Eriksson Tops Group E Podium on Saturday, Larsson on Sunday.
The action-packed Nitrocross event at Glen Helen Raceway in Southern California witnessed thrilling wins by Oliver Eriksson and Robin Larsson in Group E. Oliver Eriksson held off Conner Martell on Saturday, snapping a podium dry spell for Martell. Robin Larsson edged out Kevin Eriksson in a close battle. Fraser McConnell claimed fifth, with Travis Pastrana and Brian Deegan also making an impact.
Sunday saw Larsson’s dominance, holding off McConnell to secure his third win this season. Kevin Eriksson clinched third, while Viktor Vranckx redeemed himself with a fourth-place finish. Martell continued his strong run with consecutive top-five finishes. However, Oliver Eriksson and Deegan faced setbacks on Sunday, finishing sixth and seventh respectively due to early retirements. Lia Block, who made history earlier in the day by becoming the first female to compete in Group E, impressed to qualify for the final, but motor failure prevented her from taking her place in the GROUP E final grid.
Nitrocross’ 2023-24 season includes 10 rounds at venues across North America, set in a variety of locations ranging from the desert Southwest to the frigid Canadian Rockies.
Next up, Nitrocross returns to beautiful Calgary, Alberta and its iconic Stampede grounds on February 2-3. Additionally, Nitrocross’ season finale takes place on the iconic Strip of Las Vegas, Nevada at the Nitrodome at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on March 1 & 2. Tickets for both are available now at nitrocrossracing.com,
Oliver Eriksson, who topped Saturday’s Group E Final, had this to say on his victoy: “Yeah it was good fun. I had a good final, I took the lead from the start and could lead from the front so it was all good. Finally, I got to finish a final with all four wheels on the car so to cross the finish line first was great. He [Martell] came hot towards the end of the last lap and a half there so I just had to defend it. I knew where to put the car to be as hard as possible to pass, so in the end it was fine. We raced clean, it was fun. This track has been really good to me. It’s a fun track, normally really tight in lap times, which showed also this weekend, so yeah it’s all about getting the small details, getting the starts right, and having the right starting position – and on Saturday I had pole, which was good.”
Looking ahead to defending his title and keeping the Ken Block Trophy, Sunday’s winner Robin Larsson added: “It’s tight. I had a bad race in Utah, then it’s been consistent, and Kevin’s been also really consistent so it’s really hard. It’s lot of points now with the new qualification system so you need to be bang on it in the morning and really win that and go to the TQ so that’s the most stressful moment of the weekend because you really need to win that, if Kevin and the top guys win. You can give anything away, it’s a lot of points there but I like it. It’s really tight in the championship, to have Kevin up there is really fun also, we’ve been racing against each other for a long time and he couldn’t do the long run last year so it’s really nice to see him going for the championship this year. But it feels really good to have a bigger lead now than we had this morning.”
For fans that could not make it out to Glen Helen and experience Nitrocross in person, Rumble Sports, the leading platform for live-streaming action sports, has the racing archived in its entirety, all for free. Visit Rumble Sports