Another female success story for Porsche Sprint Challenge Scandinavia: 17 year old Isabell Rustad joined the grid for her home round in Rudskogen, Norway, and took an impressive double-podium at her GT4 debut.
The Porsche Sprint Challenge Scandinavia was back with its penultimate round of the season at Rudskogen, Norway, with another female guest driver making its first appearance: after Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky wrote history by becoming the first woman in the series - and then talking victory at debut - Isabell Rustad was the new name on the grid for her home race. The 17 year old Norwegian is the daughter of former STCC champion Tommy Rustad - and is now ready to write her own motorsport story.
Isabell has been racing in karting and GT5, driving a Peugeot 206 GTI in the Norwegian championship. She is also the youngest lady to win a NM heat in the Norwegian racing series, at only 16 years of age.
Now it's time for the next step in her career, with her racing debut in GT4 machinery in the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 of the Sprint Challenge Scandinavian series; a deal that was made possible thanks to Svein Tore Sæther's efforts, in collaboration with Porsche Norge and HTB Racing.
On Friday evening, William Siverholm was all in for qualifying: the current championship leader scored pole position for race 1 and race 2. Isabell Rustad - who was already very quick in both practice sessions - qualified third and second.
Race 1 on Saturday saw the first win for Siverholm, as he started from pole but was overtaken by Isabell Rustad - who took her chance with a great start, went side by side with Siverholm and eventually got by. But the polesitter responded back as soon as in the first lap, then pulling away to win his first race this season, ahead of Aksel Lund Svinald and Krister Andero. Svindal received a five second penalty for a false start and dropped back to fourth.
Isabell Rustad was right in the mix of the podium battle throughout the race before going off track on lap 7 and dropping down to 5th. She could then fight back and moved to P4, passing Ludwig Ellhage and - after Svindal's penalty - Rustad claimed the final podium spot at her series debut, representing another female success story for the Scandinavian championship.
In Race 2, Siverholm completed a successful round with his second victory of the weekend and of the season - which handed the 17 year old Swede the Porsche Sprint Challenge Scandinavia 2022 title with one round to go.
The start of the second race was a lot similar to the first one: Siverholm started from pole but was once again challenged by a furious Isabell Rustad, who passed him into the first corner. But again, Siverholm kept his cool and took back the lead only to pull away.
The weekend dominator was never in trouble after that first attempt by Isabell Rustad and crossed the finish line first to secure the championship on the penultimate round of the 2022 season. In second place, Isabell Rustad took the chequered flag in yet another impressive performance throughout the whole weekend, scoring two podiums in GT4 machinery. Ellhage was third and completed the podium.
The series will be off to the final round at Mantorp Park from 30th September to 1st October.
