Seven Days, November 7

The penultimate round of the Irish Rallycross Championship took place at Mondello Park where Andrew Morris stretched his lead over John Kelly after taking his third win of the series. Kelly qualified his Mitsubishi Lancer on pole for the final but was left on the grid when the engine in his car stalled. Morris seized the lead and never looked back, dashing off a clear win in his Subaru Impreza while Kelly managed to start late and make his way to second place ahead of Stephen Pascoe who had an eventful run to third with his Impreza, see onboard video below. Greg Kalinecki ran second in the first lap but was sidelined after a clash with Pascoe and a broken throttle cable in his Lancia. Ian O’Connell again topped the Supernational order with his Lotus Exige, finishing clear of Kieran Curran’s Vauxhall Corsa and the Nova of John Dowling. Derek Lenehan won the 16v Stock Hatch class in his Peugeot 106 GTi, the eight-valve section topped by Ciaran Murphy’s 205 while Sophie Byrne (Nissan Micra) was best of the Junior field and Patrick Donoghue won the rally car class in his Peugeot 205. The championship concludes at Mondello on November 24.

Ken Block’s Gymkhana Grid reached its conclusion in Madrid where the boss lost out to home star Nani Roma who used his Mini to beat Block in the final of the event. Rallycrosser Anton Marklund placed third in his VW Polo.

GRC went into its final event of the year at Las Vegas by announcing that Red Bull would be its title sponsor and official energy drink in 2014. The Las Vegas event takes place a few hours after this is posted, but the qualifying stage has already been completed with outgoing champion Tanner Foust leading the way, and in search of his first victory of the year. Foust goes into the second day ahead of Ken Block, Scott Speed and champion-elect Toomas Heikkinen. Daniel Holten is to test an OMSE Ford Fiesta Supercar in Las Vegas, the young Norwegian having recently had his first taste of a Ford in the tests at Kinnekulle.

Rallycross will be included in ‘Winter Week’ at Umea in Sweden. The winter version of the ‘mini olympic’ event features more than 20 sporting disciplines and is moved around Sweden to different host cities. Umea is the scene for the 2014, raising the curtain on a year when it is European City of Culture. The rallycross event has been added to the motor sport segment of the event that already includes a rally sprint, both overseen by Thomas Radstrom who has helped the organisers devise a rallycross track within the local trotting track.

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[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRmtE5S3aT4#t=108[/tube]