After losing the championship lead following Carl Svedlund’s latest dominant display in the second round at Honkajoki, Espen Isaksaetre responded in the best possible fashion on Saturday at Älvsbyn. By winning the opening race of the weekend in northern Sweden, he secured his first RallyX North victory of the season while keeping himself firmly within striking distance of the JC Raceteknik driver in the CrossCar standings.
Yet, little appeared to be going Isaksaetre’s way during qualifying. Only sixth in the intermediate standings after a day shaped by constantly changing weather conditions, the Norwegian nevertheless managed to raise his game when it mattered most.
“We struggled a lot in the wet conditions today. Our starts simply weren’t good enough. However, during the semi-final we could see that the track was gradually drying out. We put a huge amount of work into preparing for this circuit before the event and I think the lessons we learned during those preparations really paid off in both the semi-final and the final. I followed the plan we had put together ahead of the final and it worked perfectly,” explained Isaksaetre.
He then produced a flawless performance during the knockout stages. After winning his semi-final, Isaksaetre repeated the feat in the final to take victory ahead of Thomas Eek Murstad and Carl Svedlund. Meanwhile, Riku Huuhka was demoted to fourth place after receiving a penalty following contact with Joonatan Ylilammi.
The result immediately reignites Isaksaetre’s battle with Svedlund in the fight for the title. Despite securing his first win of the season, however, the former FIA Euro RX3 Vice-Champion is refusing to get carried away.
“It has obviously been a very good day. But the season is still long and we can never afford to relax. We have to keep fighting at every race.”
While the result was exactly what he needed, Isaksaetre believes there are still areas that require attention ahead of Sunday’s action.
“We still need to work on our starts and on certain aspects of the track in order to find more performance. Our outright pace is quite good, but it’s always very difficult to come back through the field when you’re not leading after the opening corners. We’ll analyse everything and try to be even stronger for Race 2.”
Despite Isaksaetre’s victory, Svedlund remains at the top of the standings. The Swede will begin the second day of competition holding a four-point advantage over Isaksaetre, while Thomas Eek Murstad sits third, ten points adrift of the leader. Behind them, Huuhka also remains firmly in contention, trailing by just 16 points.
Despite his experience and his status as one of the category’s regular front-runners, Isaksaetre is unwilling to draw any early conclusions about the title race.
“I don’t think experience will play a decisive role in the championship battle. The season is still long and there are plenty of races left to run. A lot can happen between now and the end of the year. We’ll take it step by step, race by race, and we’ll see where we stand when the championship concludes in Germany.”