Jesse Kallio completed a near-perfect weekend to claim victory in the second RallyX Nordic Supercar Lites round of the Magic Weekend at Höljes.
Unbeaten in three of the four round two qualifying heats, Kallio came out on top in the first semi-final and led from start to finish in the final, beating MORX’s Mats Oskarsson by little over two seconds.
Oskarsson, who raced without a spotter this weekend, was a late addition to the final after Jimmie Walfridson received a three-second penalty for exceeding track limits in his semi-final.
Leaving his joker until the final lap, Kallio was largely untroubled en route to victory, with Olsbergs MSE team-mate Linus Östlund completing the podium in third.
“It’s a big win,” Kallio said post-race.
“We’ve had really good speed yesterday and today. I got a really good start in the final, but the conditions were really difficult in the rain.”
Kallio’s path to pole in the final was aided by long-time leader Östlund’s contact with Marcus Höglund at the joker merge on the final lap of semi-final one.
Höglund had put in a fast lap following Östlund’s joker the previous lap and looked to emerge in front at the merge. But Höglund’s front left corner hit the right rear of Östlund, which pitched Östlund into a half-spin and ended Höglund’s race.
Östlund then survived some more contact from STS RX’s Thomas Holmen at Velodrome to book his place in the final with second to Kallio.
The second semi-final was a much tamer affair, with YellowSquad’s Henrik Krogstad easing to victory ahead of round one winner Simon Olofsson and Walfridson.
Max Rundberg came out on top in the CrossCar final to move into the points lead.
The Json Motorsport driver won his semi-final and used a similar strategy of a first lap joker to get into clear air while JC Raceteknik’s Isak Reiersen led the way.
Reiersen left his joker to the final lap but could not bridge enough of a gap to prevent Rundberg getting past.
“It was insane,” said Rundberg.
“I took the joker early and got some space, so that was definitely the key to win.”
Notable absentees from the final were qualifying pacesetters Patrick Hallberg and Julle Ljungdahl, who both suffered issues in their respective semi-finals.
Hallberg, who had been in victory contention in the first round on Thursday until a mistake, started the first semi-final from the front row alongside Isac Egonsson but both stalled off the line, allowing Thomas Eek Murstad to lead into the first corner.
Egonsson and Hallberg fought back to third and fourth, but with the top two finishers in the three semi-finals progressing to the final, both missed out.
Despite one of the best starts of the weekend, Erik Andersson was denied victory in the CrossCar Junior final after he clipped a track limits marker during his joker, handing Raoul Dahlqvist the win.
Andersson leapt from the back of the grid to lead into the first corner and built a healthy 4.3s advantage over Dahlqvist before serving a penalty. He eventually ended up third behind Rasmus Persson.
Much like the CrossCar semis, polesitter Alex Gustafsson was left on the line at the start as Lukas Andersson led.
Frida Enholm led for the bulk of her semi-final but suffered mechanical issues on the final lap and ground to a halt before the flag, leaving Dahlqvist to win.
