McConnell happy with debut Supercar season
Published:Tuesday | September 8, 2020 | 12:18 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
H aving begun his 2020 season with no expectations racing in the elite Supercar class, rallycross driver Fraser McConnell managed to land on the podium, finishing second overall in the RallyX Nordic Supercar Championship.
McConnell was competing in the final event of 2020 named ‘The Final Showdown’, which ended on Sunday at the Nysumbanen race track in Denmark. The 21-year-old McConnell, who was representing Team Olsberg MSE, finished second in the final behind Norway’s Ben Phillip Gunderson. McConnell’s teammate, Oliver Eriksson, won the championship with 111 points despite finishing third. McConnell accumulated 91 points over the three events, ensuring that it was a one-two podium placing for Olsberg.
While his focus was on gaining experience in the new class when he started the season in July in Sweden, he said that he was pleased with how the season unfolded.
“I was just really expecting to experience the car and go up against some tough competition, but we came out with decent point standings, [and so] we decided to run the second events [in Sweden] to get more points and to see how we stand, and by the end of the second event, we were fourth, not far away from getting a podium in the standings,” McConnell told The Gleaner. “So we decided to go all the way and see where we are, and we were able to get enough points to finish second. So I am really happy with that.”
According to McConnell, his jump to the Supercar class was not part of the original plan for this year. He was supposed to be racing in the RX2 class, but the coronavirus outbreak caused the racing season to be put on hold. However, the pandemic brought the opportunity for him to restart his season and fulfil a lifelong dream.
“It’s so funny and ironic how it turned out that COVID-19 had presented the opportunity to go up into the higher class. I wouldn’t have expected it at the start of the year, but we made the best out of it and grabbed it with two hands,” he said. “I have been wanting to drive a Supercar my whole life, so being able to get that chance, I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way from me being able to perform at my best.”
He says that a return to the Supercar class for next year would be dependent on being able to secure sponsorship to meet the budget demands. Acknowledging the difficulties of the current health crisis, he hopes that the exposure from the last two months will put in him a good position to return to compete again at the elite level in 2021.