Tidemand secured impressive second place at Höljes RX

Pontus Tidemand’s third appearance in the Euro RX was off to a rocky start, but after a stunning performance on Sunday, Pontus managed to finish on the podium, the first one this year. “This is where I really wanted to succeed” said the Swede after finishing his home RX round.

To participate at Sweden’s two biggest motorsport events, Rally Sweden and Höljes RX, during one year is something that many dream about. This year, rally ace Pontus Tidemand got the chance to do both and came to Höljes, which is more or less his home track, with the goal of doing his best performance so far in the Euro RX.

But the weekend began a bit troublesome on Saturday. In the first qualification heat, the engine stalled in the start, in the second heat he made a small mistake and got time penalty and in the third, he got stuck in traffic.

“I still felt that I had more to give and that motivated me” said Pontus. “Despite a few problems, I thought the car was great and with a little luck on my side I knew that we could wrap up the weekend in a good way. We just had to recharge and go for it.”

That’s what they did on Sunday. From tenth place overall and with one qualification heat left, Pontus found a new gear and set the third fastest time. He climbed to eighth place and moved on to the semi-final. With nothing to lose, he got the most out of Eklund Motorsport’s Volkswagen Beetle and was quickest in his semi-final and secured front row in the final.

“Today it was ‘go big or go home’. This is where I really wanted to succeed, at my home event in front of my home crowd so that feels extremely nice, especially considering yesterday. The team is a superb group of people and they have done a fantastic job all the way and now we showed what the Beetle can do. I’m very happy with our performance and to finish second behind Robin Larsson, who is a phenomenal rallycross driver, that’s not bad at all, said Pontus with a smile as he summed up the Swedish Euro RX round.