Vranckx dominates the Saturday at Valkenswaard

The idea for Viktor Vrankcx’ return to Europe-based competition was to go all out once the Belgian hit the race track again, and the Saturday (26) showed a glimpse of what to expect in his new phase in a rallycross supercar, with his Peugeot 208 WRX being the class of the field at the first RallyX South league event of the Valkenswaard double header.
 
The first two qualifying heat sessions were more of a warm up as the total times were barely beating the two minute mark, with Oliver Eriksson being on top in Q1 and Viktor Vranckx topping Q2, but it was on Q3 that the Belgian, armed with a new Peugeot 208 WRX, showed basically the full power at disposal, topping the session with almosy 1.5 seconds to Eriksson and getting really close to the 1:50 minute mark.
 
While Vranckx was the top qualifier and Eriksson was behind him as the best FC2, Tommi Hallman, Casper Jansson and Fraser McConnell completed the top five, with Montalegre winner Nathan Ottink representing well the Belgian RX Championship camp as he was sixth in the table, while Tom van den Heuvel was eighth behind Ulrik Linnemann, and Johnny Verkuringen shared the bottom of the table with Elias Svensson as he was getting the hand of his Volkswagen Scirocco.
 
Semifinal 1 had Vranckx on a rocket start to beat Hallman before turn 1, and initially the frontrunners looked safe, but not only Linnemann got stuck behind Hallman, but McConnell closed the gap and passed Linnemann once the Joker was done. Vranckx and Hallman kept first and second place, respectively, while Linnemann pressed McConnell as hard as he could, eventually failing to take the third place from the Jamaican.
 
In the second Semifinal, Ottink broke the FC2 party by squeezing his Ford Focus RX in second place, and with the ticket in the Final being secure, it would be an option to attack Oliver Eriksson in front, although he would have to keep an eye on Casper Jansson. Although Ottink had the pace, the status quo wasn’t broken, so he had to watch Eriksson take the win while Jansson finished behind both of them.
 
Vranckx had the top spot in the Final and secured it in the first corners as the FC2s were squabbling for positions, with Hallman taking second place while Ottink was third, at least until a problem stopped him halfway, promoting Eriksson to third. In the final lap, Hallman had a suspension problem with a puncture, and while Vranckx was unbeatable in his way to victory, Eriksson still score a second place while McConnell followed him to the last podium place.
 
RallyX South - Valkenswaard I event results
 
PHOTO: RallyX