Seven Days, August 29

Liam Doran made a guest appearance at round six of the MSA British Rallycross Championship, and claimed victory at the ‘Mayhem’ weekend in his Citroen DS3. Another guest driver Koen Pauwels (Ford Focus) finished the event second having started on pole for the final, while the ever present Julian Godfrey (Ford Fiesta) again did what was required and finished third, further extending his championship lead over Pat Doran (Citroen DS3) who finished fourth. Jon B. Hrolfsson (Subaru Impreza) who features in the new Rallycross World magazine was involved in a pile-up before the pack event got to the first corner in heat two, putting him out of the event. SuperNational was claimed by Peugeot 206 driver Stuart Emery, while championship leader Ash Simpson (Lotus Exige) struggled with gearbox problems. He wound up third behind Steve Cozens in second in another Lotus. Graham Rodemark won the Suzuki Swift category, title rival Tristian Ovenden crashed out of second place in the last corner of the event. Kevin Hansen again claimed victory in the Junior category, and Marc Scott closed in on the RX150 title with another win, although he was made to work hard for it this time by Dave Bellerby and Leo Foster. John Lyme (Citroen Saxo) won HotHatch and Tony Lynch took the spoils in the BMW Mini class and Chris Mullen won in Super1600. Retro Rallycross had its best event to date at Lydden Hill with a good entry and a close contest in the final that Rob Gibson (Metro 6R4) ultimately won. Former Supercar driver Tommy Graham debuted his new Ford Escort MkII in the category but retired from the event following a huge roll in heat three.

The French championship entered its final phase at the new Pont de Ruan track. Having capitalised at Kerlabo before the series took its shorter than usual summer break when mechanical problems struck the Renault Clio of championship leader Jerome Grosset-Janin, Fabien Pailler was again in great form. This time the Breton Peugeot driver beat Grosset-Janin in  a straight race to take his second event win of the year in his new 208. Grosset-Janin, perhaps now in championship defence mode, brought the Chanoine Clio home in a safe second place ahead of “Knapick”. Returning to competition for a one-off event at the track he had helped to bring into being, former racer turned team owner Philippe Chanoine achieved an impressive fourth place in his squad’s old Renault Clio II. The Super1600 victory was taken by Jean Baptiste Dubourg who led home David Olivier and Adeline Sangnier. Marc Morize returned to the top step of the podium in Division Three and Steven Lefrancois took the Divisio Four win. The new for 2013 Renault Twingo series was also on the schedule at Pont de Ruan where Enzo Libner led home Cyril Raymond on a day when the tricky and changeable weather conditions caught out series leader Fabien Grosset-Janin who twice non-finished in the heats and failed to qualify for the final.

Over in Russia, RallycrossRX championship leader Timur Timerzyanov won the Presidents Cup event held half an hour from Tatarstan’s capital Kazan, on the circuit that shares in cities name. Timerzyanov drove a Hansen Motorsport built Citroen C4 owned by President Rustam Minnikhanov to victory, ahead of Minnikhanov himself who drove a new Hansen built Citroen DS3. Valad Kuzmin completed the podium in his VW.

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