Home podium for Krogstad in Norway as JC Raceteknik has triple final start
Norwegian JC Raceteknik driver Henrik Krogstad finished on the podium in his home round of the RX2 International Series at Hell (June 10), fighting back from a forced engine change on Saturday morning.
The third round of the 2018 series was a solid event for the JC Raceteknik squad, with five drivers competing in the single-make support category to the FIA World Rallycross Championship, racing identical Supercar Lites machines.
Three of those challengers made it into the final, with Sondre Evjen and William Nilsson also making the main event in front of 24,000 spectators.
Krogstad’s run to the podium was far from easy, the engine in his car broke in Q1. A fantastic job by the JC Raceteknik mechanics followed to change the engine in time for Q2 less than two hours later. He immediately responded with second fastest in Q2 and third overall in Q3 and Q4, before winning semi-final two to move into the final, where he finished third and is fifth in the overall points.
Racing at the event backed by his and JC Raceteknik’s Supercar team’s partners, Team Verksted, Sondre Evjen finished fourth, maintaining his strong performance at each round of RX2 so far this year and now holding second position in the championship. Swede William Nilsson also made it into the final but was slowed by a puncture and finished sixth.
Round one winner Ben-Philip Gundersen and Marcus Hoglund finished eighth and 17th respectively in Hell, Gundersen now lying sixth in the championship with four rounds remaining.
Find full results and championship standings here.
The next race of the RX2 International Series runs takes place at Holjes in Sweden, June 28 – July 1, which will also be the third round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship for Supercar.
Joel Christoffersson, Team Principal :
"We are pleased with Henrik’s third place, he was our fastest driver this weekend. That we got three cars in the final shows the speed is there and we are fighting at the top in RX2. We had good pace all weekend, we’re getting better and better and I’m so proud of our mechanics who changed Henrik’s engine between Q1 and Q2, that’s really impressive. We have two drivers in the top five in the championship, at the next round we hope to climb even higher.”
RX2: Henrik Krogstad (NOR) :
"Of course I always want to be on the top of the podium, but after what happened on Saturday I’m pleased with third. The team did a great job to change the engine so quickly, and I came straight back in Q2 with a race win and second fastest time. Despite good results in the last three races, it was hard to get good qualifying points and I was fourth in the Intermediate stage. When I won the semi-final I though the final would go better, but instead I was struggling to find a rhythm, but it’s great to be on the podium for all the sponsors and friends at my home race.”
RX2: Sondre Evjen (NOR) :
"I've been fighting at the top the whole weekend and now I’m second in the points. I’m very pleased with that. Although I struggled a bit with different starting positions, I showed I am up there by being third after qualifying and was fourth in the final. I’m proud to represent Team Verksted at home, they had more than 120 people in the audience cheering for us, that was really enjoyable.”
RX2: William Nilsson (SWE) :
"I had a good weekend but the times were not perfect. This is definitely the closest the competition has ever been, if you just miss a tenth of a second you lose three places, so you have to be 100% focused. I started from the back of the grid for the final, from there it’s difficult to get into the podium. I got a puncture, but honestly that didn’t make a big difference to the result. The speed was good, but it wasn’t to be this time.”
