Seven days in rallycross, July 10

Mattias Ekstrom’s first rallycross win at the head of a battling field in the Swedish round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship was the main story of the week. The EKS boss and lead driver delivered his team’s maiden victory in fine style and in front of a new record crowd of almost 35,000 in Holjes on a day when he also became the fifth different winner in as many events.

Holjes now commands absolute precedence over the first weekend in July and outside of the Swedish World RX event there was little happening – the rallycross world was in Holjes.

Outside of everything that happened in Holjes, there are a couple of noteworthy cancellations this week. Rallycross Challenge Europe abandoned its fifth event of the year, scheduled for Maasmechelen as the sad political wrangling that has left Belgium’s oldest rallycross track out of action this year continues. That was followed by GRC’s announcement of a ‘calendar adjustment’ as it canned its August event in Detroit. To compensate for the cancellation, the series has made it’s September event in Los Angeles into a double header, but says it hopes to host a Detroit event in 2015.

At the end of the week the WorldRX field reassembles in Belgium for round six, the French championship regroups in Pont de Ruan with the intriguing battle between JB Dubourg and Fabien Pailler finely poised and France two young chargers just two points apart entering round six of their season.

To end where we began, there is more to Holjes than the race; an intrinsic part of the weekend is what happens off the track, so this week’s gallery includes a little look at ‘Happy Street’ in Holjes.

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