Rallycross stars at Autosport International

Autosport International opened today at the NEC in Birmingham where the 25th annual racing car show is taking place until Sunday. Rallycross cars feature prominently in the show with everything from World Champion Petter Solberg’s DS3 Supercar on show with Motorsport News to BTRDA Clubmans Championship racers racing in the Live Action Arena.

M-Sport features rallycross for the first time with Ken Block’s Fiesta on show while British Championship racer Ollie O’Donovan has a new Fiesta on display with Yokohama tyres and is building up for a mixed season of British and European events.

RX Lites made its debut within the Autosport Engineering show and British Championship one-make series Swift Sport Championship is also present at the show with one of its Suzukis.

Former F1 driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise died on Monday (January 5) at the age of 77. Beltoise was of a generation who frequently turned their hands to other disciplines and his varied career his race sportscars and touring cars, as well as taking part in  hillclimbs and rallycross. He also gave his name to a motor sport venue at Trappes near Paris where the FIA European Rallycross Championship was held in 1990. Bellies also served on the steering committee of the FFSA for nine years.

Magda Andrsson will return to International Rallycross action this year at the wheel of a new Ford Fiesta TouringCar. The 16-year-old spent the 2014 season racing an E30 BMW in the Swedish Junior championship and finished on the podium several times and previously race in International events in the JRX category. Andersson will drive in all five events in the TouringCar European Championship.

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