5500 spectators on Hella 2019

Last Saturday was the season premiere for the 2019 Icelandic Championship. The host, Flugbjörgunarsveitin Hella, was very pleased with the outcome. Around 5500 people were there to cheer on their favourite which was amazing by itself. 19 registered racers competing in that round, 4 in the Street Legal class and 15 in Unlimited class. The race is much anticipated by fans all over the country particularly because of the infamous river and mud track.

Tough battle

Before race-day the fans predicted the results for the day and most mentioned was the running 2018 Champion, Þór Þormar Pálsson high in the polls along with Geir Evert Grímsson, Haukur Viðar Einarsson and newbie Skúli Kristjánsson.

After the first 3 track it looked good for Þór Þormar and his eyes were fixed on the prize, however during the time track he faltered which to his demise put him in 11th after the 4th track giving the 1st place to Ingólfur Guðvarðarson who had the second fastest time in the time track with 00:34,51 sec. On his heels was Geir Evert who had the fastest time 00:33,61 sec and in 3rd was Haukur Viðar.

The river track is the one people are most excited to witness. Last year Þór Þormar broke the former world record by crossing the water at 102km/h and was his mind set on beating his own record. However one of the rear wheels wasn’t on the same track as him and flew off in the first half of the track. He continued to drive until the staff took matters in their own hand and stopped him before he could cross the river.

Haukur Viðar Einarsson had the best time and speed over the river. His time was 00:32,87 sec and was driving at 98km/h. Not far from beating Þór’s record. Despite the close call, Haukur was very pleased with his performance in the track, putting him in 3rd place before the final track.

Geir Evert was only 30 points behind Ingólfur before the river but made up for it with steady and fast run. He had the second fastest time which put him only 2 points above Ingólfur for the last track of the day.

The final run of the day would determine the winner of the 1. round. Geir Evert was the first one to drive the mud track and finished with total 1774 points, making this the first win of his Formula Offroad career, behind him was Ingólfur with 1712 points and in 3rd was Haukur Viðar with 1638 points in total.

New build takes the gold

The results in Street Legal class were surprising. Steingrímur Bjarnason held onto the gold for the most part of the race until the river where he only managed to finish 75% of the track while the new-comer Óskar Jónsson drove right past him and finished, snatching up the gold from Steingrímur’s grasp. Óskar was the only one in Street Legal class to finish the river track and put him only 30 points above Steingrímu before the last track.

The pressure was on Óskar for the mud track to maintain his lead and finish his run with more points than Steingrímur which he eventually did. Óskar finished the race with 1382 points and behind him was Steingrímur with 1365 points. In 3rd was Jakob Nielsen with 1151 points and in 4th was Jakob Pálsson with 335 points.