Team Norway have won the ROC Nations Cup for the second consecutive year after father and son team Petter and Oliver Solberg defeated Team All Stars Felipe Drugovich and Thierry Neuville in the grand final.
The Solberg’s once again put up a strong fight for Team Norway throughout the day and dominated in the final against Team All Stars as the Race of Champions returned to the snow and ice of Northern Sweden for the second year.
While Petter Solberg faltered at times, Oliver Solberg dominated throughout, defeating every driver he faced.
It was WRC ace Neuville that gained the advantage over Petter Solberg in the Cupra during the first heat of the final while Oliver Solberg looked undefeatable in the second heat, finishing ahead of Drugovich.
World Rally and Rallycross Champion Petter, predictably out performed ice driving rookie Drugovich in the third heat, with Oliver Solberg cementing the win for Team Norway after a dominant drive against Neuville.
Drugovich and Neuville, who appeared in the Nations Cup for the first time, progressed onto the final after they defeated multiple Nations Cup victors, Team Germany.
But this wasn’t the only upset of the day as Team Finland, composed of Valtteri Bottas and Mika Hakkinen, were knocked out in the first round by Team eROC, fronted by the 2023 eROC champion Lucas Blakeley and runner up Jarno Opmeer.
Round 1
Blakeley started strong off the line in the Cupra in the first round, repeating his now infamous defeat of Sebastian Vettel in last years competition. In the second heat, after a slow start off the line for Mika Hakkinen, Opmeer was victorious after it appeared he had made a jump-start.
Opmeer then faced Bottas in the third round, in the Supercar Lites. The Finn’s, now being on the backfoot, meant Bottas was pushing harder, bumping the snowbanks than line the track, still though Bottas finished marginally ahead of Opmeer.
This meant Blakeley was required to finish over seven-tenths ahead of Hakkinen but the eROC champion smashed the target, finishing ahead by 6.789s.
Also on the back foot in Round 1 was Team GB, who faced seven-time nations cup victors, Team Germany. Only eight-tenths separated Vettel and David Coulthard in the first heat. Three-time W Series Champion, Jamie Chadwick, put up a strong fight but Schumacher secured the second heat for Team Germany despite making contact with the snow buffer that lined the track.
Coulthard explored the outer snow banks further in the third heat, allowing Schumacher to easily knock Team GB out and allowing germany to progress with ease onto the quarter-finals.
The Quarter Finals
In the quarter finals, 2022 Nations Cup champions Team Norway, faced the 2022 Champion of Champions Sebastian Loeb and his Team France partner Adrien Tambay. Loeb had flown in early on Saturday morning and missed out on the bulk of practice, meaning he had driven just two laps before this point. Faced with the might of Peter Solberg Loeb was defeated in the first heat.
Team Norway’s Oliver Solberg went 2-0 up in the second heat after Frenchman Adrien Tambay spun coming out of the chicane up the hill and hitting the wall on the descent.
Petter continued the domination, defeating Tambay in the third heat, followed by Oliver, who cemented Team Norway’s advancement into the next round as he defeated Loeb for the second time.
Quarter-final success came early for Team Sweden, who faced Team Nordic, stretching out a thirteen-second gap after the second heat. Mattias Ekstrom continuing the domination in the fourth heat against Tom Kristensen to secure the Swedes progress.
eROC’s Blakeley, faced Vettel in the quarter finals, mounting the outside snowbank on exit of the fist corner. The error resulted in a gap of over seven seconds at the halfway point. Blakely continued to push and decreased the gap to six-tenths of a second behind Vettel by the end of the lap.
Opmeer also explored the snowbanks in the Polaris RZR against Schumacher in the second heat, but the pair were close on time, Schumacher finishing marginally ahead. Blakeley went up against Schumacher in the third heat. After a strong performance it was ultimately mistakes, which sent Blakeley onto the other side of the track and back, that knocked Team eROC out in the quarter-final.
On thier path to the final Team All Stars defeated Team USA in the quarter-final. Belgian, Neuville, finished ahead of Team USA’s Tanner Froust in the first heat. The 2022 F2 champion, Felipe Drugovich, faced Team USA’s Travis Pastrana in the second heat who beat Drugovich to the finish line in the second heat.
The third heat saw Drugovich face Foust in the Supercar Lite’s. The pair put in a solid performance but Foust’s car came to a halt on the track, allowing Drugovich to glide to victory. It was still all to play for in the fourth heat however, as Neuville defeated Pastrana with ease with a controlled run to take Team All Stars through to the semi-final.
Semi-finals
Team Sweden went up against Team Norway for the first heat of the semi-finals. Petter Solberg and Johan Kristofferson both put in a masterclass runs in the Polaris RXR’s but Sweden’s Kristofferson finished marginally ahead of reigning nations cup champion, Solberg.
The younger of the Solberg’s put in another impressive performance in the Cupra, this time against Ekstrom, ahead throughout the run to make it a draw after the second heat.
Petter Solberg was searching for redemption against Team Sweden in the third round and matched the pace of Ekstom for the majority of the run. It looked as if Solberg would win the third round but a last second mistake saw Ekstrom win the round by 0.001s.
It was up to the Oliver Solberg to rescue Team Norway’s hopes of reaching the final, as Norway were up on time, whichever driver won the round would progress into the final. Solberg crossed the line ahead of Sweden’s Kristofferson.
Team All stars knocked out Team Germany in the semi-final. Vettel was pitched against Neuville in the Polaris RXR. Team All Stars Neuville, stretched out nearly a six second gap by the halfway point of the first round and marginally finished ahead of Vettel meaning Germany was now on the backfoot.
Schumacher faced Drugovich in the Cupra, the pair both making mistakes into the snowbanks, but ultimately, Schumacher crossed the line comfortably ahead of Drugovich.
It was the turn of Vettel to face Drugovich next, crossing the line ahead of the 2022 F2 champion, but Vettel was given a five second time penalty for a jump-start. This allowed Drugovich to take the win.
Neuville faced Schumacher in the final heat, having throughout advantage throughout over the German driver. But Neuville crossed the line easily ahead of Schumacher.
Meaning the ROC rookies would face the defending ROC Nations Cup champions in the final.
