Timerzyanov takes his opportunity * updated

With some of his leading rivals otherwise occupied on the other side of the Atlantic, Timur Timerzyanov knows that this weekend’s Swedish round of the Europea Rallycross Championship represents a golden opportunity to gain ground. The Russian, points leader in the first half of the series, started the weekend perfectly, fastest in timed practice and now ahead again in the first qualifying heat where he cleaned out the pack to set fastest time, even though he felt the last two laps of his race were ‘a little bit messy’.

Messy or not, Timerzyanov was two seconds faster than Stig-Olov Walfridson who did a great job on his home track, and the inspired PG Andersson who demonstrated the worth of the Hedströms Motorsport Fabia with a solid run to third. Behind Andersson on the track, Moren Bermingrud was passed by Daniel Holten, but then struck back, skinning the youngster’s Volvo and setting fourth fastest time.

Krzysztof Skokupski bashed in fastest time of the Super1600 racers, a shade more then two seconds faster than Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme with David Johansson making a great start to his home event in third place. As in Norway last week, TouringCar is large and competitive, and as last week Lars Øyvind Enerberg was fastest ahead of Roman Castoral who, returned to the series having skipped the Norwegian race. Fastest in practice, Robin Larsson made a slow start and fought back to third fastest time.

Delayed from last week, the JRX finally had its first races. Kevin Hansen was fastest but the history book entry for the first JRX race win went to Marat Knazev who won the first of the the two race and set second fastest time overall.

* Krzysztof Skorupski has been excluded from the first qualifying heat after scrutineers judge that the underbody protection of his VW Polo did not meet the regulations. A team spokesman explained that the car was exactly as it has been raced by Skoruspki over the last year and that the problem stems from the fact the protection is bolted to the chassis and not welded. 

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