Hansen emulates his father with emotional win in European competition

Ex-british Junior Rallycross champion Kevin Hansen started in his fourth Supercar event at the opening round of the European Rallycoss Championship in Belgium and won the final.

While Hansen had crashed out of the first qualifying race after contact, Albatec Racing’s Jerome Grosset-janin dominated. He set the fastest time in each of the four qualifying races to be top at the Intermediate Classification. Hansen recovered to fourth for the semis.

Both Grosset-janin and Hansen won their semi-final races to line up on the front row of the grid for the final. Grosset-janin took the lead on the first lap with Hansen in second. The young Swede took his joker on lap four, Albatec responding a lap later to cover off the move but RX Lites Cup champion Hansen had put in the lap of the weekend and, as Grosset-janin exited the joker, Hansen leapt into the lead to score his first Supercar win.

“I just tried to follow Jerome and pushed on the lap before he took the joker. On the last lap I realised that I was leading the final. I have seen dad leading so many times so I’m really pleased to win here,” said Hansen, son of 14-time European champion Kenneth. “I’m in a good position to keep challenging for the podium this year, the car is really strong.”

Last year’s World RX driver Tord Linnerud finished third in his VW Polo. Hungarian newcomer ‘Csucsu’ finished fourth, with reigning Euro RX champion Tommy Rustad fifth in a second Albatec Peugeot 208 and Joni-pekka Rajala sixth in an Eklund Motorsport VW Beetle.

Irishman Derek Tohill finished 12th on his return to international Supercar competition, but Ollie O’donovan and British drivers Kevin Procter and Andy Scott all failed to make the start of the event.