After stepping up from the Supercar Lites category, Tobias Daarbak used the opening round of the RallyX Championship at Valkenswaard to make his first official appearance in Open 4WD competition.

Fourth in last year’s Supercar Lites standings after claiming four podium finishes across nine events between Riga and Buxtehude, the Danish driver arrived in the Netherlands determined to gradually adapt to the demands of RallyX’s premier category behind the wheel of the FC2. Despite a weekend disrupted by limited track time and several technical setbacks, Daarbak showed clear signs of progress over the course of the two-day event.

During the opening race of the weekend, the Scandinavian driver secured a Top 5 result in the second qualifying session. Although he narrowly missed out on reaching the Open 4WD Pro final, Daarbak still had reason to be satisfied after finishing second in the Pro-Am final. A result that allowed him to gain valuable experience in a category where track time and confidence are essential.

“The weekend could obviously have gone better, but it’s important to put things into perspective. Before this event, we had only completed three test sessions, two of them in wet conditions. In the end, I only had around twenty laps in the dry with the car, so arriving here almost felt like discovering it for the first time. That was even more the case after a gearbox issue disrupted the opening free practice session before we were forced to miss the second one altogether. Realistically, I had to wait until Q1 before I could truly start learning the car around Valkenswaard.”

Under those circumstances, Daarbak knew the priority was to build experience while continuing to work on the car’s setup in order to improve his confidence step by step.

“In those conditions, it’s naturally difficult to find the pace quickly, especially on such a demanding circuit where confidence plays a huge role. Starting from the outside of the grid also makes it extremely difficult to fight back against the fastest drivers. We did the best we could, but this first weekend was mainly about understanding the car better and refining the setup so I could feel more comfortable behind the wheel. I’m still not fully confident yet, but we’re moving in the right direction.”

The second event of the weekend confirmed that progress. Looking increasingly competitive throughout the qualifying stages, Daarbak managed to break into the Open 4WD Top 5 standings before securing a strong fifth-place finish in the Pro final. At the same time, he remained in contention for another Pro-Am podium before narrowly missing out behind Adam Öhman.

Despite those positive signs, the Danish driver remained realistic about the amount of work still required to consistently challenge the category’s front-runners.

“Yesterday’s Pro-Am podium is still an encouraging result, even if our ambitions are obviously higher. We made a lot of setup changes during Race 1. Some worked well, others less so, which forced us to backtrack in certain areas. That’s all part of the learning process. There’s still a lot for us to analyse in order to find the right balance and improve our overall performance.”

On a Valkenswaard circuit renowned for its narrow layout and limited overtaking opportunities, even the smallest mistake could quickly decide the outcome of a race.

“The track here is extremely narrow, which makes overtaking very difficult. If you don’t get the start right, it becomes incredibly hard to recover, apart from possibly using the joker lap strategy. With the walls so close and very little run-off area, even the smallest mistake can be costly. It makes the racing even more demanding.”

At the end of his first learning weekend in Open 4WD, Tobias Daarbak preferred to focus on the experience gained rather than the raw results alone. The Dane is now hoping to take another step forward in the upcoming RallyX rounds on Scandinavian circuits, which he believes will suit his driving style more naturally.

“I hope the Scandinavian tracks will suit my driving style a bit better. Until then, the objective remains the same: keep learning, keep building mileage and keep improving in order to be more competitive at the next rounds.”