By: Erika Detota

The Second World RX competition in Lydden Hill, England, ended up being a difficult one for Sweden’s Ramona Karlsson.

As the first & only woman to race in the championship, she was fresh off of proving herself as a respected competitor in the first round in Portugal by making it to the semi final round. However, she didn’t get the chance to keep building on that success at Lydden Hill. ”I had problems with the installation of the launch control revs” Ramona said. “I was very unsatisfied” she added.  She was 4th and 2nd in the two qualifying heats on Saturday, but fell to a 25th place during the race.

By Sunday Ramona’s team had the chance to make some big adjustments to the car which seemed to help her push harder. This momentum quickly came to an end with a flat tire in her heat which caused her to lose control of the car at one point, dropping to 30th overall.

“My goal was to make it to the semi final as I did last competition, so I’m of course disappointed with the result. The positive thing is that we finally found good settings, and that the lap times were improving. This was the first time for me on his track and with this conditions, and sometimes you need to accept that you don’t find the right settings and speed at once.  After all, I’ve got valuable experiences from this weekend that I will take with me to next race” Ramona says.

It has been an exciting year for women in Rallycross! Fellow rally driver, Emma Gilmour became the first and only,thus far woman to race in the Red Bull Global Rallycross series. The 2 ladies in paralleling world level championships will hopefully help more women to come into the sport in the future. Both Emma and Ramona got their start in performance rally and have extensive driving resumes, it will be exciting to watch them among their respected rallycross series.

Ramona’s next competition is in Norway in three weeks.

Photo Credit: Johnny Loix

For results, go to www.rallycrossrx.com .

More about Ramona Karlsson Rallycross: www.ramonarx.com/en/