Unknown in the RallyX championship scene until the 2023 season, the 2022 Norwegian CrossCar champion Alexander Heum has nonetheless established himself as one of the highlights of the year. And the young Norwegian hopes to confirm his reputation in 2024.
Fifth in the overall standings with five qualifiers for a final in eight races contested, for a total of two podiums, the Norwegian also stood out as the championship’s third-best performer in terms of pure speed, with a lap deficit of just 0.005s on the Svensson/Enholm duo over the whole season.
While he was still in contention for the title after the Kouvola event, only nine points behind Sebastian Enholm, it was paradoxically at the seventh round of the championship, on his home turf in Grenland, Norway, that Alexander Heum saw his chances of taking first place in the overall standings go up in smoke.
Kicked out at the end of Q4, Alexander Heum makes no secret of the fact that he would have hoped for an entirely different scenario.
“Inevitably, my confidence took a hit at Grenland. To be honest, it wasn’t easy to follow up with the final stage in Höljes a week later, as my motivation was so low,” stresses the Casmat driver.
“Nevertheless, even though I obviously came away very disappointed from my race in Norway, there are some things you just can’t control, and the weather is one of them.”
Disturbed by numerous showers, Alexander Heum found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time every time on this Grenland event.
“The track conditions were never good for me,” smiles Alexander.
“I knew I was still in contention for the championship, but every time my direct rivals were allowed to race on a dry track, a shower arrived at the worst possible moment just before the start of my race. Quite frankly, I couldn’t say that success was on my side that weekend”.
This was not enough to prevent Alexander Heum from getting his revenge a week later in Höljes, when he took second place on the podium behind Estonian driver Martin Juga.
Winner of Q4, the Norwegian concluded his qualifying session in second place in the intermediate standings, before maintaining his position throughout the semi-final and final.
“In Höljes, my only alternative was just to start from scratch and try to be smart in my decision-making, and things worked out pretty well.”
“I managed to stay in contention for the championship right up to this round in Grenland, but things didn’t work out in my favor, and that’s something I’ll have to accept.”
Now propelled as one of the favourites for the RallyX crown, Alexander is obviously hoping to be back in business next year.
“The idea is, of course, to return to the RallyX championship in 2024. If everything goes well with the budget and sponsors, we’ll obviously try to take part in all the championship events,” assures Alexander.
“I just hope we’ll have as many events as possible close to our home bases to limit travel. Our aim this year was at least to qualify for a final, but we achieved that right from the start in Nysum. We were extremely surprised by the start to the season, but this had the advantage of encouraging us to revise our objectives upwards. That’s why we decided to make some trips that we hadn’t planned to make because of the costs involved, such as Kouvola in Finland. However, thanks to the help of Olliver Sollie’s team and other Norwegians who have given us their support, we have managed to find some solutions, so we hope to be there in 2024”.
