Fifth in the 2023 RallyX championship in his first campaign at this level of the sport, Alexander Heum clearly didn’t have the success he had hoped for this year.
Every season brings its own challenges and this year was no exception for Alexander Heum. Expected to be one of the favourites for the CrossCar title, the young Norwegian never managed to find the key.
After qualifying five times for a final in 2023, with two podiums to his name, the Casmat driver had to make do with just one podium and four final qualifications this year, finishing sixth overall.
However, it would be wrong to say that Alexander Heum lacks the potential to become a championship contender.
The second fastest driver in the category in terms of pure speed, just 0.002s behind Elias Svensson, the Casmat driver set four fastest race laps, won four qualifying races and scored 20 top 8 finishes out of 30 races in the 2024 season, for a total of 870 points in qualifications (the third best performance of the season behind Elias Svensson and Thomas Eek Murstad).
Heum, on the other hand, despite setting the fastest lap in Race 1 at Älvsbyn and Nysum, was hardly rewarded for his efforts in the finals with the ninth best record in the CrossCar category (46 points scored over the whole season from the semi-finals onwards – editor’s note).
This left the Norwegian with a lingering sense of unfinished business.
‘At the beginning of the season I really struggled to find the pace to get up to the level of the best drivers in this championship,” says Alexander.
‘Things started to get better after that, as I was able to set the absolute fastest time in several qualifying sessions, but unfortunately RallyX isn’t the kind of championship where you can afford to relax. You can’t wait until the middle of the season to make the right adjustments if you want to compete at the top. Surely this lack of efficiency at the beginning of the season will have been one of our weak points in 2024.’
Although Alexander was able to confirm his 2023 results by securing a place in the top 6 of the category, he is aware that this position does not fully reflect his true speed.
‘A lot has happened this year, with a number of incidents occurring at the worst possible time of the weekend. Obviously this has cost me a lot of good results. Even though I was able to show that I still had the speed in the qualifying sessions, it’s obvious that things never went in my favour.’
For the time being, the Casmat driver doesn’t really know what his RallyX programme will look like in 2025. Having been crowned Norwegian champion ahead of Thomas Eek Murstad in 2022, Alexander Heum should at least focus on another season in his own national championship.
‘For the time being, we seem more inclined to focus on our national championship. Running two cars in events outside Norway comes at a considerable cost. Besides, the Norwegian championship is getting tougher every year and I’m looking forward to coming back and doing my best. However, I wouldn’t rule out a return to RallyX in the future. I like the concept of the championship, while it’s certainly the toughest challenge a CrossCar driver can take on. ‘
However, Alexander Heum doesn’t seem to have said the last word on the RallyX championship, and recent announcements confirming the Scandinavian series’ expansion into other markets are unlikely to dampen his enthusiasm.
‘I think it’s good that RallyX has taken the decision to expand in order to bring this extraordinary sport of rallycross back into the limelight. I think this will help to open up new opportunities for the drivers, while the championship promises to be even more competitive. All these different leagues give us a much clearer vision of where we can project ourselves as drivers.’
