Johan Kristoffersson believes his Volkswagen Polo’s strength off the line in wet conditions was what helped him win the second round of the RallyX Nordic season at Höljes.
The two-time World Rallycross Champion finished on the round one podium on Thursday, but became more of a threat for an overall win when rain fell on Sunday.
After dominating his semi-final, Kristoffersson was untouchable in the final, showing his strength in the sodden conditions.
“Obviously I couldn’t see anything myself, [but] the three wet launches were very, very good,” Kristoffersson said of his Sunday performance.
“The car is easy to do launches with in the wet, controlling it by clutch and throttle, so quite easy to do them. From there on the car was working nice, no problem all weekend whatsoever so very happy with that.
His family-run Polo’s affinity with the slippier surface in the rain made it easier to challenge the 2020 World RX-spec cars of Niclas Grönholm and Robin Larsson that had been setting the pace, and Kristoffersson even used the conditions to his advantage to throw his rivals off at race starts.
“I felt this afternoon when the sniff of the win was getting there and I could be really threatening on pure pace, we get back into mode to analyse everything, to try a lot of different lines in the rain when I had the gap behind so that was very, very nice to be back in super competitive.
“The start was very good, the initial was good, after that was also very good. I made sure to spray the cars behind, both of them, so they couldn’t see anything, that was the plan, and from there on I tried to push a little bit harder on the first lap but making no mistakes, and from there on I was just banging in the laps with a good and safe margin.”
After Magic Weekend, the Polo will be campaigned in European RX by Sondre Evjen rather than Kristoffersson. Nevertheless, the weekend proved vital to Kristoffersson Motorsport’s preparations for the upcoming campaign.
“We haven’t driven the car that much before so it’s quite nice to watch it now and see how it handles,” said Kristoffersson. “But for sure we are working a lot, using this race as preparation for the European championship with this car so we have to analyse afterwards and see what worked and what didn’t work so we can deliver the best possible car for Sondre.”
Kristoffersson will return to World RX this year with his family team, having spent last year primarily racing touring cars.
