Based in Hell in northern Norway, the event from June 14/15 is the closest World RX round to the Marklund team’s base in the north of Sweden, albeit a distance of 600 kilometres compared to the 1000 kilometres the squad will cover to reach Holjes, where World RX of Sweden takes place next month.
But there’s no such thing as home advantage in World RX and the Marklund team will be taking nothing for granted in its preparations for Hell. Before setting off for Austin, Marklund Motorsport conducted a two-day test in Sweden with its Volkswagen Polo RX Supercars. And should there be any delay in airfreighting the Polos back from the USA, Marklund has put in place contingency plans by readying two spare cars just in case they need to be pressed into service.
”For sure being closer to home helps because if we have any problems in the USA we can drive more parts from our workshops, in fact I will go with my mobile home,” explained Marklund Motorsport team principal Jan Marklund. ”Hell is a bit similar to Lydden Hill with the ’joker’ lap in the first corner. There is also uphill and downhill but it’s more steeper than Lydden.”
Progress continues for Marklund team in World RX
With two World RX rounds run and plenty of strong performances to reflect upon, Jan Marklund says he’s pleased with early-season progress. ”We are satisfied. We had new cars for the first race in Portugal and we didn’t have time to test too much before the season started. Nearly nothing is the same on the new cars as the old cars but we are fighting for podiums and this is important. We’ve found out many new settings to get the suspension to work very well. We have better traction now than we had from the beginning in Portugal. We’ve also been running the car on the dyno, the complete car, and we did some adjustments to make it better and provide more power.”
Anton Marklund ready for Hell’s hills
Hell is one of the most undulating tracks on the World RX calendar and 21-year-old Swede Anton Marklund says he can’t wait to put his uprated Volkswagen Polo RX Supercar through its paces. ”I like the uphill and downhill and there are lots of hills in Hell,” he said. ”We have a strong engine and the car is easy to drive and handle on fast parts and tricky parts because of the small wheelbase. It suits every track but I think we can be really strong in Hell.” Marklund has raced at Hell’s 1.019-kilometre layout on three previous occasions, including last season when he drove a Polo Supercar at the venue for the first time. ”You can overtake on this track quite easily so this will give a lot of action in the racing,” he said. ”Because it’s the closest event to my home I have a lot of friends coming there to watch and I hope we can do a good job.”
Pole performance leaves Heikkinen wanting more
After starting the Lydden Hill final from pole position following his pace-setting semi-final win, Toomas ’Topi’ Heikkinen is hoping he will be able to convert his early-season promise into his first podium of 2014 aboard his Volkswagen Polo RS Supercar. ”Hell is a really nice track, actually a bit like Lydden because it goes up and down and the spectators get a really good view of the track,” said Heikkinen, the 2013 Global RallyCross champion and X Games gold medallist ”I think it should suit the car well, as we are finding new things all the time and already the car we had at Lydden was a big step forward from what we had in Portugal, especially in terms of power. We had a solid start to the season; not perfect, but we know the ways to improve.”
The track action at Hell begins with practice and the first heats on Saturday June 14. There are more heats on Sunday morning followed by two-semi finals and the six-lap final on Sunday afternoon.
