Seven days, June 20

In a remarkable run through the event in which he struck back after making a ‘rookie error’ and forgetting to take the Joke Lap in the first heat, Liam Doran grabbed most of the headlines this week for his second win of the year in the FIA European Rallycross Championship. The rest of the headlines were taken by Liam Doran fending off criticism from Petter Solberg who pinned the blame for his exit from the Norwegian round of the series at Hell on the Englishman and the clash between the two in the third heat.

“That wasn’t very nice at all from Liam Doran: not the sort of thing you would expect from another rallycross driver,” said Solberg. Doran rebuffed the comments in his usual style, “I was on the outside and he was on the inside, how can it be my fault? His left front touched my car but it was his right front that broke…”

Solberg had dominated the first day of the event but again ended his run with mechanical problems. Doran was tenth at the intermediate stage but fought back in the semi-final to join intermediate leader and team mate Andreas Bakkerud on the front of the final grid. A puncture put Bakkerud out of the running for the lead and Doran led home Timur Timerzyanov who extended his points lead in the series and Davy Jeanney.

Renis Nitiss gets better and better in Super1600, the young Latvian taking his third straight final victory in Norway, flanked on the podium by Ildar Rakhmatullin and Ulrik Linnemann.

TouringCar had its best entry of the year to date, 13 cars appearing and former champion Lars Øivind Enerberg coming through to win the event with a maximum points score. Enerberg was beaten only once in the event, Derek Tohill fastest in the third heat. The Irishman had to give best to the Norwegian in the final, but second place and a good points haul on a day when Roman Castoral and Robin Larsson both had problems was almost as good as a win.Anders Braten had his best run of the series to date with third in the final and Christian Sandmo made it to the final in the first RallycrossRX event.

The JRX series had four starters as Ada Marie Hvaal returned to race one of the Junior cars. The event was won by William Nilsson who remains unbeaten at the halfway point for the six-round series.

In Finland the national series moved to Joensuu for its second round where Joni-Pekka Rajala put his name in the history books by winning both the Supercar and Supernational classes. In the former, Rajala was third, moved to second after Aki Karttunen went off in his Skoda and then hunted down Atro Maatta, putting a last lap pass on the champion to take the win. In Supernational Rajala again had to work hard, this time passing round one winner Peter Helenius to take the victory. Jarno Kukkola won the Autocross class and the Crosskart victory was taken by Kalle Markkanen.

Across the Atlantic Global Rallycross gives the ‘lites’ class a public launch. Supercar Lites until now, the formula is announced as GRC Lites. The four-wheel drive, spaceframe cars are powered by a 300bhp, 2.4 litre, mid-mounted Duratec engine and will appear alongside the GRC at its six US dates. Mitchell De Jong, a multiple champion in both LOORS and TORC and circuit racer Geoff Sykes are the first two names associated with the class, Set Promotion subsequently announcing that it will field three cars for Joni Wiman, Kevin Eriksson and Alexander Westlund who, like Eriksson, cut his teeth in Folkracing.

Motorsport Ireland, meanwhile, has endorsed the creation of a new one-make class that will run within the Irish championship and which is aimed at offering a low-cost, entry-point category for the series. A statement for the new Honda Civic class said: “The committee has approved the 1996-2001 3 Door 1.4 SOHC Engined Honda Civic, a number of individuals are currently building Cars for the class…Technical Regulations will be available in 1-2 weeks.”

In France nothing happened, the scheduled championship event at Faleyras being cancelled, along with other planned events on the track this year, while a dispute between the Association sportive automobile du circuit de Faleyras, the local authority and a group including Philippe Monneret  and Jean-Pierre Jabouille that wants totake over the track and develop it as a permanent venue and school facility, continues.

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