Linnemann Awarded Famous Home Win in Nysum

Ulrik Linnemann has taken a stunning RallyX Nordic presented by Cooper Tires victory at Nysum in front of his home supporters after prevailing in a thrilling wet and wild Supercar final over Oliver Eriksson.

The Danish driver initially finished second on the road to Eriksson but when the Olsbergs MSE was penalised with a five-second penalty for clipping a track marker on the exit of the joker, Linnemann was promoted to victory.

It was an unexpectedly positive conclusion to an otherwise eventful day for Linnemann and his team after a broken gearbox in Q1 resulted in him failing to even make the start of Q2 and Q3. However, after the team successfully got his Volkswagen Polo ready in time for the semi-finals, Linnemann belied his lack of track running to make it into the final.

Once there, a spectacular start that took him from fifth into the lead at turn one and a tactical earlier joker set the tone for his great comeback victory.

Indeed, the win could have easily gone one of four ways. Eriksson looked set for victory even after surviving a high-speed brush with Thomas Bryntesson as they disputed track position following the former’s joker on the penultimate lap.

Light contact as they landed off the jump was enough to send Bryntesson sideways and into a wild spin, while Eriksson kept his car pointing in the right direction. However, race direction would later rule his exit from the joker wasn’t lawful to hand him the penalty that ultimately left him behind Linnemann.

Their misfortune could have played into the hands of Oliver Solberg who led prior to his Joker but the championship leader would suffer technical issues coming into the final lap, allowing his rivals through to compound a disappointing day that started with a fire in free practice and saw him penalised in his semi-final for contact with Bryntesson.

As drama unfolded around them, Philip Gehrman marked his return to RallyX Nordic competition with his second podium of the year in the Eklund Motorsport VW Beetle, ahead of the recovering Bryntesson and Solberg. Ola Froshaug collected points for sixth but failed to finish.

With neither able to maximise their pace when it mattered, Solberg and Bryntesson are now tied at the top of the overall standings on 96 points, while Eriksson has closed up just ten points adrift of their pair in what is now arguably a three-way dice for the title.

In the Supercar Lites class, Sondre Evjen defied the muddy conditions to take a commanding victory, the Norwegian leading a JC Raceteknik 1-2 ahead of Ben-Philip Gundersen and STS RX’s Simon Olofsson. Guillaume De Ridder – winner of the opening three races – was excluded in the semi-final phase after failing to take his Joker whilst leading. In the overall standings De Ridder leads Gundersen by 25 points.

In the first-ever running of the Super Touring RXN class, Daniel Lundh powered to victory in his Volvo C30 ahead of Sivert Svaardal and Jan-Emil Wilsberg in what was a closely-contested category throughout.