Podium quartet for JC Raceteknik at Nysum
Kil-based Swedish rallycross team JC Raceteknik concluded a busy period of events across Europe with a quartet of podium finishes at round three of RallyX Nordic in Denmark.
The weekend ended in the best possible way for Supercar Lites driver Ben-Philip Gundersen, who finished top in qualifying, won his semi-final and the final, the maximum points score moving the Norwegian driver into the championship lead. Jimmie Walfridson put a difficult start to the season behind him and joined team mate Gundersen on the podium, but it was a tougher weekend for Sondre Evjen. The Norwegian showed fast pace but didn’t find the right flow on the challenging circuit. He finished the final sixth and is second overall in the standings.
Former European Rallycross Champion Robin Larsson was the fastest driver in Supercar. He was quickest in three of the fourth qualifying sessions, but a disqualification in Q2 for overtaking a car under a yellow flag, when unsighted by bad dust, dropped him back. Despite the setback, Larsson battled through the semi-finals and final and finished on the podium in second. After the third round he lies third in the standings. Fellow Swede Mats Ohman made his first start in JC Raceteknik’s Audi S1 Supercar and ended up ninth overall.
The JC Raceteknik Juniorteam drivers were also in action and enjoyed success. 15-year-old Isak Reiersen had some technical problems through the weekend, but despite that, managed to fight among the fastest times. In the semi-final and final he hit is stride, produced strong performances and won both races to score victory and move to third in the points. The second round of Finnish Virrat also took place, where for 12-year-old Alex Gustafsson it was his second event in the Xtreme Junior category. He impressed with wins in qualifying and second in the final to climb to second in the standings, just one point behind the leader.
Find full results and championship standings here.
Joel Christoffersson, Team Principal:
“I'm incredibly happy about the Supercar Lites result. It has been a great weekend where we were one, three and four heading into the final. Ben-Philip has shown great pace throughout the season, while Jimmie had a more difficult start, so it feels really good to get this result. Sondre has had good speed this weekend, but in the final we didn’t have the right pace. We know he will come back strong in Riga.
In Supercar it was nice to be able to start with both cars. Robin did a very good job, but the black flag in Q2 hit us all weekend. In the semi-finals he drove up from fourth to second, and we made some adjustments to the car to the final to try to raise the pace even further. Unfortunately, the car got a puncture in the final, but Robin still managed to take second place. For Mats, we used the event a bit as a test. The speed has not really been where we wanted it, but we will test even harder before Riga.
It was also really nice for Isaac to take this win. He has had an extremely tough start to the season with drive shaft problems, but has shown that when everything is working he is at the top. That Alex took second place in FinRX is also really good. We’ve been following his development for many years now, and he has really found a good rhythm in this new class to him."
Supercar: Robin Larsson (SWE) :
“I'm a little disappointed. It was my first race at this track and I was the fastest through the whole event, except for the second heat where I got a black flag. That put a mark on the whole weekend and it was really hard not to be able to challenge Oliver [Eriksson] in the final. I was second after the first corner, and although we didn’t get caught from behind, I didn’t really have the speed I wanted. Exactly why that is I don’t know, the dust did made it difficult to keep the right lines. The car worked really well again, now it's just to recharge before the next event.”
Supercar Lites: Ben-Philip Gundersen (NOR) :
“We are very pleased to lead the championship. The weekend has really been good, but it has also been a weekend where we had to fight very hard. So victory tastes brilliant. The pace was good from the start, but the others were also fast. We have worked on the setup and the mechanics did a really good job with the car. In the semi-final I had a good feeling and led from start to finish, the same thing we did again in the final. It's a nice feeling. Congratulations to the whole JC Raceteknik team for all of the other good results, it was a great weekend for all of us.”
Supercar Lites: Jimmie Walfridson (SWE) :
“It was really fun this weekend. At last I found the feeling and had things go a little more my way. I had consistent pace, tried to think about the whole weekend more and it went really well. It feels nice to have both taken a qualifying win and a podium place, now we have show that we are can do it again for the rest of the season.”
Supercar Lites: Sondre Evjen (NOR) :
"I had okay speed throughout the weekend but I struggled a lot with finding the flow and being smooth enough. At the beginning I struggled a little with the starts, but they got better during the race. In the semi-finals I got a very good start, but was too fast at the first corner and almost spun. Despite that, I managed to keep second place in sight. In the final I didn’t tind the rhythm at all and was stuck in the dust behind the others. I’m disappointed, but we will fight again in Riga.”
Xtreme: Isak Reiersen (SWE) :
"It's the first year for me in Xtreme, I'm still young and it's a tough starting field with many experienced drivers. Despite that, I managed to win here, which feels amazing. We have struggled with technical problems from the beginning of the season, and even this weekend we had problems with the driveshafts. But, during the weekend we gave everything we had and the mechanics did an incredible job. I have always known that the speed can be good when everything works, but now we have also been able to show it. In both the semi-finals and the finals we had found the right setup and I could run at my own pace without taking any risks. I must say a big thank you to all the sponsors, my mechanics, my spotter, everyone who supports me and the whole JC Raceteknik team – they are the people who make this possible.”
Xtreme Junior: Alex Gustafsson (SWE) :
“Of course this feels really good. Already from practice it has been a good weekend and I have had good speed. In Q1 it went perfectly and I took a fastest time. In the second heat maybe I wanted it a little too much and overdrove, but it still got a second place. The third session was magical! I started at the back, was second out of the start and finally won. In the final I didn’t get a perfect start and it got pretty busy at the first corner. I struggled to find some gaps, but it was good fight and I came second. We have worked really hard this weekend and had a lot of fun. Being second in a championship feels fantastic.”
