The annual CIK Viking Trophy event open to all Northern Europe and Baltic countries and Russia was this year held in Pori, Finland and didn’t dissapoint. The racing in all classes was fiercely contested and all winners were deserving of their titles. KF3 was the largest field with 32 entrants with KF2 fielding 21 entrants.
KF3:
Being a CIK event all 32 drivers were mounted with the Tillotson HW10A carburetors and the racing was extremely close all weekend with many different drivers fighting for heat wins. The pre final was won by Semi Valterri of Ward Racing (Tony/Vortex) ahead of Joonas Laapalainen (Ninar/Vortex) and Aatu Moilanen (Haase/Vortex).
The final was a different story however with Russian driver Nikita Sitnikov (Tony/Vortex) driving superbly from 5th on the final grid to stroke home a clear victory from Moilanen and Dimitriy Stanishevskiy (Tony/BMB). A special mention also to Tuomas Haapalainen (ART/IAME) who raced superbly from 32nd in the grid up to 6th position earning him the Lotta Hellberg Trophy.
KF2:
KF2 produced some of the best racing seen throughout the weekend with a strong field making it difficult to predict the outcome. One man who did stand out however throughout was Juusi Kuusiniemi (Tony/Vortex) qualifying on pole position and winning 2 of his 3 heat races. Kuusiniemi was running the latest Tillotson HW11B carburetor for the event. After a non finish in the second heat Kuusiniemi was to start down the order for the pre final which was won by Kirill Karpov (Tony/BMB) followed by Ville Mantyla (Energy/Iame) and Kuusiniemi in 3rd.
It was a long 29 lap final and Robin Hanson also mounted with the HW11B for the final had to start down in 20th position after a DNF in the pre final. He was absolutely flying through the field and eventually raced up to 2nd place only 1.1 seconds behind eventual winner Kuusiniemi. It was a brilliant drive by both as Kuusiniemi had to battle early on to fight his way to the lead and following in 3rd was Niclas Nylund (ART/IAME).