After his strong fourth-place finish in the opening round in Portugal earlier this month, Heikkinen replicated that early-season form at the Lydden Hill circuit in the south of England where he’d competed once before in his early career.
While fourth place wasn’t the result the 23-year-old Topi had craved before the start, his pace in the semi-final put him on pole position for the six-lap final. Unfortunately, a slower-than-planned getaway and a power issue meant he had to settle for fourth place.
However, the Finn’s form during the weekend keeps him firmly in the fight for the inaugural World RX title: after two rounds he’s just five points behind new championship leader Andreas Bakkerud, who won the Lydden Hill finale.
Heikkinen was third after the opening day of competition and reached the semi finals in third spot, despite a puncture on the penultimate lap of his final heat leaving him 26th.
”I had a good start in my semi and my pace was good all the way,” said Heikkinen. ”Petter Solberg and Andreas Bakkerud made their joker lap in the beginning but I waited until my last lap and kept ahead of them. My start in the final wasn’t perfect and I got stuck behind Robin Larsson’s Audi. Then my engine started to lose power for some reason and I finished fourth. It’s obviously not the result I wanted after being fastest in the semi-final. But we are in a good position in the championship and ready for the next round.”
Before Topi heads to Hell in Norway for round three of World RX next month, he’ll be making a homecoming of sorts when he joins his Marklund Motorsport supported by Volkswagen team for the Global RallyCross event supporting the X Games in Austin, Texas from June 5-8. Topi is the reigning Global RallyCross champion and X Games gold medallist so has fond memories of competing in the USA. However, with the Circuit of The Americas a new venue for rallycross, the competition will be intense from the start.
”I’ll be posting a blog about this later, but after winning GRC last year I’ve got to say that I’m absolutely stoked to be going back to America to see all my friends and fans there,” said Topi. ”I don’t know anything about the track at all apart from the fact that it’s going be on the Circuit of Americas, which is really exciting, but I’m sure it’s going to be absolutely fantastic. And the preparation for that starts right now…”
Provisional World RX drivers’ standings (after round two of 12):
1 Andreas Bakkerud 49 points
2 Petter Solberg 45
3 Toomas Heikkinen 44
4 Reinis Nitiss 43
5 Anton Marklund 26
6 Robin Larsson 25
