The Set Promotion team enjoyed a double-edged weekend victory with plenty of speed and disappointments in Holland.

Set Promotion showed once again how to dominate the FIA ERC. The team from Turku in Finland were in a class of their own when it came to speed. The amazing five-driver team was in the top of the scoreboard from one start to another. Norwegian Andreas Bakkerud (Renault Twingo Mk2) won the Super1600s category. The victory was his third one this season and increased his championship lead.

Set Promotion got again four cars straight into the A final. Finn Joni Wiman (Renault Clio Mk2) started from the pole position, but dropped to seventh place after being involved in a crash. There were plenty of pushing and shoving in the A final, which gave plenty of thought for the judges before the final results were released. They decided that Ildar Rahkmatullin had caused the crash and the Russian became disqualified. Russian Timur Shigaboutdinov (Renault Clio Mk2) had the best event of his career so far and came in on fourth place. Finn Teemu Suninen (Renault Clio Mk2) drove also better than ever before, finishing as fifth. The team’s other driver, Finn Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme (Renault Clio Mk2), got stuck in the B final where he finished on third place.

“That was quite a weekend. All kind of things happened. Speedwise it was a brilliant performance by our boys. The A final wasn’t really great with lots of pushing that affected many drivers. Once again I felt that instead of the driving the results were based on what the judges thought had happened out there,” said team manager Jussi Pinomäki.

“Andreas drove very well. The victory bolstered his championship lead. Timur also had an incredible weekend. This was absolutely his best event, and he managed to maintain his speed all weekend. Teemu raised his level shown in Belgium and made it straight into the A final. That was a great performance. Joni drove unbelievably fast. With the fastest times in the first two heats straight to the pole position. In the A final he was involved in a crash that didn’t end good. Jussi-Petteri started very well on Saturday, with the fastest time in the practice and in the first qualification round. Unfortunately he was pushed out and into the sandtrap and, thereby, lost his rhythm,” summarised Pinomäki up.

Dane Ulrik Linnemann finished as second behind Bakkerud. The Norwegian has now a ten-point lead ahead of his main rival. Leppihalme is fifth, 28 points behind Bakkerud. “This is a tough situation for me. One driver wins, the other is left disappointed. I should be happy for one and feel sorry for the other. And now with four to fife cars in the same start I can assure you that my pulse is running pretty high,” claimed Pinomäki.

Photo: Youngster Joni Wiman leading the A final, a second or two later he was send off the track. © QBA/ERC24