Jimmie Österberg, who made a spectacular comeback last weekend in Grenland, is clearly determined to build on his success as the RallyX championship prepares to return to Höljes for the final round of the 2023 season.
With a total of three victories and 11 podiums in his RallyX career, Jimmie Österberg is one of the most experienced drivers in the CrossCar category.
The driver of the PACE Motorsport team put his skills to the test in Grenland, despite being unable to score a Top 10 finish in qualifications.
After Q4, the Swedish driver was 18th in the intermediate classification, and almost missed out on a place in the semi-finals. A minor detail, however, did not stop him from bouncing back at the end of the weekend, as the LifeLive driver ended his journey with an unexpected fourth place in Norway.
“In fact, I think absolutely nothing went my way during qualifying,” joked Jimmie.
“I didn’t have any particular problems, but luck just wasn’t on my side. I lost time in traffic in Q1 before having to go through the Joker Lap twice in Q3 following a false start. To make matters worse, it started raining just before the start of my heat in Q4, which naturally gave an advantage to the drivers who were lucky enough to start before the downpour”
As always in Rallycross, whatever the circumstances, self-confidence remains an absolute requirement for performance. A philosophy Jimmie clearly put into practice at the end of the weekend.
“This is without doubt my biggest comeback. To recover from the 18th and last qualifying place for the semi-finals at the end of Q4 to manage a fourth-place finish in the final is a very fine performance. In any case, after my poor qualifications, I didn’t have much choice. I had to do the race of my life in the semi-final, trying to overtake as many competitors as possible as quickly as possible”.
A performance that Jimmie Österberg achieved by taking second place in the third semi-final behind current championship leader Sebastian Enholm.
“I really pushed as hard as I could in the semi-final, and just the fact that I was able to secure a place in the final was already a huge satisfaction. I don’t think I was far off the podium , but I lost a bit of time at the beginning of the race behind another driver. Nevertheless, to wrap up my weekend in fourth place is a very pleasing result, given the difficulties I went through in qualifications”
Although Jimmie Österberg dropped two positions in the overall standings from 7th to 9th in the RallyX championship, the LifeLive driver has not yet said his last word.
“We now have nothing left to play for in the overall championship standings, so the aim is to give it everything we’ve got and try to score the best possible result on the Höljes circuit for the final round of the season. We know that Höljes is a complicated track for first-timers, but all my rivals know the layout inside out, so I won’t have the slightest advantage this weekend.”
“This track is both technical and fast and requires precision and aggressiveness all the time. It’s a place where you can’t relax if you want to score good results. My objective is clear: at the very least, to qualify for a final and, above all, to try and grab a podium finish to end the season on a high note”
