Munkholm, Beer & Oberg Win At Viking Trophy
press release
The new circuit of Lidköping (Sweden) and its organising committee were treated with a rather wet international inauguration as the rain invited itself every day of the 2010 CIK-FIA Viking Trophy, and competitors enjoyed a dry track only during timed practice and in some of their qualifying heats.
Started with slick tyres, the Juniors’ prefinal even had to be stopped with the red flag as soon as 75% of the scheduled distance were completed because the rain, which began to fall after a few laps, made road-holding conditions precarious. All the other races held on the Sunday afternoon, including the three finals, required the use of grooved tyres.
Despite these seldom inviting weather conditions, Drivers, Teams and Officials have stressed the excellent quality of the organisation and appreciated the layout of the circuit infrastructures as well as the originality of its course.
In KF2, the Dane Kevin Munkholm (Birel-BMB) succeeded himself on the list of results of the Nordic classic event. In addition to landing victory, he also achieved the fastest laps times of the prefinal and final. KF2s were lucky enough to race on a dry tarmac in their prefinal.
The Finn Johannes Heinonen (Birel-BMB) prevailed, admittedly benefitting by a three-second penalty inflicted on his compatriot Jusso-Matti Pajuranta for overspeeding during the start procedure. Pajuranta was the big revelation of the event, as much as his original Finnish chassis of the Ninar make: leading after the three qualifying heats, the Pajuranta-Ninar pair managed to get to the final podium, on the third step, behind Munkholm and Juha Mäki-Jouppi (Alpha-Parilla). Six different chassis makes shared the top six places, a Birel finishing ahead of an Alpha, a Ninar, a Tony Kart, a Maranello and a Gillard.
Third fastest in practice, second after the heats, the Dane Nicolas Beer (FA Kart-Vortex) won both the prefinal and final in KF3 and even indulged in landing the final in spite of a two-second time penalty for a breach of the maximum authorised speed during the start phase. Denmark’s drivers had a stranglehold on the top three places as Jannick Flygenring (Haase-Parilla) and Nicklas Nielsen (Tony Kart-Vortex) accompanied Beer on the podium. The Finn Ville Mäntylä (Energy-VKR), fastest in practice and leader after the qualifying heats, was classified fourth ahead of the Dane Martin Mortensen (Sodi-Parilla), Russia’s Pavel Rydakov (Tony Kart-BMB) and Maxim Ryzkhov (Maranello-Maranello), Finland’s Emil Aho (Ninar-VKR), Norway’s Kristian Jensen (Parolin-Parilla) and the Finn Tuomas Tujula (Intrepid-TM).
The Lotta Hellberg Trophy which rewards the Driver who has made the best recovery was handed to the Russian Pavel Rydakov, who in the final transformed his initial 20th place into a convincing 6th place.
Finally, in KZ2, as in 2009, the Norwegian Kenneth Ostvold (Energy-TM) dominated the preliminary stages of the event, emerging as leader in practice and the heats. The rain however jeopardised his march to victory and in the final he had to give way to a Swedish quartet composed of Viktor Oberg (Gillard-Parilla), Linus Lindgren (Kosmic-TM), Emil Persson (Birel-TM) and Tobias Nilsson (Tony Kart-Vortex).