Enerberg’s title threat

Norwegian’s budget will run dry before the year end.

TouringCar points leader Lars Øivind Enerberg will end the first half of the European Rallycross Championship with a maximum score; no matter what the 20-year-old Norwegian achieves here in Sweden this weekend, his four victories in Britain, Portugal, France and Norway mean that he has already has 80 points in the board and the necessity to drop one score from the first five races means that even a win in Höljes will be, literally, pointless.

Despite this astounding run of success, Enerberg is not yet certain that he will be able to complete the season. “I want to win this but we need more money before we can finish the rest of the season, we have money for Belgium and Holland but I need more before I can go to the three last rounds,” he said.

Given that he has achieved all he can possibly do in the first half of the year, and that money is tight, the obvious question is: Why is Enerberg racing in Sweden?

“Because it’s the best race in the European championship! There are 30,000 spectators, the crowd is awesome, it’s the best race in the year and it’s only three hours from home – it’s less travelling for me than Trondheim – so you have to be here. I have 80 points and that’s the maximum, this is just a testing event and also an opportunity to take some points away from the closest rivals, Tohill and Pauwels.”

Enerberg has achieved more than any driver in the championship this year, has won every event and rarely set a wheel wrong. On that form he would appear to be a sure bet for the title, and to be denied the chance by a budgetary shortfall in the last three rounds would be a tragedy.

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