Disappointing weekend for JC Raceteknik in Barcelona

JC Raceteknik left the opening round of the RX2 International Series at Barcelona in Spain wondering what might have been, as the end result from the event was not what had been promised by the performance shown in qualifying.

Former FIA European Rallycross Champion Ben-Philip Gundersen, the driver that won the first round of the RX2 series last year, was again among the pace-setters in Spain, with third fastest time in Q1 and Q2 on Saturday.

But, the Norwegian was disqualified from Q3 for a first corner incident and even with another third fastest time in Q4, was unable to climb back enough positions in the ultracompetitive single-make category and missed out on a place in the semi-finals.

Swede William Nilsson set consistent pace through qualifying but crashed out of the event heavily in the semi-finals after being hit by another car following the joker lap section. Making his international rallycross debut, Jimmie Walfridson, improved his pace throughout the weekend but had his chances of making the final ended by a puncture in the semi-finals.

Find full results and championship standings here.

JC Raceteknik will return to action for the second round RX2 International Series and its FIA World Rallycross Championship debut with 2016 FIA World RX Champion Mattias Ekstrom at Spa in Belgium in two weeks’ time (May 11 – 12).

Joel Christoffersson, Team Principal :
“It was a terrible weekend for the team. We had good speed with Ben-Philip but the black flag destroyed the whole weekend with having zero points in that session, unfortunately we couldn’t go to the semi-finals with him. Jimmie struggled a lot to find the rhythm and speed on the track on Saturday, we made some progress on Sunday but it was still not good enough, then the puncture in the semi-final didn’t make it better. William also didn’t find a good rhythm, after the test in France that was surprising. He struggled during the weekend, then he had a big crash in the semi-finals. We are there, we have good speed with Ben-Philip and we will work hard to help all of our drivers to improve for the next race in Belgium.”

RX2: Ben-Philip Gundersen (NOR) :
“I felt comfortable in the car from the start and already had good pace in the first practice. The race went really well and it looked like we could get good revenge after last time we were in Barcelona racing in TouringCar. We had third after Q2, then in Q3 I felt I had a good start and that I was faster than both Kallio and Eriksson, so when I was close to turn one I started to turn a bit to the left. I was first after turn one and didn’t see there was a crash behind, so I just focused on my race and got a good time. The judges took it badly and chose to disqualify me from Q3. I was very frustrated, I feel the penalty was way too hard. I had to be really lucky to get a place in the semi-final – I had to be at least P2 in Q4 to make the semi, but I was only P3, so it was over. It’s a really bad start to the season, but we are good enough to be at the top so we just need to fight even harder to reach that.”

RX2: William Nilsson (SWE) :
“It was a really tough weekend for the whole team. I struggled to find the last tenths in the pace to the fastest guys. Then it ended with a big crash for me with another guy, which was just really sad. I have a circuit racing series in Sweden that I need to drive in next weekend, and this is not the way I wanted to start my season. It was a disappointing finish, we need to work as a team to get the pace to the guys at the front, I don’t know why at the moment but we will work on that.”

RX2: Jimmie Walfridson (SWE) :
“The main goal this year is to focus on RallyX Nordic and the Swedish Championship, and we were thinking to warm up before the season in Belgium, but I got the opportunity to race in Spain as well and of course its more fun to drive yourself than watch the race on TV, so I jumped at the chance. It was a very educational weekend for me. The track was very good and I found more and more speed as the event went on. Unfortunately, I made too many mistakes but I got a lot of experience and I’ll try and put that together to do better at the next racing in Belgium.”

Barcelona

1. Oliver Eriksson
2. Fraser Mc Conell
3. Jesse Kallio
4. Sami Matti Trogen
5. Vasiliy Gryazin
6. Damien Meunier
7. Anders Michalak
8. Simon Olofsson
9. Steven Volders
10. William Nilsson
11. Jimmie Walfridson
12. Albert Llovera
13. Ben-Philip Gundersen

RX2 International Series

1. Oliver Eriksson 30 p
2. Fraser Mc Conell 26 p
3. Jesse Kallio 23 p
4. Vasiliy Gryazin 20 p
5. Sami Matti Trogen 19 p
6. Damien Meunier 16 p
7. Anders Michalak 13 p
8. Simon Olofsson 11 p
9. Steven Volders 10 p
10. William Nilsson 9 p
11. Jimmie Walfridson 8 p
12. Albert Llovera 6p
13. Ben-Philip Gundersen 4 p