Part two

The summer break is over, no sleep until October!

The European Rallycross Championship reconvenes in Belgium this weekend at the start of a nine-week dash through the last five events of what has become one of the most open and competitive seasons in many years. The first half of the championship provided four different winners in five events, the only man to win twice being Tanner Foust who nailed that second victory in round five and with it took a slender two-point lead in the championship. The way the series is structured, however, means that no-one can take that advantage away from Foust; split into two, five-round halves, Foust will carry that two-point lead with him and begins the second part of the year with a distinct lead.

We also saw event wins from defending champion Sverre Isachsen (Great Britain), Frode Holte (France) and Mats Lysen (Norway) in the first half of the year. There is no reason whatsoever to think that those who have already won this year cannot do so again, but at the same time consider that Liam Doran is a proven winner and has been close to winning already this year. Doran’s team mate Timur Timerzyanov has also been close to the front and led the series after round four. A win from the Russian would not be a surprise in the second half of the year. Lysen’s win proves the Renault is good enough and we know also that Stig-Olov Walfridsson can win; keep a close eye on the Swede if things get wet… That’s before we consider young Finn Toomas Heikkinen and the French drivers Davy Jeanney and Marc Laboulle.

The second half of the season will also bring new territory for several of the leading contenders. The return of the Eurocircuit in Holland and the PS Racing Center in Austria throwing further unknowns into the equation. Last year’s Belgian event provided a new winner in the series in François Duval. The Belgian rally star is back this year but has made a late switch away from the Pauwels Motorsport Focus he had been expected to drive and will now race a Pailler Compétition Peugeot 207. Expect Pailler and his men to make every effort to get Duval into a position where he can win again, and do not rule out something extra from Pailler himself in the next few weeks: he is one of those who adores the Eurocircuit and who has been successful there in the past.

Away from the Supercar field, the Super1600 championship has a clear leader in Andreas Bakkerud but the Norwegian teen star was on the back foot at the end of the first half and needs to regain the form that saw him win twice at the start of the year. Ildar Rakhmatullin – the winner in Norway – and Polish sensation Krzysztof Skorupski who won on his first ERC start in Sweden, could spoil Bakkerud’s party, as could Ulrik Linnemann, Johan Larsson, and Clemens Meyer.

TouringCar has been all about one man this year. Unbeaten in the first five rounds, Lars Øivind Enerberg looks increasingly like the champion in waiting. Unless there’s a very major change of form in the class it’s difficult to see how anyone is going to stop the Norwegian taking the class title. Defending champ Derek Tohill has second places to his credit in Portugal and Norway but has not been consistent enough to contain Enerberg and has a 24-point deficit starting the second half. If Tohill has the car really sorted in the second half he may yet pull things round, but cannot afford to let Enerberg add to his winning tally.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.