Seven days, May 23

Stuff happens. This is perhaps not the place for a detailed post mortem of what went wrong with X Games Barcelona (May 18-19), so we’ll leave it at the bare facts that a wet weekend led to a Catalan catastrophe and the cancellation of the rallycross and FMX [freestyle motocross] elements of the event in the 1992 Olympic stadium. Always on message, Tanner Foust offered one of the most succinct summations of the non-event. “It was already a tight space to hold a race, and in the mud and slime the racing would have been so slow that even the hardcore fans would have been disappointed in the action,” he said.

The Finnish Rallycross Championship moved to Kemora for its second round where Ari Perkiomaki took the event win in his Fiesta VI, leading home Janne Kanerva (Citroen C4) and Joni-Pekka Rajala’s Mitusbishi Lancer. The Supernational category had a new winner in a new car as Peter Helenius beat the regulars in his new VW Scirocco, class pacesetter Joni-Pekka Rajala (Escort) having to settle for second place this time.

The opening round of the French Rallycross Championship survived mixed weather and produced a couple of different winners. First across the finishing line in the Supercar final was Koen Pauwels who enjoyed a great run in the event with his Focus II. The event also counted as a points scoring round of the peripatetic Belgian championship and the Rallycross Challenge. Pauwels win brought to an end the winning streak of Patrick Van Mechelen (Fiesta) who nonetheless placed second. Best of the French runners, and therefore early leader in the national series was Jerome Grosset-Janin who got his campaign off to a great start in the Chanoine Renault Clio. Fourth place was taken by the evergreen “Knapick” ahead of Alain Heu who lost his chance of victory after making a jump start in the final. The French were dominant in Super1600, Dorian Launay (Clio) leading home Julien Febreau (Saxo) and Adeline Sangnier (C2) in a podium lockout. The strong national classes, Divisions Three and Four, were respectively won by Christian Saunois (Toyota Corolla) and Jimmy Terpereau (Audi A3).

The German championship moved to Grundau where, with a slim field that was notably missing a number of regular front runners, Norbert Fuchs took the win in his Audi 80. Hans Kirchhof ran his Porsche 911 GT3 as a Supercar and placed secind while the Super1600 category was topped by Dutch visitor Niels van de Warrenburg (Toyota Yaris), Ralph Wilhelm running his Renault Clio as a Supernational and winning the class.

Succumbing to illness, Klaus Stich died on May 18. The German (72) was until recently been one of the FIA’s designated circuit inspectors for rallycross but had a far reaching involvement in the sport as an experienced and senior official who had played an active role in rallycross Germany, and with his national ASN, for many years. Stich had been Clerk of the Course for German rounds of the European championship and was a regular among the international stewards in rallycross until the last couple of years.

Heading into the coming weekend Kevin Hansen is happy to talk up his prospects in the JRX European Rallycross Series. Now formally sanctioned as an international series, JRX is exactly a year old as it enters new ground in Hungary with Hansen, who ‘won’ four of the six ‘demonstration’ events run in 2012 starting as firm favourite and mixing the JRX events with a season in the Suzuki Swift-based British Junior Rallycross Championship. “The Swifts are going really well this year, I am using the class to learn in and I am much quicker than last season. It will be interesting changing from the Swift to the JRX through the year now. The Swift is right-hand-drive and has an H-pattern gearbox, whereas in the JRX car I sit on the left in my Sparco seat with a sequential gearbox. Having to adapt can only help my driving,” said Hansen.

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