Topi showed plenty of pace in his Volkswagen Polo RX Supercar – in fact he set the second-fastest lap time in the final – but wasn’t able to make up as much ground as he wanted to and finished fifth. That was partly down to the tight and narrow confines of the Estering track: not quite suited to Topi’s spectacular fast and loose driving style.
”In the end I want to win everything, but sometimes you have to be realistic and settle for what you can get,” said Topi afterwards. ”Petter Solberg did a really good job here, so fair enough. But we’ve got three rounds left and I’m going to be doing my best to win them all. It’s a slightly tough period for us at the moment, but bad luck comes and goes. I’m still feeling very optimistic if you look at our speed.”
The previous round in Loheac didn’t go well for Topi at all, but right from the start in Germany he was straight on the pace. ”This is an awesome car!” he said. ”We just had one or two problems with the engine software that held us back, and in Germany it’s really hard to get past people, so if you start off with an issue it’s very difficult to make the time up if the person in front of you doesn’t make a mistake. And actually nobody was making many mistakes at all this weekend – ourselves included, luckily – which just goes to show the high level of competition in the championship, which is fantastic. It’s a great place to be: we’re all fierce rivals on the track but afterwards we are the first to congratulate each other, which is how motorsport should be.”
With overtaking proving to be very tough, Topi did his best to rely on tactics in the semi- final. ”I decided to save my joker lap for the second to last lap, as I felt that I was faster than Mattias Ekstrom, who was in front of me,” he pointed out. ”But unfortunately he took the joker at the same time as me, so that was that.”
Ekstrom missed out on victory by just five-thousandths of a second in the end, which shows just how close Topi came…
”The final was really the same sort of story as the semi,” added the Finn. ”We started off on the third row and weren’t able to make much progress, even though the speed was all there. But we came away with some useful points and a very good feeling with the car, so this is the main thing. I’m really looking forward to getting back out there again.”
A positive attitude. Total, breathtaking commitment. And the determination to never give up and always do whatever it takes. That’s what makes Topi Heikkinen special. He’ll be in action again at the Italian round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Franciacorta from September 27/28.
Provisional World RX drivers’ standings (after round nine of 12):
1 Petter Solberg 212 points
2 Toomas Heikkinen 160
3 Reinis Nitiss 158
4 Andreas Bakkerud 136
5 Timur Timerzyanov 128
6 Anton Marklund 124
