Seven days in rallycross, November 5

French Super1600 champion Cyril Raymond has come clean on his ambition to tackle international events with a Supercar in 2015.”I’m planning to stay in Rallycross, I have won two straight titles at national level [Rayond was Twingo Cup champion in 2013] and now I want to build on that in international Rallycross. I did my first Supercar test with French champion Fabien Pailler’s Peugeot 208 and it has confirmed my intention to race a Supercar. I also want to gain experience at the highest level and make my place in the RX Rallycross. I’m planning to participate in the FIA European Rallycross Championship FIA. My goals are to be the best rookie and reach the finals,” he said.

The Irish rallycross Championship continued at Mondello Park where Thomas O’Rafferty completed a hat-trick of wins, leading home Declan Kelly and Pat Ryan, the latter best of the two-wheel drive runners in his Vauxhall Nova. The event was affected by heavy rain in the afternoon, making Ryan’s pace all the more remarkable. Pearse Browne won the Supernational section, Ryan second after taking his Joker Lap early and then passing Tommy Graham who went to the Joker in the last lap of the race. Declan Nolan survived  alast lap clash with Derek Lenehan to win the Stock Hatch 16v final while the final for the eight-valve cars was won by Peter McGarry  who led home Noel O’Brien. Paul Doyle won the Honda Civic category and James Roe beat Jake Dooley to Junior glory by just 0.6s.

In Britain things are gearing up the for the penultimate event of the year as the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship goes to Croft on November 16 for the fifth of its sixth rounds. This weekend the championship and local event organsier will mount a display of cars in Darlington on Saturday afternoon.

Last weekend Petter Solberg took part in the Condroz Rally in Belgium. Driving a Citroen C4 WRC, the new World Rallycross Champion led the event until he was forced out by a hydraulic leak and a small fire.  “It was fantastic to get back in a C4 again – what a great chassis this car has. And it was great to be back there with Phil [Mills]. Everything worked just like I remembered it; it was brilliant to have him reading the notes to me again. It’s true, we did have a few issues with the transmission and the hydraulics … We managed to fix it, but then we got a hydraulic leak, which caused a small fire. That was such a shame. We weren’t having the cleanest of runs, but it was such good fun to be competing on a rally again and enjoying ourselves …  like I said, apart from retiring, this was the perfect weekend of rallying!” said Solberg.

The final round of the GRC season take place in Las Vegas with Joni Wiman entering the event 12 points ahead of Ken Block. Nelson Piquet Jr and Scott Speed are also in the title race. The event can be watched live here from 1700 local time (0100 GMT/0200 CET Thursday November 6). World Rallycross Championship front runner Andreas Bakkerud is racing an RX Lites car in the event to keep his hand in ahead of the final World RX event of the year in Argentina at the end of the month.

Dates for the ten-event 2015 French rallycross Championship have been published.

May 2-3 Essay-Ducs
May 16-17 Lessay-Manche
May 30-31 Châteauroux Saint Maur
June 13-14 Faleyras-Gironde
June 27-28 Sarthe Lavaré
July 11-12 Pont de Ruan
July 25-26 Kerlabo
September 19-20 Mayenne
September 26-27 Essay-Normandie
October 10-11 Dreux

Looking back a couple of weeks, here’s a fabulous video from the NGK Masters at Karlstad.

[tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Eo5QZOHYs[/tube]

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