The Norwegian ‘Carsport Talent 2012’ search is reaching its final stage and Rallycrosser Alexander Hvaal is among the five selected youngsters to fight for the prestigious ASN award.

The battle for the so-called ‘Bilsporttalentet’ tag is the most prestigious Norwegian competition for carsport youngsters between 15 and 21 years of age. The chase after the award has started as the former ‘Castrol Junior Talent’ search in 1998 and has seen two winners from the motorsport of Rallycross so far, Anders Aarsten Kjær (in 2006) and Andreas Bakkerud (in 2010).

This year Hansen Motorsport driver and ERC SuperCar 2012 rookie Alexander Hvaal (20) has been chosen, alongside his four younger opponents Henrik Furuseth (16; Formula Racing), Dennis Olsen (16; Karting), Harald Engerud (18; Crosskart) and Kevin Aleksander Aabol (18; Racing), to represent Rallycross when it comes to the final shoot-out for the 300,000 Norwegian Crowns [€41,000] prize money and title award on September 26 and 27 at the Vålerbanen.

“The five finalists in this year’s competition have been picked out from a total of 15 athletes who have been thoroughly considered. We have many new racers who have marked themselves by their good results, many of them are very young, so there is certainly no lack of qualified talent in the relevant group of age,” claims the sporting director of the Norwegian ASN Holm Jacob Matheson, a well known and still active rally driver and racer himself.

“The five will compete in racing with various race cars, karts and crosskarts. They will have a tough physical test consisting of both running and cycling. Moreover, they need to present themselves to the jury and in a television interview. On the basis of their performance in all the tests the jury is going to take a decision and declare the winner, whose name will be kept secret until November 23 and the annual awards ceremony of our ASN Norges Bilsportforbund,” said “Mattis” Matheson earlier this week to the press.

Update of September 1: According to his Facebook page ‘Alexander Hvaal Motorsport’ the 20-year-old is currently ill and, therefore, will not be able to take part in the NBF shoot-out.

Update of September 3: ERC24 was told today that Alexander Hvaal is seriously ill. The illness is known as ‘Infectious mononucleosis’ [aka Pfeiffer’s disease or Filatov’s disease] and in the vernacular called “kissing disease”. Most of the infected people do not suffer too much, but the Norwegian is in a bad state of health. 40 °C fever, both his liver and spleen are heavily swollen and he has yellow eyes. It is currently expected that the youngster will not be able to take part in NBF’s ‘Carsport Talent’ search nor in the Finale of the SRC at the Kinnekulle Ring and maybe not in the remaining two ERC rounds of Finland and Germany either. The crew of ERC24 wishes Alexander all the best and a speedy recovery!

Update of September 18: ERC24 was just informed by Alex Hvaal on the phone that he will not be able to compete in the two remaining ERC rounds of Finland and Germany.

Photo: 20 years old Alexander Hvaal is set to represent the sport of Rallycross in the talent search. © JKR/ERC24