2011 Swedish Cup winner Markus Hellquist switched to Team XRAY Sweden for the 2012 season. With minimal preparation time for first race ⓠheld at the home track in Växjö ⓠhe had to test his new car for the first time only one day before the race. He started off well with a 2nd place in qualifying. First and 3rd places in qualifying were taken by local drivers Mikael Fransson and Per-Ola Hard.
In the main final, Mikael Fransson took the start from pole but ended his race with a mechanical failure after only a few minutes. Markus took over the lead and had a 5-second lead over Per-Ola for the major part of the race. The ending turned out to be more dramatic, as Per-Ola had a different fuel strategy than Markus which would give him one less fueling stop than Markus. This would give him a 5-second advantage to equal the 5-second lead that Markus had. So⦠it would be very close at the end! After 37 minutes of racing, Markus♠car run out of fuel due to an overly fast pitstop for refueling, and Per-Ola took over the lead. Per-Ola looked strong for the win but found out that he had been pushing hard on the tyres. After 41 minutes, the left rear tire on Per-Olas car was worn out and he spun off the track. While Per-Ola had the rear tyre replaced, Markus regained the lead and won by a 4-lap margin over Per-Ola who claimed 2nd place ahead of David Hassel in 3rd who rounded out the podium finishers.
It was a great start for Markus who said he was very happy with the performance and reliability of his new car.
Also competing for XRAY Sweden this year is Markusâ™ sister Erika Hellquist who showed a great performance and made the final, but unfortunately her engine gave up at half distance giving her an 8th place final finish.
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Final results:
1. Markus Hellquist XRAY NT1'12
2. Per-Ola Hard
3. David Hassel 4. Claus Ryeskov XRAY NT1
5. Martin Aberg
6. Thomas Nasstrom
7. Nikolaj Hviid 8. Erika Hallquist XRAY NT1'12
9. Mikael Fransson
10. Stefan Andersson
