By Bruce Gaspardi Jr.
Round 1 of the Swedish Championship kicked off on Sunday after two action packed days of Super League racing at Boden Energi Arena.
The track crew spent hours Saturday night into early Sunday morning to change up the track and give the racers something new. The whole weekend was chilly with the temperature never getting above 14
degrees Fahrenheit before the windchill. Even with that over 140 races showed up to race including 24
Gold-helmet 200cc racers.
Finnish Junior 12-14 star Peetu Joutsen had a great opening round. He would win both of his qualifying
heats, while EvoHall racer Linus Staff and Eeveretti Liuska would split the other two heats. It the final it
would be the other EvoHall racer Oliver Bröyt with the holeshot and lead the first couple laps. Then it
would be Joutsen making the pass for the lead and never looking back. Behind him it would be Niklas
Isokääntä and Linus staff rounding out the podium.
In round 1 heats of Junior 14-16 it would be the Finnish pair of Emil Hertén and Topi Rinne splitting the
wins. Round 2 would see a new pair of winners with Onni Niskala and Gustav Vesterlund. The final would
see Topi Rinne grab the holeshot and never relingquish the lead taking the checkered flag. The battle of
the rest of the podium was an intense one. Gustav Vesterlund would make his way through to finish in
second place, with Atte Vanhatalo beating out his brother Niklas for the final spot on the podium.
It was then the Womens 12-16 turn with the Arctic Cat cup winner Elise Jonsson picking up right where
she left off. Their format was a moto 1/moto 2 style running two 8 minutes motos. Elise would win both
of them by quite a margin. Behind her in moto 1 was Victoria Laine in second and EvoHall’s Nelly
Eriksson in third. In moto 2, it was Holly Vesterlund passing Laine to finish second with Laine holding on
to third. Jonsson would win the overall with Laine and Vesterlund rounding out the podium.
The Sport class and Pro Womens class also ran a two moto format.
In Sport it would be Bruce Gaspardi Jr., going 2-1 for a first overall, with Preben Anderson going 1-2 and Gustaf Holmstedt going 3-3.
In Moto 1 of Pro Womens it was Saga Forsell with the holeshot with Davina Backteman in tow. Hilda Ö
hman would start her charge to the front from fifth place. It would take her five laps to make her way to
the front. Forsell would go on to finish second, Backteman would finish third. Thea Arnesson would
make her way from tenth up to 4th, and Fanny Wikström would come off the couch after over a year off
to finish fifth.
Moto 2 of Pro Womens would be red flagged right after the start when Saga Forsell would crash over the
finish line. On the restart it would be Hilda Öhman with the holeshot and Wikström in second. Lots of
jostling for position would see Wikström slide to sixth. Wilma Jonsson would slot into second briefly
before being overtaken by Thea Arnesson. Öhman would go onto win with Arnesson second. Davina
Backteman would go to be third, Wikström and Jonsson fourth and fifth. Öhman would take the
overall win, Thea Arnesson second, and Backteman third.
Pro Stock had plenty of action and the format went back to two heats and a final. We would have
four different heat winners between rounds one and two. Riku Lauhaluoma and Håkon Berge would
split the round 1 heats with Felix Andersson and Oscar Nikula splitting round two. It was Oscar
Nikula with the holeshot in the final. Albin Persson would briefly make a pass for the lead but would
crash giving it back to Nikula. Anton Lindgren would make his way from fifth to finish second place,
with Finnish racer Riku Lauhaluoma finishing third. Felix Andersson would have a great drive from
tenth place all the way up to fourth, with Wilmer Andersson finishing fifth
In Pro Open it was the Gustav Sahlsten show once again, he would win both of his heats.
Norweigan Lynx racer Magnus Reiten would win the other two heats. Gustav’s perfect day almost
came to an end in the final when coming over the finish line the first lap he had an acrobatic
dismount in front of the entire field. Somehow everyone managed to avoid his body in the snow and
he was able to get back up. The race was red flagged right after that for 3 sleds tangled up in the
first turn on the racing track. So the field was brought back and the race restarted. This time Gustav
would stay on the sled and get the holeshot, quickly opening up a gap over the rest of the field.
Robert Lunden and Gustaf Lindgren would get out second and third. Lunden would start to fade and
Lindgren would come off the sled. This would slot John Stenberg, Emil Hansson, and Magnus Reiten
up into second, third and fourth. The battle that would ensue between them was an absolute treat to
watch, constantly passing and passing back one another. The battle would end early for Reiten when
he crashed in the rhythm section. Sahlsten would go on to win the final, Hansson would finish
second and Stenberg third. Robert Lunden and Albin Lundqvist would round out the top five.
