The Sunday (10) of RallyX at Estering was dominated by a Viktor Vranckx on a mission, as he tried until the last moment to fight back Ulrik Linnemann for the RallyX North crown, but a more sensible performance from the Linnemann Promotion driver helped him expel any doubts and gave him the title on a supercar that he chased for a long time between highs and heavy lows, which even put in doubt the continuation of his rallycross career.
While Viktor Vranckx did his job and topped the Qualifying with a perfect run, Maiko Tamm wasn’t impressive but stood on the run with his fourth place, although most of this was due to Ulrik Linnemann’s abysmal performance, which included a crash in Q2, which meant the Danish driver only got safe after Q3, when he passed Mandie August for the 12th position, barely making the cut to the Semifinals.
To Vranckx and Tamm, survive the first Semifinal would be a massive step, and for the Belgian it was easier to do it from the front, while a spin from Filip Martinsson collected Tamm, and with a damaged car, his title chances were gone as he was last. Vranckx was confident in his Peugeot 208 WRX and powered his way to the win, while Oliver Eriksson and Elias Svensson came a mile later.
Semifinal 2 saw Linnemann get boxed before the first corner, only to do the smart thing and find holes in the pack to overtake, positioning himself right behind Casper Jansson in second while Filip Thorén was following him to avoid Hans-Joran Ostreng. With the positions being kept until the finish line, the second place was more than enough for Linnemann to secure the title.
Vranckx could still have the weekend sweep as kind of a consolation prize, and in the Final he protected the inside from a savage attack from Jansson, which secured the lead for the moment, and behind him, Jansson slipped, spun and held the whole field in Turn 1, which basically handed the first place to Vranckx with a massive gap, while Linnemann was the first to escape the mess and Jansson became third despite the brutalized state of his FC2. In the end, Vranckx crossed the line in first and was the only car in one piece, while champion Linnemann crossed the line in second with a mangled Volkswagen Polo RX, while Jansson and the rest couldn’t even make it to the finish line.
RallyX - Estering II event results
In the Open 4WD Am subclass, Mikko Ikonen won the Final and reverted the situation in his favor to lift the title, 11 points ahead of Anton Seppa. Casper Jansson did the same in the Open 4WD FC2 class, winning the Sunday Final and reverting the situation to be crowned champion with 9 points ahead of Fraser McConnell.
The full Open 4WD standings saw Linnemann end the season with 192 points, Vranckx becoming the runner-up in his first season with a supercar, scoring 181, Maiko Tamm step up his game and ending in third with 174 points, while Filip Martinsson appeared as a surprise and ended in fourth with 158 points, with Casper Jansson having the best FC2 performance to end in fifth with 154. In total, 28 drivers scored points out of the 31 that took part in at least one round of the season, with a total of 41 drivers appearing in at least one event between RallyX North and South.
PHOTO: Linnemann Promotion
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