It was a fast-paced and exciting weekend during Gatebil Extreme at Vålerbanen, with close racing, technical challenges and several dramatic events both on and off the track!
Several situations already arose during the training sessions. Ruben Thorsen got into a fight with Erlend Thorsen, which resulted in the rear bumper of Eivind’s car falling off. Later, Kristian Pettersen had a dramatic end to the weekend when his car caught fire during training. The fire was quickly extinguished, and it appeared to have come from the front under the bonnet. The weekend was then over for Pettersen, who had to pack up and thus did not participate in Time Attack, or the remaining races.
Sandvik got off to a difficult start on Saturday with fuel problems, which created uncertainty about the rest of the weekend. At the same time, Anna Skjærbrekk experienced technical problems when her car suddenly stopped on the track for no apparent reason, but was able to continue in the race.
On the court, the battle between Dennis, Vaa junior and Ruben Thorsen in particular characterized the weekend. Dennis got extra pressure than usual from Vaa junior, the son of Roy Vaa, Vaa and Bjørklund had several intense duels throughout the event.
During the race, both Ruben Thorsen and Dennis ended up on the grass in connection with an overtaking situation when they overtook cars with a lap. After the incident, Thorsen chose to slow down somewhat to save the car. However, it is still worth highlighting the impressive performance of Thorsen, who drives an older Lotus and manages to keep up with Dennis’ very advanced Audi.
The contrasts in Gatebil Extreme were also evident this weekend. Dennis’s Audi is so extreme that team members from the Czech Republic are on hand to help set up and run the car. At the same time, Anders Skandal is competing with a Ford Taunus 17M that he has built at home in his own garage. The fact that these cars are competing in the same series shows something of the uniqueness of Gatebil – such contrasts are hard to find anywhere else in Norwegian motorsport.
Sunday’s race was a crowd favorite. The race started with Andreas Vaa, Dennis Bjørklumd and Ruben Thorsen side by side towards the first corner in a spectacular battle for the lead. Vaa and Dennis eventually managed to pull away from Thorsen, while they continued the intense duel between them. Vaa led for large parts of the race and drove with Dennis close to the rear bumper before Dennis finally found his way past. From there he was able to control his way to victory.
Time Attack:
Dennis Bjørklund who drove on 53.342
Olav Vaa who drove on 54.401
Ruben Thorsen drove in 54.456
The top in Saturday’s race was:
Dennis Bjørklund in first place with 9.28,417
Andreas Vaa in second with 9.29,629
Ruben Thorsen in third with 9.35,293
The top in Sunday’s race was:
Dennis Bjørklund came first with a time of 9.14,809
Olav Vaa came in second with a time of 9.25,305
Oliver Andersen came third with a time of 9.39,974
The weekend at Vålerbanen delivered everything Gatebil fans could wish for: close duels, technical challenges, drama, passion and a diversity of cars that make Gatebil Extreme something very special.