The World Championship and European Championship competition held at KymiRing was full of pace and situations. During the semi-finals, KymiRing was hit by rain, which colored the final starts of the competition.
The World RX class was won by Norway’s Ole Christian Veiby ahead of World Championship leader Johan Kristoffersson. Juha Rytkönen finished third in front of the home crowd, but he received a two-second time penalty by the jury and dropped to fifth in the results.
Niclas Grönholm got a great start and went to the top in the final, but the first corner was full of situations, after which Grönholm had to retire and was finally sixth.
Grönholm retained his second place in the World Championship points, but Kristoffersson is now 15 points ahead of the Finn.
Euro RX1 victory for Estonia
Maiko Tamm from Estonia won the Euro RX1 class. Tamm also won at KymiRing in June, so the track’s tricks suited him well. Mats Öhman came in second. The Swede, who was paralyzed in a 1998 snowmobile accident due to a spinal cord injury, is a perennial favorite among the people and received thunderous applause from the audience for his second place.
Mikko Ikonen came in third, who was really close to victory! Ikonen shot from the back row to the top in the final and managed to lead the final for several laps.
– I already thought that today was my day. When I went to the second lap, I realized that the left rear wheel had a puncture, Ikonen said.
Ikonen fought with a flat tire for so long until the tire burst and the game was lost. However, Ikonen limped to the finish in third.
– Of course, it’s great to succeed in a home race, but a lot of things were left in the lurch in the end. Today we are satisfied with this, but next time we will try to fix this bad luck, Ikonen said after the race.
Liimatainen, Turpeinen and Seppä out from the finals
The other Finns didn’t get into the final. Mika Liimatainen was seventh, Iivari Niemi eight, Joni Turpeinen ninth and Anton Seppä eleventh. Liimatainen is second in the European Championship points standings, 10 points behind the series leader, Switzerland’s Yury Belevskiy.
Seppä was optimistic after the race.
– The goal was to reach the final, so I can’t be satisfied with that. But now it has been shown that the speed is enough in all conditions, Seppä said after the race.
As proof of that, Seppä set the fastest lap time of the start in his own semi-final. Joni Turpeinen suffered the same fate in the first corner in the semi-final.
– The pace was good all weekend, but luck was not on our side. It didn’t go quite according to plan, but sometimes motorsport is like that, Turpeinen says.
In the Euro RX3 class of the European Championship, Portugal’s João Ribeiro won ahead of Antigua’s Nicolas Geleyns and Portugal’s Rogerio Sousa.
Janne Viitikko won the national 2 WD Open RX class by an overwhelming margin of almost ten seconds. Klaus Kostiainen came in second and Jari Klemettilä third.
The event weekend was a success
The first rallycross World Championship and European Championship event organized at KymiRing was a success. The weather was favorable to those who arrived at Iitti right in the final meters of the competition. Apart from the rain during the last starts, the weather remained partly cloudy.
The renewed rallycross track at KymiRing received praise from competitors and held up well. The Finnish drivers were happy to be able to drive a historic race in front of a large home crowd.
KymiRing thanks everyone who participated!
Photos: FIA / Qnigan