Ståle Øivind Røsbjørgen
Ståle Øivind Røsbjørgen (b. 19th November 1990 in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway) is a Norwegian racing driver. He made his Reject Motorsport debut for Zeroforce in both the 2016 RTCC season and the inaugural season of the Rejects Rallycross Championship. Before that he had gained a reputation as a good ice racer in his native Norway, winning a few national championships.
Rejects Rallycross Championship
Røsbjørgen was the last new signing in the series, as all other teams had already finalized their lineups by the time he entered negotiations with Zeroforce to drive their Opel Astra. It is rumoured that his sizeable backing from Statoil and Helly Hansen played a crucial role in him getting the seat.
However, he proved everyone's suspicions wrong at the season opener International Rallycross, where he went all the way through to the A Final, scoring 19 points and putting himself 4th in the championship in the process. He improved even further at Autodrom Sosnová, where a near-perfect streak saw his total points tally reach 42, which was good enough for joint leadership in the championship alongside Bernardo Gonzalez. However at Mid-Ohio he was taken out in the first heat, and despite winning two races and getting a pair of second-place finishes at Circuit de Chateauroux, he was ultimately left second in the championship behind Massimo Munari as the series collapsed shortly afterwards.
Rejects Touring Car Championship
Zeroforce also needed a driver in the RTCC after being one of the last new teams to join the 2016 season with a single Opel Vectra. With little alternatives, the team decided that Røsbjørgen would be their driver in this category as well, after it was made sure that the calendars between the two series won't clash.
In the first race at Bathurst, it was evident that the Vectra was off the pace of the competitors, as Røsbjørgen only managed a 19th place finish. The same result was repeated at the first Brands Hatch start, before a slightly chaotic second start allowed him to grab 11th place and his first points in the series. More points followed in Austria with a 13th place finish. In Scotland he failed to finish both races due to various mechanical issues, after which it was decided that he'd be better off concentrating on the Rallycross program while Natascha Zaugg would take up the RTCC seat full-time. However, following the collapse of RRC and a downturn in Zaugg's performance Røsbjørgen would return to the seat for the last three races of the season, but failed to finish higher than 25th.
AutoReject Super Touring
With nowhere else to go, Røsbjørgen took the offer to drive for Volkswagen in the new AutoReject Super Touring series, which had taken over RTCC. However he had diffculty adapting to the car which was hard to drive, and it took him until Race 9 at Road Gatineau to score points. After this he managed to score points a bit more regularly, with a best result of 14th at Road America. However, although he finished every race of the season he was among the worst full-time entrants, and he made the decision to look at other opportunities next season without even trying to get another seat in ARST.
Complete Results
Rejects Rallycross Championship
| Season | Team | Car | Number | Points | DC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Zeroforce | Opel Astra | 29 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 64 | 2nd | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| INT | SOS | MID | CHA | BLY | BRA | SPA | LYD | CRO | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| H | Q | S | F | H | Q | S | F | H | Q | S | F | H | Q | S | F | H | Q | S | F | H | Q | S | F | H | Q | S | F | H | Q | S | F | H | Q | S | F | ||||||
| 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 39 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | C | |||||||||
Rejects Touring Car Championship
| Season | Team | Car | Class | # | Points | DC | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Zeroforce | Opel Vectra | C | 29 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 26th | |||
| AUS | ENG | AUT | SCO | FRA | GER | NED | BEL | SMR | JAP | GRO | ||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | |||||||
| 19 | 19 | 11 | 13 | Ret | Ret | 27 | 25 | 26 | ||||||||||||
AutoReject Super Touring
| Season | Team | Car | # | Points | DC | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | VW World/Chris Short Racing | Volkswagen Jetta | 96 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 31 | 43rd | ||||||
| AUS | BAT | GBR | FRA | ESP | CAN | USE | USW | RSA | ITA | BEL | CZE | JPN | HKG | ||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | ||||||
| 36 | 25 | 31 | 21 | 28 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 19 | 25 | 20 | 14 | 20 | 33 | 26 | 20 | 21 | 32 | 16 | 15 | ||||||