Seven days in rallycross, October 2

Petter Solberg became the FIA World Rallycross Champion and, in the process, the first driver ever to World Championships in two different disciplines. The fastest and most successful driver in this year’s World RX pack by any measure you care to use, Solberg survived an engine failure in the first day of the tenth round of the World championship in Italy to be third in the intermediate classification. Pushing hard in the final, Solberg gave his Citroen DS3 a very heavy landing over one of Franciacorta’s jumps and damaged the rear suspension. Managing to bring the car home in third place, he scored just enough points to put the title beyond the reach of closest rival Toomas Heikkinen: even if Heikkinen wins the last two events of the year he can only equal Solberg’s current score, and the Norwegian would win the title because he has more event wins. Solberg’s title success came seven days after his fourth win of the year in Germany where he beat Mattias Ekstrom by 0.005s in one of the closest recorded finishes in motor sport history. The Italian event delivered the first event win for Team Peugeot-Hansen as Timmy Hansen took his first World championship victory with the new Peugeot 208.

The successful event, the first rallycross in Italy since 1980, also formed the final rounds of all three FIA European Rallycross Championships, each delivering a new champion. Robin Larsson became the first son of a champion to win the title after another solid performance, in which he again challenged the leading World drivers, gave him an 11 point advantage over Henning Solberg at the top of the table. The TouringCar title was won by Daniel Lundh who was top at the intermediate classification and won his semi-final to put the title beyond the reach of his rivals before going on to finish fourth in the final that was won by Anders Braten.  In Super1600 Sergey Zagumennov kept pace with title rival Nikita Misyulya and by the time the heats were through had done enough to deny his rival any chance of the title. RX Lites were also on the bill in Italy, and in the penultimate round of the six-event series, the super chilled Kevin Eriksson placed second behind first time event winner Daniel Holten to collect the title.

In France, Fabien Pailler beat JB Dubourg in the penultimate round of the championship at Mayenne and will take a 16 point lead into the final round at Dreux. Cyril Raymond collected the Super1600 honours at Mayenne and is now 12 points ahead of Andrea Dubourg.

[tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_htnbhzeTs&index=1&list=PLHUU1fRWCVRAKdlVYvl0tTqRflsh_0_3N[/tube]

In America two consecutive weekends of GRC racing has delivered manufacturers success for Ford and a maiden event win for Sverre Isachsen at Subaru. Scott Speed and Rhys Millen were the event winner in Los Angeles, Isachsen gaining the victory when the series moved on to Seattle.  “We had built a new car for this season and everybody put a lot of effort and time into the car. It’s really important because to develop a car like this takes time. You do something wrong, but then something right, and of course we have a fast car. So it’s really important for everybody, all the Subaru guys, and especially also for me. I’ve fought such a long time here,” said Isachsen. The overall points leader in the series is Joni Wiman.

The final round of the Finnish championship as won by Janne Kanerva, but the Citroen driver ould not deny Joni Pekka Rajala his second straight Supercar title. In the final eventm, run at Hyvinkaa, Rajala won the Supernational class to complete the successful defence of that championship and complete a notable double. Not content with  winning two classes and two championship, Rajala also drove in the autocross category and won there too. Vesa Puuskamaki finished second in the event, more than enough to take the title while Jami Kalliomaki completed his successful season in Crosskart with a safe run to third in the event and enough points to secure the title.

Almost a year after he got his first taste of a Supercar, Marc Scott gets his big break in the 11th round of the World Rallycross Championship in Turkey where he will deputise for Jacques Villeneuve at Albatec Racing, and where, driving alongside team boss Andy Scott, he will become part of the first father and son team in the series. At Croft last year, Scott his father’s treasured Peugeot 306 Supercar with aplomb. Also making his World RX debut in Turkey will be 2011 TouringCar champion Lars Oivind Enerberg who joins the Monster Energy team to replace Davy Jeanney.

To round out, Ford Racing has delivered this little video featuring its drift star Vaughn Gittin Jnr who recentky took his Mustang to Loheac where he did his thing during the World RX event.

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMlCn5FmGak&feature=youtu.be[/tube]

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Yeah, we know this really have been 14 days in rallycross…