Despite dominating the Supercar Lites category in the RallyX championship for the past two years, Simon Olofsson doesn’t seem to rest on his laurels.
Simon Olofsson hasn’t always been used to periods of prosperity like the one he is experiencing since 2022. In addition to two consecutive championship titles, the most successful driver in the history of RallyX Supercar Lites has racked up no less than seven wins and a total of ten podium finishes in just two seasons.
A two-time runner-up in RallyX in 2016 and 2017, the 2018 and 2019 campaigns proved far more complicated for the man who was then establishing himself as a rising star of Swedish Rallycross.
Nonetheless, Simon Olofsson was able to learn from his mistakes to bounce back and rediscover a level of performance much more in line with the potential he had shown in his Supercar Lites debut, which included a third-place overall finish on the international RX2 Series scene in 2016 behind the fearsome duo of Cyril Raymond/Thomas Bryntesson.
“If I knew I didn’t have the speed to perform in this category, I wouldn’t have stuck it out season after season like I did. I had a couple of very difficult years where absolutely nothing seemed to be going my way. I guess I was doing too many things between events. I had to juggle budgeting and race preparation with everyday tasks. However, I’ve managed to solve these problems and it’s been a few seasons now since I’ve been able to really focus on racing,” says Simon.
“I had to change my approach. Now I’m better organized, and that frees me from certain tasks. Instead of arriving at every race exhausted, I now have a lot of fun every time I get behind the wheel.”
Despite a career total of 13 wins and 23 podiums in the RallyX championship, Simon Olofsson still can’t seem to get enough.
“I’ve been feeling really good for two seasons now. Even though I don’t feel the same pressure as I did when I started in Supercar Lites, and I’m also focused on having fun, I still know that I have to prove that I can perform every weekend. My approach was different then. I felt I had to do things this way and that way to perform, but with the organization we have now, with sponsors to support me and a technical team that can handle all the ups and downs of racing, I have to admit that my life is a lot easier. I’m also much calmer and more relaxed than before.”
With Simon Olofsson now a real force to be reckoned with in the RallyX championship, it would take more than that to encourage him to relax.
“I’m not sure what to think about all these wins and podiums,” smiles Simon.
“Of course it’s a great feeling to realize what we’ve achieved, but I know I can still do better. Even when I win a race, I always tell myself that maybe I could have opened up a bigger gap to my direct rival. I also tell myself that if I had to race Sebastian Eriksson or Oliver and Kevin Eriksson, for example, I’d have to push a lot harder to hope to beat them. Winning a race is never enough because you can always go faster and, above all, do better.”
