Seven days in rallycross, May 1

With the start of the new FIA World Rallycross Championship just hours away, teams and drivers across all categories have been busy testing for the season ahead.

OlsbergsMSE and PSRX both tested in France earlier this week, while Marklund Motorsport elected to do their extensive running in Portugal at Lousada. TouringCar race winner Robin Larsson had his first run in his brand new Audi A1 Supercar at Strangnas in Sweden, the same venue that OlsbergsMSE used to run a test session for RallyX Supercar Scandinavia and Supercar Lites drivers. Daniel Holten tested the Supercar he will use in the RallyX Scandinavia series at Strangnas, and also the Lites car that he share with his brother and race for five of the European RX Lites events and Turkey. He will get his campaign underway this weekend at Montalegre as part of ten car grid. “My brother Asmund will be driving in the Lites car in Sweden, and I will race it in World RX events, so we will share it,” said Holten, who will race also race his Swedish Championship OMSE Fiesta Supercar in the Norwegian and Swedish rounds of the World Championship.

Another driver to sign up to the Lites category is JRX and British Junior champion Kevin Hansen, who will graduate to senior rallycross on May 10th at the Kuntstorp Ring in Sweden, the opening round of RallyX Scandinavia. However, the young Swede will be unable to compete in International events until after his 16th birthday on May 28th, after which he will join RX Lites from Finland onwards. “The class is growing really fast, and there are some really big names entered, so it’s very competitive,” said Hansen. “The cars are easy to maintain and they are capable of doing a lot of kilometers before they need rebuilding. We looked at other options for this year, but the Lites came out on top. I always set myself high goals. But to start with at least, I want to race without putting heaps of pressure on myself. I am very focused on doing as well as I can, I always want to fight for wins.”

Also testing for Montalegre were European Super1600 runners Sergji Zagumennov and Nikita Misyulya who prepared their Volland Racing Skodas by racing at the Estering, Germany in the first round of the German Rallycross Championship, which was joined by Belgian Championship competitors for their third outing of the year. Zagumennov claimed Super1600 victory ahead of German driver Sven Seeliger (Ford Fiesta) and Misyulya, who has a 100% podium record from his first two rallycross events. Davy van den Branden (Citroen DS3) finished highest Belgian runner. Dutch drivers filled the Supercar podium with Ron Snoeck (Seat Leon) leading home Will Teurlings (Volvo S40) and Paul Allerts (Mitsubishi Evo).The German SuperNational catgeory was won by Bartek Ruszczynski (Alfa Romeo). Belgian Jos Sterkens (Volvo C30) won the TouringCar final.

Along with the new World series, several other championships get underway this weekend. The first round of the French championship takes place at Essay where Fabien Pailler has set his signs on winning his national championship in his Pailler Competition Peugeot 208. He will face stiff competition from bother Jonathan Pailler (Peugeot 208) and Herve Knapick (Citroen DS3) among others, including former Super1600 man Jean-Baptiste Dubourg driving the Citroen C4 formerly driven by Davy Jeanney. The Citroen C2 quartet of Laurent Chartrain, Adeline Sangnier, Maximilien Eveno and Emmanuel Martin will all fight for the Super1600 title this year, a position left vacant by the graduating Dubourg. Champion Marc Morize debuts his brand new Peugeot 208 in Division 3, while the absence of 2013 Division 4 champion Jimmy Terpereau leaves the category open for a new winner this season. Adjoining the French event is the first round of the Rallycross Challenge Europe, which features German Bernard Schomaker (Skoda Fabia) and Russian Oleg Grishin (Skoda Fabia) in Supercar. Czech driver Stanislav Susta (Skoda Fabia) returns to defend his Super1600 crown while Belgian Jos Sterkens (Volvo C30) heads the TouringCar entry list as champion.

Up north, the Swedish Rallycross Championship gets underway at Svampabanan, Tomelilla with an entry of almost 70 cars across SuperNational One and Two, and Juniors. Daniel Wall and Mattias Ohlsson will embark on the defense of their titles in SuperNational One and Two respectively. 2013 Junior champion Tommy Johansson has graduated to senior SuperNational for 2014, leaving a vacancy for a new Junior champion this year. Rasmus Bergren opens his account on the Junior series this weekend at his home circuit, and has his eyes set on victory after winning the Gotaland Cup last year: “My goal is to get a medal in 2014, but of course I would like to win,” said Bergren. “We should have been driving a new car this year, but all the parts have not arrived so I will be racing the BMW that I won the Gotaland Cup with last year.”

Meanwhile, across the border from Sweden, Skien in Norway plays host to the first round of the Norwegian Rallycross Championship.

Also this week, 2007 British Rallycross Champion Ollie O’Donovan announced that he will return to the series from Round Three, Knockhill onwards (May 11) in a newly acquired Ford Focus Supercar. He will also race at the British round of the World Rallycross Championship at the end of May.

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