Volkswagen Team Sweden

The Flying Norwegian, Ole-Christian Veiby, flat-out over the famous jump in Höljes

The “Magic weekend”, the home event of Volkswagen Team Sweden, was held in fantastic weather conditions, watched by 40.000 spectators in the little village Höljes, in the North of Värmland county. It was a difficult weekend for Volkswagen Team Sweden, but after a solid performance they managed to take two Polos to the Semi-finals.

The young Norwegian, Ole-Christian Veiby, impressed when he managed to qualify to the Semi-final after an impressive performance. Johan Kristoffersson was hit by a punctured rear wheel in his semi-final and lost his chance to join the final. Tord Linnerud had a struggling weekend after technical issues destroyed his weekend.

The 6:th event in FIA World Rallycross Championship started out as planned with Kristoffersson on third in the opening Heat. In the second Heat, Johan was hit in the door when he was fighting to take the Joker-lap. As the Polo was forced outside the Track, Kristoffersson was penalised with 3 seconds, and dropped in the leader board down to P21 in the heat. Veiby showed no respect to his experienced Rallycross competitors, taking P5 in front of the majority of the World Championship drivers. Kristoffersson was back again on P3 in the third Heat with Veiby on 13:th.

After the Qualifying heats, Kristoffersson Qualified P6 and Veiby P8 after a mature drive from the Norwegian. Through qualifying, both drivers secured a position in Semi-final 2.

Kristoffersson made a brilliant start in the semi-final, just after Pole sitter Andreas Bakkerud. But when pushing hard to join the Joker lap, Johan hit the gravel in the edge of the circuit, causing a flat tire at rear right wheel. After that incident, Kristoffersson could just limp to the finish line. Veiby was driving safe to a great 5:th place in his first ever World Rallycross Championship semi-final.

The event had a dramatic ending where Mattias Ekstrom and Timmy Hansen had a very though battle over the finish line and the final results had to be handled by the stewards.

Now the team is going back to the Workshop to pack everything in containers to be shipped to Canada already in 4 days.

Overall Standings FIA World Rallycross Championship:
1. Petter Solberg
2. Johan Kristoffersson
3. Andreas Bakkerud
12. Tord Linnerud