Pite Havsbad, Sweden
By: Bruce Gaspardi Jr
Around since 1988, the Race of Champions (ROC) has been to fourteen countries around the world. Last year and now again this year it is held on the frozen Bothnian Bay in the northern part of the Baltic Sea. We are about two hours South of the Arctic Circle and a ten hour drive north of Stockholm.
The race is a head-2-head bracket competition that brings in the best wheelmen and women from around the world to compete in equal machines. There are five different vehicles that the drivers will be using throughout the two day competition. They include two electric cars, a Supercar Lites, the thousand horsepower FC1X, and a Polaris RZR. They were able to use yesterday and today to get used to the course and try to get a handle on the different machines.
David Coulthard and others mentioned the difficulty of getting the most out of the Polaris RZR because of how tall it is and the body roll through the long sweeping corners. Anytime that Pastrana can lineup in one should be to his advantage.
Last year it was Frenchman Sébastien Loeb beating out German Sebastian Vettel in the Race of Champions final. In the ROC Nations Cup it was Norway’s Solberg duo topping the Americans of Jimmie Johnson and Colton Herta.
This year it is Rally legend Tanner Foust and All-American wheelman Travis Pastrana representing the stars and stripes. Travis has been non-stop the last couple months and that really shifted into high gear with that announcement that he would be trying to qualify for the Daytona 500 next month in third car entry with the Michael Jordan & Danny Hamlin owned 23XL team.
Great Britain will be represented by former Formula F1 race winner David Coulthard and Jamie Chadwick the 3-time W Series Champion. She is the only woman in the field this year.
Sweden will see five-time World Rallycross Champion Johan Kristoffersson and two-time DTM Champion Mattias Ekström work together in the Nations Cup. Then Sunday IndyCar race winner Felix Rosenqvist will join the fray as well.
Finland has two Formula 1 racing drivers in its lineup with Mika Häkkinen and Valtteri Bottas. Mika is a two-time Formula 1 World Champion and Valtteri is a ten-time Formula 1 race winner and multi-time runner-up in the World Championship. Valtteri has very little time training on the snow and ice.
Norway lines up with Petter Solberg, a two-time World Rallycross Champion with a race of champions final win to his name. He will team up with is son Oliver Solberg as Team Norway.
Germany has four-time Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel and Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher. Sébastien Loeb returns to represent France and defend his 2022 win. His partner this year is ROC rookie Adrien Tambay, the 2022 FIA ETCR Champion.
Belgium’s Thierry Neuville, a seventeen-time WRC race winner and the 2022 Formula 2 Champion; Brazil’s Felipe Drugovich form the Allstar Team. The nine-time LeMans 24-hour champion from Denmark Tom Kristensen will partner up with Rosenqvist to form Team Nordic for the Nations Cup.
The bracket for the Nations Cup on Saturday was picked by random draw. It will see Great Britain and Germany faceoff make it into the quarterfinals. The eROC team will consists of the first & Second place finishers in the eROC sim race against team Finland with the winner taking the final seat in the quarter finals. Already in the quarterfinal is Norway v. France, Sweden v. Nordic, and USA v. AllStars. It would be a best of 4 match-up with each of the two drivers able to face off against both opponents with total time of the four races being the tiebreaker.
The Brit’s of Chadwick and Coulthard had a short day getting knocked out by the German duo of Schumacher and Vettel. Then it was the shock of the day with the EROC team of Blakeley and Opmeer beating the the Finnish drivers Häkkinen and Bottas.
With all these top drivers, someone wasn’t making it through to the semifinals. Team Norway with the father/son pair Petter & Oliver Solberg got off to a good start in their bid repeat as Nations Cup champions. They knocked out the French pair of Loeb & Tambay. Team Sweden with Kristoffersson and Ekstrom sent the Nordic team of Rosenqvist and Kristensen home.
On the other side of the bracket it was Team USA’s entry of Foust and Pastrana getting sent home losing 3-1 by the Allstar team made up of Brazilian Drugovich and Dutchman Neuville. Germany made it past the EROC boys to clinch the final spot in the semifinal.
