Veiby: Cape Town will be ‘one of the highlights of the year’

Ole Christian Veiby is excited for his first trip to Cape Town for World RX of South Africa (7-8 October), predicting that the FIA World Rallycross Championship’s return to Killarney International Raceway will be ‘one of the highlights of the year’.

World RX is not only returning to South Africa next month – for the first time since 2019 – but also returning to action in general following a mid-season pause prompted by the incident at Lydden Hill back in July.

In the meantime, Veiby joined Volkswagen Dealerteam BAUHAUS stablemate Johan Kristoffersson as well as Hansen brothers Timmy and Kevin in participating in the FIA ZEROID X1 Championship at Mettet in Belgium – enabling him to gain some initial experience of the ZEROID X1 that he and his fellow World Championship competitors will be piloting in Cape Town.

In tricky conditions and on his debut at the Circuit Jules Tacheny, the Norwegian spent much of Qualifying Practice ‘exploring the track limits’, but he nonetheless succeeded in outpacing five-time world champion Kristoffersson to post the third-quickest time in the 12-strong field.

He continued to feature up towards the sharp end throughout the opening day and secured fifth spot in the intermediate classification at the end of the heats, but his challenge came to a premature conclusion at the semi-final stage when impaired visibility out of his windscreen resulted in a dramatic roll, after taking a bit too much bite out of one of the circuit’s unforgiving kerbs.

“It clearly wasn’t the perfect weekend in terms of the result, but the speed was good and I felt like I got to grips with the ZEROID X1 reasonably quickly,” Veiby mused. “Both the track and the car were new to me in Belgium, so there was a lot to learn and the weather obviously didn’t help, but I’m really happy we took the decision to race there, because it means we now know a little more what to expect in Cape Town and Hong Kong.”

The 27-year-old Kongsvinger native heads to the ‘Mother City’ locked in the midst of a tight fight for second in the overall standings – with just 12 points blanketing six drivers – and poised to pounce should Kristoffersson trip up. He will also be able to draw upon his team-mate’s knowledge from World RX’s previous visits to Cape Town, with the championship leader having won both rounds he has contested there to-date.

“I’ve never been to South Africa before, but it looks like a beautiful country – and from what I’ve seen, the track looks like fun too,” Veiby reflected. “It’s really good to be going outside of Europe and it will definitely be one of the highlights of the year. I’ll be heading over there early to have a couple of days before the event to look around and experience South Africa a little bit. I think it’s going to be super-cool.

“It’s been two months since the season was paused, but it feels like six because the time has gone so slowly – we just want to go out there and race again which is what we all love, and now finally we can. I’ve been keeping myself busy with some other activities, but it hasn’t been what I’ve really wanted to be doing. Obviously it’s not an ideal position that we are in, but it’s so important that we keep the excitement alive – and we will definitely be bringing the excitement to Cape Town!”