RHK Premiere at Kinnekulle Ring

The Swedish National Historic Championship season kicked off at a sunny and dry Kinnekulle Ring on 27-28 May.  Located in a fairly remote part of southern Sweden, the short, swooping 2km circuit is formed round a natural bowl that places a premium on handling and traction, rather than engine power.  The Formula Vee drivers love it and they provided by far the largest starting fields and ran in two separate grids to accommodate them all.  Bengt-Åce Gustavsson reports….

Richard “Tiny” Persson was one of a number that went into the gravel pit in the tumultuous F Vee races
Photos www.racefoto.se

The FVee Class B race saw drama, when Rasmus Bencsik got the jump on poleman Anders Tjärnlund.  Tjärnlund, put pressure on Bencsik until the latter drifted wide on the way back under the bridge, skidded onto the grass and, on the return, ended his race in the railing.  Tjärnlund then came under pressure from Magnus Rugsveen but held on to win by  only 0.2 of a second.   Jan Lindqvist was third.  Rugsveen set fastest lap time to get pole for the second race but Tjärnlund took the lead and never relinquished it.

An enthusiastic Hans Beckert was well outside the track limits at the start of the first heat of the 1000cc Cup, which he went on to win

The Class C races were even more dramatic.  Johan Lund was involved in a crash in qualifying for another race, resulting in pain in his back.   Despite this, he managed to qualify first and took the start ahead of Richard “Tiny” Persson and Anders Tjärnlund.   When they got over Mohlinknäppen, Lund spun and Persson skidded into the gravel in avoidance and stopped against the Armco.  Lund restarted last.  The safety car gathered the field while Persson was rescued.  At the restart, Pontus Bencsik took the lead, pushed hard by Tjärnlund, but Bencsik held off and looked to be heading for the flag.  However, with a couple of laps remaining an ignition cable on his FVee came loose and he lost power.  Further down the field, Lund picked up position after position and on the last lap he blew past Tjärnlund to victory!  Tjärnlund came second and Lars-Gunnar “Vegas” Johansson came third.  Bencsik finished sixth.

Lund set the fastest time and got to start first in the second race, but the big exclamation mark was Cédric Nyberg who set the second fastest time in only his second ever Formula Vee race to line up alongside. 

To read Bengt-Åce’s full report on all of the racing, wee our July 2023 issue…