Once again dominant throughout the qualifying heats of Race 2 with three consecutive fastest times, Roberts Vitols was ultimately denied the result he had been hoping for in the final after suffering a failure on the left rear suspension. An opportunity that Kevin Daarbak seized to secure the first Supercar Lites victory of his career ahead of the Latvian driver, while Pontus Oskarsson claimed his second consecutive podium finish of the weekend.

Meanwhile, Kevin Daarbak, who had been limited to fourth place in the intermediate standings following a retirement in Q2 due to technical issues, proved decisive in the final thanks to a perfectly executed race strategy.

Having scored 41 points across the weekend compared to Vitols’ 45, Daarbak now moves into second place in the championship standings ahead of this weekend’s trip to Finland and the spectacular Pesämäki circuit in Honkajoki.

Despite the mechanical problems that disrupted his progress during qualifying, Kevin Daarbak never stopped believing in his chances throughout the second day of competition.

“Already yesterday we had a really strong day, finishing second with extremely small gaps to Vitols. Today we started strongly once again with second place in Q1 just behind him,” explained Kevin Daarbak before continuing:

“Then in Q2 we suffered a problem with the front differential, which broke and forced us to retire. The issue was still there in Q3 and the car was only operating at around 70 percent of its full potential.”

Forced to completely rethink their preparation ahead of the final, Daarbak and his small team had to work relentlessly to get the car back into shape within a very limited amount of time.

“After Q3 we managed to remove the front differential once again and worked non stop for nearly an hour and a half to get the car ready for the final. There were only four of us at this event, my father, my brother, my mother and myself, so everybody put in a massive effort.”

Those efforts were ultimately rewarded with a particularly emotional maiden victory for the Danish driver.

“To end the weekend like this is simply fantastic. I really want to thank my entire family. My parents and my brother gave me the best car possible this weekend.”

The victory now puts Kevin Daarbak firmly back into championship contention ahead of what promises to be a crucial round in Finland.

“This win is obviously a huge confidence boost before the next round in Finland. We now hope everything will work perfectly with the car so we can fight Vitols and the rest of the field once again.”

For much of the weekend, Roberts Vitols appeared untouchable thanks to his clear dominance throughout qualifying and looked firmly on course to secure a fourth consecutive Supercar Lites victory before mechanical trouble dramatically changed the outcome of the final.

“I think we did an excellent job throughout the entire weekend. We were perfectly prepared before every heat and managed to maximize every single run on track,” Vitols recalled.

After making an excellent start in the final, the Latvian driver initially looked to have complete control of the race before his hopes of victory gradually slipped away.

“We had won every heat leading into the final. The start was very good once again, I immediately took the lead and everything felt perfectly under control. The split times and lap times were very strong.”

It was at the beginning of the second lap that things suddenly began to unravel for Vitols after an issue developed at the rear of the car.

“Then at the beginning of lap two I started to feel something strange at the rear of the car, almost like a slow puncture. Half a lap later it already felt like a full puncture. I basically had no traction left through the fast corners.”

Hampered through the quicker sections of the circuit, the Latvian admitted he was instantly losing a considerable amount of time per lap, while still taking some satisfaction from salvaging second place.

“From that moment on, I think we immediately lost between one and a half and two seconds per lap. In the end, I actually think finishing second under those circumstances remains a fairly positive result.”

Despite his disappointment, Roberts Vitols remained philosophical and acknowledged that mechanical setbacks are simply part of rallycross.

“Honestly, it’s obviously not the result we were hoping for after a weekend like this. But sometimes you simply have to take the points. In rallycross, technical issues are part of the game and anything can happen. There’s what the driver does on track, but there’s also the mechanical side.”

“The team had prepared the car perfectly and everything had been working very well until then. Afterwards, we discovered the issue came from the left rear suspension. Maybe a component failed after a compression or impact, even though I don’t feel like I hit anything. I was actually taking a fairly cautious approach at the start of the final, knowing I still had several laps available if I needed to increase the pace. Now we’ll analyse the weekend in detail before turning our attention to Finland over the coming hours.”