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Just weeks after claiming his first career podium in the FIA European Rallycross Championship at his home round in Norway, Sondre Evjen delivered one of the performances of his career to drive to his first Euro RX win at Riga in Latvia with JC Raceteknik.
It was a challenging weekend for every team in Euro RX1, with a dry track on Saturday turning to mixed wet conditions on Sunday morning, but using the experience of the team, and the talent of a driver who has come of age in 2022, Evjen and JC-run Audi S1 were second fastest in two of the three heats, before storming to victory in both his progression race and the semi-final to secure a strong starting position for the final.
In the final held in wet conditions, Evjen made the best launch to lead after the frantic opening corners, and held on despite massive pressure from the championship leader behind.
At a critical moment in the race, as the joker lap strategies played out, Evjen delivered his best middle sector time of the weekend (in wet conditions) and at the joker merge, maintained the advantage to storm to victory, the Norwegian celebrating by performing donuts in front of the enthusiastic Latvian crowd after the finish.
Joel Christoffersson, JC Raceteknik Team Principal:
“It’s just fantastic to end the weekend by taking the Supercar win, it’s a great, great result for the team and for Sondre. It’s special that he took his first Supercar Lites win with us here in 2016 and now the first Supercar win too. We have worked many years together and it has always been the goal to win and it’s so nice to do it in front of so many fans this weekend. At the moment this is the last race we have planned to do with Sondre this year. You never know what might happen in the future, but if this is the end of this season, it is a pretty special sign off for the whole team in Euro RX here.”
Sondre Evjen (NOR), Euro RX1:
“We lacked a little bit of speed in qualifying but the lap times were there, it was just the consistency we were missing really. In the progression race and the semi-final, everything went to plan. We won both with the same tyres then in the final, it was all about the start. With the weather changing so fast we didn’t do everything we wanted to do with the set-up, so we went on quite a dry set-up, but all in all we managed to do the most important lap, which was the joker lap and I managed to stay ahead of Anton (Marklund), and then it was just about not doing any mistakes. He pushed me at one point but he went off the throttle and I could pass him again, so fair play to him. I was actually really quite nervous for the whole final because I could see him everywhere in the mirrors but it was really, really fun. I had partners, colleagues and friends here this weekend so it was the perfect time to start winning in this championship.”
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