
While not exactly showing leading pace, Thomas Murstad impressed in his first supercar weekend while also having to compete in the Crosskart class, doing enough to be 12th and advance to the semifinals by beating most of the Norwegian RX championship contingent.
A mostly dry track was a more welcoming scenario for the final stages on Sunday, and on Semifinal 1, Kristoffersson had both Olsbergs MSE Hondas alongside his Volkswagen Polo RX. Prioritizing positions over attacking Kristoffersson, Kevin and Oliver Eriksson just slotted in second and third to cover Ostreng, and in fact the top-3 pace was so good it never gave Ostreng a chance.
In Semifinal 2, Veiby was in first place and made his advantage as evident as possible, but Hvaal and Evjen were determined to trail the Volkswagen Dealerteam BAUHAUS driver, which kept them away from Mats Öhman’s radar and qualified them into the Final.
In the Am Final, Hvaal beat Ostreng before the first corner from the outside but wasn’t totally free of him and Maiko Tamm. With Ostreng tumbling down the order and Tamm spinning on Lap 3, Hvaal just had to play it safe to secure victory as the gap allowed him to do a lone run for most of the time. Tamm still had enough gap to finish second while Stein Egil Jenssen finished in third.
The main Final had an Volkswagen Dealerteam BAUHAUS front row and an Olsbergs MSE implosion as Kevin Eriksson stalled and Oliver Eriksson came too hot in Turn 2 and had to recover by passing Jens Hvaal, all while Kristoffersson and Veiby were well coordinated in first and second. With Oliver following the same strategy as those in front of him, Kristoffersson and Veiby were never threatened and just continued their smooth run to the line.
RallyX Nordic - Grenland event results - Supercar / Supercar Am
Kristoffersson leads now the table with 134 points against the 132 of Kevin Eriksson, and with Yury Belevskiy having only 106 points in third, it will be a VW BAUHAUS vs. Olsbergs MSE fight for the title at the season finale, set for 2 September at Höljes.
The Supercar Am subdivision also has matters to settle in Sweden, as Tamm leads with 76 points and Viktor Vranckx might want to leave his bad weekend at Grenland behind and turn his 73 points into a leading score when the Höljes weekend comes to an end.
PHOTO: Kristoffersson Motorsport
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