BEST FIRST TIME

06.07.2025

Hello everyone! And welcome back to my blog post, and for today, this is for my favorite race weekend for this year, and it is Knutstorp where my consistency shined and my absolute calm shows! This blog post will feature Practice 1-to-Race 3 reports alongside Driver of the Weekend

Practice 1 & 2

Whilst I did spin around and beached myself in Practice 1, despite losing valuable practice time, I managed to plant in a good 1:09.5 towards the end of the 2nd practice, since I had to adapt and develop from spinning myself out.

Qualifying

The qualifying was absolutely bollocks. It was raining like hell before the qualifying and was still raining a little bit so we opted for rain set of tyres with rain pressures. The first half of the qualifying was pretty chill, I was stuck on P7 which BTW was my highest qualifying position so good job me. However, after Agnes spun out on the grass in the first sector, there was A SAFETY CAR!?! The SC absolutely shocked me, and I laughed myself away during the slow drives. However, after the SC I was stuck behind traffic so no improvements there...

Race 1

Race 1 was absolutely chaotic. Again, it rained prior to the race and by the time the race started, there was still light rain so we kept our rain sets. But not even 1 lap into the race and there was already an incident that released another SC. It should also be noted that Oscar Mellstig managed to get in-front of me despite starting from P11!!! Absolute master class driver. But after the first SC ended, there was another dang incident that ended with, you guessed it, another SC coming out. The first race was absolute boring and I don't have... anymore comments on it. Finished P7

Race 2

Unlike the previous race, this race actually presented with some fun racing! Lap 1 Turn 1 incident again, which had the leaders crash out which kinda benefitted me at the end. You'll see why. Again there was another SC but after the SC ended (for context, I put on dry tyre pressures), I thought I was driving a GT3 car and brakes so much that the brakes decided to just stop responding which resulted in me going off onto the gravel. Surprisingly, I managed to stay on track after keeping the car's revs low. I was P12 by the time I got off the gravel and after a few laps, I overtook 2 drivers and got back to my top 10 target! That is my resilience right there. Finished P10

Race 3

The track was finally fudging dry and thankfully I could race back to my full performance. I started in P8 which meant I had a-lot of work to do. The start was good but unfortunately I couldn't overtake Albin Gustafson, and soon after, Christan Loven managed to overtake me and Enzo, which resulted in me being behind, and with Enzo and Loven fighting, however, I managed to quickly catch up after having a great final corner exit and caught up with Enzo, to which we helped each other get to Loven. That was practically my most intense fight yet, We all made some mistakes (Like me overcooking the exit of T1 and riding the kerb) and I was following behind and adapting. I was also melting, sitting in-front of a 98 degree engine and driving behind the exhaust gases of other drivers. However, the fight did not break me, and despite being stuck down in P9, I managed to overtake Enzo for the 8th place finish. OML, That fight was crazy, like really crazy...

Overall

By far my favorite track and weekend after launching an absolute master class of racing despite being on a new track. I loved the technicality and the challenge of overtaking drivers. Drivers like Enzo and Loven really know how to defend and they are amazing at it. They managed to make the racing extremely exciting! Even if Elias Adestam wasn't here to coach me, his teachings from the previous weekends still helped me be a fast driver on a new track, so I think EA in spirit and thank you Aquila for the amazing weekend!

Driver of the Weekend

DOTW JUNIOR: CHRISTAN LOVEN!!! Despite being gone for the first 3 race weekends, he managed to keep his absolute performance and skill, creating fun racing on the track, especially during the 3rd race. Loven is an amazing driver who drove like hell to keep up with the rest of the drivers on track, keeping up with drivers like Enzo Cohlin who drove absolutely fast on the track, even taking a top 5. Great Job Loven and we're hoping to see you again in Kinnekulle!
DOTW ROOKIE: ENZO COHLIN!!! First top 5 across qualifying, Race 1 and Race 2!!! This is what Aquila is! Development and growth within new drivers. Enzo Cohlin is also an amazing driver but most of all, a quickly improving rookie, his development rate as a rookie just absolutely skyrockets and I don't even have the words to describe just how much of a great and developing driver he is. Enzo, You are developing fast! Lets see more top 5's from you!!!
DOTW OVERALL: Devan Grabko!!! Another developing rookie! Managing to snatch his maiden top 5 in qualifying just shows how fast Grabko can be. Grabko can always keep his cool during the races and drive very well, making minimal mistakes and faults. Grabko also kept it really clean during the rainy conditions and mixed conditions which shows how great Grabko can adapt to changing conditions, and remember, Adaptability is one of the most essential things about racing. Keep up the top 10s Grabko and I hope to fight you very VERY soon!