Seven days in rallycross, September 18

The World in Buxtehude. After more that 40 years of rallycross on the outskirts of town, Buxtehude finally embraced the motor sport on its doorstep with a town centre display and press conference ahead of the German FIA World Rallycross Championship event. cars were driven from the track to the town under police escort with a short demonstration, autograph session and press conference on the eve of the World RX event.

Ahead of the ninth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship Albatec Racing was busy giving new recruit Ramona Karlsson as much seat time as possible. The Swede tested an Albatec Peugeot 208 at Mayenne directly after the French World RX round at Loheac, and then completed a shakedown outing at the Scottish team’s home track of Knockhill on Monday before the cars left for Germany. “I am feeling great about the weekend; spending time with the Albatec team at Lohéac was a good move, and the two days at Mayenne and Knockhill proved very beneficial. I really feel like we have a great relationship and I feel more motivated than I have for a very long time,” said Karlsson.

On the back of his Swedish championship success, Kevin Hansen will drive in the Lites class in the GRC events in Los Angeles. The young Red Bull-backed racer will go head-to-head with American counterpart Mitchell De Jong for the first time; plans for the pair to meet in the Canadian World RX event having been scuppered when De Jong fell ill and could not race. “I always like to win, but Mitchell and my friend and rival from Sweden Kevin Eriksson are really good drivers, and they know the GRC format well. There are a lot of other good drivers in the championship too, but I have set my goal high. I want to get on the podium,” said Hansen.

The Belgian Rallycross Championship returned to Maasmechelen where Jochen Coox (VW Scirocco) won on home ground after Koen Pauwels went off while leading. Ron Snoeck (Seat Leon) placed second and retained the championship lead. Davy Van Den Branden (Citroen DS3) extended his Super1600 points lead after winning ahead of Bart Stouten (Peugeot) and Dennis Remans (Fiesta), the latter jumping the start and having too take the Joker Lap twice. Luc Maris won the over two-litre Supernational category ahead of Kristof Bex and Steve Volders, the unto two-litre section won by Martijn Vanhove who gave his BMW M1 its first win, Jeff Mertens and Johan Kwinten completed the field. The day before the national series, regional racers starred at Maasmechelen where Pieter-Jan Willekens became champion in the ‘promo’ class, joining Yves Teelen who secured the up to 1600cc class award in August. The event also featured Swedish visitor Magnus Eriksson who brought his Mazda RX7 Group B replica for some rallycross fun.

The two-wheel drive classes in the Swedish championship had the final round of their championship at Strangnas a week after the four-wheel drive series concluded at Solvalla. Ulf Eriksson (BMW E30) won the final round and the championship among the Supernational runners, second place in the final round not enough for Jimmy Holmqvist to challenge the points leader. Daniel Wall (Volvo V40) split the pair in the championship standings, second at the end of the year. Per Berglund (BMW M3) won the 2400 championship despite losing the final round to Emil Lennartson (Volvo 240) while Emil Isaksson (BMW E36) hung on to take the junior title by a single point despite a poor run in the final round where Rasmus Karlsson was top points scorer.

The Norwegian championship had its final round at Gardemoen where Stian Haugan (Citroen Xsara) added another national title to his trophy cabinet. Haugan won the final round to end his title campaign in style. Ada Marie Hvaal won the Junior A final while Espen Isaksaetre won the Super1600 category on the day but could not deny Trond Marthinsen (both Citroen AX) the championship title. Jab Gabrielsen won the TouringCar category in the series finale and the championship with his Mazda RX7.

This weekend is also crucial in national championship terms, the Finnish series reaches its climax at Hyvinkaa while the French rejoin at Mayenne at the beginning of the sprint through the last two events that will see the fascinating battle between Fabien Pailler and JB Dubourg played out to conclusion at Dreux in October.

RallycrossWorld brought you the inside story from OMSE back in January, Ford caught up with Andreas Eriksson and got the guided tour recently, see its video below.

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOGqImZH3to&feature=youtu.be[/tube]

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