Seven days, July 12

There is no question about this week’s top story, Andreas Bakkerud was the universally popular winner in the Swedish round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship. A couple of weeks after losing out on a possible win in Norway when his Citroen DS3 suffered a puncture, Bakkerud bounced back and stamped his mark on the Swedish event in Holjes. Winning his semi-final from pole, Bakkerud went on to fend off Petter Solberg and Mattias Ekstrom to take the victory, putting a pass on Timmy Hansen along the way after dropping briefly to second place after taking the joker lap. Bakkerud’s victory was also a notable achievement for Liam Doran Motor Sport, the first time that the team has won an event with anyone other than its boss, and it’s third victory in six RallycrossRX events. Working his way up to speed in the first day, Ekstrom was on fire in the second day of the event and won his semi-final to share the front row of the grid with Bakkerud and then fighting back from a slow start to take second place ahead of Hansen.

In Super1600 Ulrik Linnemann led the way and after being on top of the intermediate standing, went on to win his semi-final and then to hold off series leader Reinis Nitiss to take his second win of the year. Nitiss retained the championship lead with second place and Vadim Makarov made it to the podium in third place. Derek Tohill’s victory in TouringCar was particularly noteworthy, the Irishman taking the fight to the Nordic drivers on their home turf and leading at the intermediate stage before adding both semi-final and final victories to stretch his lead at the top of the points chart. Daniel Lundh was best of the home drivers in second, Roman Castoral on the podium yet again in third place.

The JRX field slipped to four starters after licence problems prevented Viktoria Sandberg from taking part. After a difficult start to the year, Kevin Hansen bounced back and dominated his home event with an unbeaten run through the weekend.

Patrik Sandell made his European debut in Holjes but ended his run in the semi-final when his Fiesta broke down. The Swede then jetted off to New Hampshire for Thursday night’s GRC event. Sandell eventually nets second place, but only after a last corner drama in the final. Tanner Foust was leading the way but slipped up in the final turn and crashed his Fiesta. Before Foust could rejoin, Toomas Heikkinen had swept past to steal the victory, Sandell and Brian Deegan also passing before Foust limped home in fourth place. Practice for the event was struck by rain that flooded parts of the temporary track, before conditions improved for the racing.

The GRC Lites category had its first event, the win taken by Joni Wiman who led home Sebastien Eriksson and the unrelated Kevin Eriksson.

After completing its second event at Nysum in Denmark, the NEZ series prepares for a double-header in the Baltic states that will complete its brief four-event schedule. Round two winner Kazimieras Gudziunas (Ford Puma) leads the series going into the events in Latvia and Lithuania over the next two weekends.

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