Oliver Solberg scored his first win of the RallyX Nordic season at Arvika (Sweden) on Sunday, battling hard through qualifying to win his semi-final and dominate the final, with his PSRX-run DS3 Supercar crossing the line four seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
 
Twelve months ago to the day, Oliver scored his first ever RX victory. This time around the talented youngster demonstrated immense racecraft and maturity beyond his 16 years to score his first success of the season.
 
Squeezed in the early qualifying rounds, Oliver put on a charge through Q3 to place his Circle K-backed car at the top of the table… by five-thousandths of a second. Unfortunately that qualifying win was lost following a post-race penalty. Fourth in the intermediates placed Oliver on the front row for the semi-final, a race he won with an undercut following an early joker lap.
 
Oliver flew into the lead of the final at the jump, dropped to second a couple of corners later, but fought his way to the front later in the opening lap. This time he didn’t let it slip, keeping the pressure up with an inch-perfect drive which allowed him to ease his way clear to a confident and competent victory.
 
Oliver said: “What a fantastic feeling. This morning, qualifying was really tough. There were so many battles into the first corner, and not having a starting position better than third throughout qualifying made things tricky. Q3 went better, but obviously we got the penalty which dropped us back again. But I still felt confident, the pace was there and I just had to focus and wait for a chance to show it.

“In the semis it all came together. I felt fast and was able to undercut in the joker which was so important to get on the front row of the final. 
 
“In the final I was flat out. It was really close battling with [Thomas] Bryntesson with lots of overtaking, but once I could get ahead I felt really good and managed to increase the gap.

“Taking the win exactly one year after my first ever win here makes this result even more special. I have to say a huge thanks to the whole OSRX team; this weekend wasn’t easy and they had a lot of work between races, and in such crazy heat too. Thanks also to Circle K and all our partners, family, friends and fans for their support!”

Standings after Round 2:

1 Thomas Bryntesson 54
2 Oliver Solberg 45
3 Peter Hedström 45
4 Lukas Walfridson 43
5 Oliver Eriksson 36
6 Philip Gehrman 36
7 Mats Öhman 29
8 Ola Frøshaug 27
9 Daniel Thorén 20
10 Andreas Carlsson 20
 
2018 RallyX Nordic Calendar

May 5/6                Höljes, Sweden (Result: 4th)
June 2/3               Arvika, Sweden (Win)
June 23/24           Grenland, Norway
August 11/12        Nysum, Denmark
August 25/26        Kouvola, Finland
October 6/7          Tierp, Sweden