In only their first year of Supercar, coming into the 2013 season with the new Volkswagen Polo R, the Marklund Motorsport team found their speed pretty early in the day one practice but knew their first heat, drawn to race against some of the fastest drivers in the competition, would not be easy. A jumped start from Marklund gave him the disadvantage of taking two joker laps, but his agility and speed throughout the heat still gained him an impressive 9th place overall.

Moving into heat two, Marklund was fourth into the first corner, taking his joker on the same lap. Keeping on the tails of Hansen and Heikkinnen throughout but not able to breakthrough, Marlkund was 3rd to cross the finish line, in a time of 2:59:686. The round put him in 10th place for the heat, going into day two in 9th place overall.

Some small changes and improvements to the car overnight had Marklund shaving over one second off his fastest time from the previous day in Sunday morning’s warm-up. Although speed was on his side and with Marklund pushing hard, damage to his right front wheel on the first corner of heat three meant the driver finished in 17th place.

The final heat of the weekend saw Marklund come into his own, gaining 2nd position on the first corner, tight behind Karttunen. A clever overtake on the third lap gave Marklund pole, and great determination to keep Karttunen off, saw the young Swede win the round, placing 3rd in the heat and gaining a well-deserved spot in the semi-finals.

In a tough semi, Marklund got himself into 3rd position going into the second lap, behind Timerzyanov and Hansen, with Foust chasing closely behind. Cleanly pushing his way into 2nd on the third lap, it soon became a closely fought battle between the top four drivers. Taking his joker on the fourth lap and a small mistake on the final corner going into the fifth, Marklund slipped back to 4th where he remained for the rest of the race, just missing out on the top three which would have seen him through to the final.

”In the beginning we were struggling a bit, we are here for the first time in a new car and many of the other drivers have been working with theirs for years. We had to work pretty hard to find the right set up and I think it was in the semi-final that we really found it and were fast. We keep on scoring points and doing well in the championship so I’m really happy with that, I’m satisfied with how the weekend went”, enthused Anton Marklund.