FIA World Rallycross Championship leader Johan
Kristoffersson – chasing an extraordinary sixth career crown this weekend
(11-12 November) – says tracks like Hong Kong’s Central Harbourfront circuit
which will play host to the 2023 season finale are ‘the most fun to race on’.
Kristoffersson is no stranger to street
circuits, having competed in Macau in 2019 – tallying a brace of top ten finishes.
In the context of World RX, however, the forthcoming downtown double-header –
the series’ first visit to the Asia-Pacific region – will be new ground for
everyone. The Swede is confident it will be a tremendous success.
“I’m feeling excited,” he acknowledged. “It’s
obviously a new track and rallycross has never been to Hong Kong before, so
hopefully we can show something very cool to a new audience. Street circuits I
would say are the most fun to race on when the margins are small, so I’m
looking forward to the weekend.”
The margins were certainly small in South
Africa last month – the first time the World RX field had competed in
completely equal machinery in the shape of the electric ZEROID X1 – as ALL-INKL.COM
Münnich Motorsport ace Timo Scheider brought Kristoffersson’s winning run to an
end on the second day in Cape Town.
Despite that defeat, the Volkswagen Dealerteam
BAUHAUS star needs to score just ten points this weekend to secure the spoils –
but he is refusing to take anything for granted, especially with any mis-steps
likely to be heavily punished around the tight, wall-lined 1,225-metre circuit.
“Of course it can happen that you make a
mistake and it has more severe consequences when it is on a street circuit, but
that’s the same for everyone,” Kristoffersson mused. “Being a double-header,
there are a lot of points up for grabs, so I think it's very important for me
to try to stay out of trouble. Saying that, we’ve seen many times in
championship fights that if you’re too cautious on day one, it can lead to
problems on day two as well, but I’ll just do my best as usual and let’s see
how it goes...”
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