Down to four teams with a monster matchup between Sweden & Norway for a spot in the finals. The closest finish of the weekend took place with Ekstrom beating P. Solberg by 0.001 seconds. It came down to a 2-2 tie with Norway coming out on top with a lower total time. The ROC rookie pairing of the Allstar team took a surprising but well deserved win over Germans Vettel & Schumacher. For it being Drugovich’s first time on snow and ice, you wouldn’t know it by how he was driving.
Now with the final set, Team Norway v. Team Allstars. Heat one saw Neuville take down Petter Solberg. Then heats two and three saw the Solberg’s both beat Drugovich. It came down to the last heat with Oliver Solberg beating his rally rival Neuville to claim the back-to-back Nations Cup Championships for Team Norway.
With team activities complete, it was now every man and woman for themselves on Sunday. Sunday’s bracket for the Race of Champions was also random draw. Four drivers will have the race into the final two open spots in the final 16. It will be Rosenqvist v. Schumacher and Tambay v. Coulthard.
Already locked in via random draw are on side one Häkkinen v. Drugovich, Bottas v. Kristensen, and Vettel v. Chadwick. On side two it is Leob v. Neuville, Solberg v. Solberg, Kirstoffersson v Foust, and Pastrana v. Ekström.
Schumacher got off to a hot start sending swede Rosenqvist home, while Tambay dismissed Coulthard. Then it was one of Saturday’s runner-ups Drugovich against finnish f1 legend Häkkinen with Drugovich sending the finn back to the lounge. Danish Kristensen sent the other finn Bottas home as well. Vettel then went on the to beat Jamie Chadwick and Schumacher would continue on after beating Tambay.
On the other side of the bracket it was Neuville beating last years champion Loeb in the quarterfinal. Then it was Solberg v Solberg, Saturday they were teammates and Sunday competitors. Son Oliver would take this one moving onto the quarterfinals with a rematch with Neuville who he’d battled in the Nations Cup final. Kristoffersson would be make it past America Foust and fellow Swede Ekström would get by Pastrana.
In quarterfinal it was Schumacher besting Drugovich and Vettel beating Kristensen on side one setting up an all-German semifinal. On the other side it was the all Sweden quarter final saw some amazing racing between Ekström & Kristoffersson, with Ekström besting him. Lastly it Oliver Solberg and Neuville with Solberg making a small mistake coming up over the jump. He collected a large amount of banners in the wheel well due to the amount of studs in the tire. Even with his win in heat 2 win it wasn’t enough time made up, so Neuville would continue.
Schumacher would then take Vettel in both heats moving on to the final. Then Mattias Ekström would end Neuville’s great day moving on to see Schumacher in the final. Ekström would go on to beat Schumacher and take the Race of Champions trophy. It was a surreal moment for Ekström as he was now a four-time champion. After the race he said:
“The Race Of Champions has meant a lot to me in my career. It’s very special to have four wins and even more special to do it in Sweden. I won my first final at the Stade de France in Paris against Sébastien Loeb, then I had two finals with Michael Schumacher in London and Beijing, so to see Mick in the final today was very emotional for me. This is even more special than winning; Michael’s always been one of the guys I admire most in the sport, for his dedication, hard work and talent. I only got to know Michael at the Race Of Champions. We had many battles and I have only great memories with Michael from this event. I’m super proud because Mick also rode with me on Friday in the Dakar car and we had a nice time. Michael was always humble with me and I can see Mick is also very humble. Mick is such a huge talent and his time is ahead of him, so I look forward to more battles in the future. I know it won’t take long until I get beaten, but against Mick I would have no problem with finishing second.”
The Race Of Champions raised funds and awareness towards a selection of worthwhile charities. The recipients have included German children’s charity Kinderlachen, the Zelmerlöw and Björkman Foundation’s school in Kenya, the ICM (institute for advanced research on brain and spinal cord injuries in Paris) along with some of the drivers’ other favorite charities.
