Raymond wins in France on rallycross Supercar debut

On his Supercar debut, reigning French Super1600 champion Cyril Raymond won the third round of the French Rallycross Championship at Chateauroux, driving a Pailler Competition Peugeot 208. The 22-year old beat former champion and current championship leader Gaetan Serazin (Peugeot 208) in the final, while Fabien Chanoine (Renault Clio) competed the podium, using an early joker to beat Christophe Wilt (Citroen DS3) who finished fourth. Alain Heu (Citroen C4) and Philippe Maloigne (Citroen C4) crashed out of the final. Seasoned Super1600 racer Laurent Chartrain (Citroen C2) won the division again, ahead of Jimmy Terpereau (Citroen C2) and Fabien Grosset-Janin (Renault Twingo), while Christophe Saunois (Toyota Corolla) won Division Three and Steven Lefrancois (Peugeot 206) won in Division Four. Both lead their respective championships. Pascal Huteau beat Baptiste Menez and Tom Daunat in the Twingo R1 Cup, the trios positions are reversed in the championship standings.

In America, Ken Block (Ford Fiesta) won the opening round of the Global Rallycross Championship at Fort Lauderdale in Florida. He took and early joker and led the final from start to finish ahead of Scott Speed (VW Beetle) and Nelson Piquet Jr (Ford Fiesta). On his American Supercar debut, Swedish champion Sebastien Eriksson (Ford Fiesta) finished fourth. Of the 12 cars that started the event, only Patrik Sandell (Ford Fiesta) and Joni Wiman (Ford Fiesta) didn’t make it through to the final, Sandell with mechanical issues and 2014 champion Wiman being forced out with back pain after a heavy landing on the circuits jump. Austin Cindris won the GRC Lites category.

In Poland, the RC Rallycross Cup season began with a double-header at former European Rallycross Championship venue Tor Slomczyn. Over 40 drivers took part in an event with a revised format based on that of the World Rallycross Championship. Lukasz Zoll won the Supercar category on both days, while Lukasz Kabacinski (Subaru Impreza) finished the two rounds second and third, beaten on the second day by Szymonem Osmanskim (Skoda Fabia). The class with the most entries was SuperNational, where Konrada Kacprzaka (Opel Astra) won on Saturday and Alan Wisniewski (Citroen Saxo) claimed the win on Sunday, having finished as runner-up on day one. Rafal Berdys claimed a pair of victories in the Fiat Seicento Cup.

World RX front-runner Johan Kristoffersson was again victorious in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia at Anderstorp Raceway. Starting from P15 and P17 in the two races, Kristoffersson won both and leads the championship over Oscar Palm by 43 points after the opening two weekends of the season.

The Coventry MotoFest took place on the UK cities ring road, which was closed to public traffic while competition cars demonstrated their capabilities to the public. The BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship was in attendance, ahead of their second and third rounds of the season to be held at Pembrey in South Wales this weekend. Supercar champion Simon Horton (Subaru Impreza) and Gary Pusey (Subaru Impreza) both ran demonstrations and will be competing this weekend. In the SuperNational category, David Ewin (Ford Fiesta), Gary Simpson (BMW 325) and Todd Crooks (BMW Mini) also attended. A number of Irish drivers will compete at Pembrey this weekend. 53 drivers are entered for the event across the Supercar, SuperModified, Production and Classic Mini categories.

The entry list for the German round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship has been released, where the FIA European Rallycross Champion will join for its second round of 2015. A new addition to Euro RX will be Hungarian former single-seater racer Tamas Pal Kiss (Skoda Fabia), who has been racing in the Hungarian championship this season. Pal Kiss will take part in the fourth round of the series this weekend at Nyirad, also a round of the CEZ. Former World RX racer Jos Jansen (Ford Focus) will also take part, as will current World RX racer Max Pucher (Ford Fiesta). Janki Wieszt (Seat Leon) currently leads the Hungarian championship standings.

X Games also takes place this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, where World RX star Andreas Bakkerud (Ford Fiesta) will replace Nelson Piquet Jnr in the SH Racing team, the regular driver away competing in the Formula E championship in Russia. SDRX driver Liam Doran will also compete alongside GRC regulars in his Citroen DS3.

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