Kevin Eriksson top of RallyX Nordic Championship with Strangnas win

OlsbergsMSE Ford Fiesta driver Kevin Eriksson won his second Supercar event of the season at round two of the RallyX Nordic Championship, held on Thursday evening at Strangnas. Eriksson started the final from pole position and held off teammate Sebastian Eriksson (Ford Fiesta) throughout the final. Linus Westman (Saab 93) climbed from a second row starting position to third at the first corner but spun after contact with Eric Faren (Peugeot 208) on lap two, the latter was then black flagged for the incident. Lukas Walfridson (Renault Clio) finished on the podium to maintain third in the championship as the OMSE pair up front swapped places in the points race. Niclas Gronholm (Ford Fiesta) finished fourth. Thomas Bryntesson impressed on his RX Lites debut at Lydden Hill last month and won at Strangnas, he beat Oliver Eriksson and Tobias Brink in the final.

The BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship held its second and third rounds at Pembrey. Reining champion Kieran Curran (Vauxhall Corsa) won the SuperModified final on day one, leading home Todd Crooks (BMW Mini) and Gordon Lynch (BMW 328), the former Irish Stock Hatch champion scoring his maiden podium finish with the car. Tommy Graham (Ford Escort) suffered engine failure. On Sunday, it was Peter McGarry (Peugeot 205) who won the final, passing leader Steve Cozens (Renault Clio) early in the race. Crooks again finished second while Gary Cool (MG ZR) claimed the last podium spot. James Orton (Peugeot 106) won his first Production final on Saturday, chased hard by Martin Peters (Citroen Saxo). Jeff Hope-Davies again finished on the podium at his home circuit. In round three on Sunday it was Peters who won, despite picking up a puncture in the closing stages of the race. He held off John Lyne (Citroen Saxo) throughout the race, while Irish visitor John Ward (Peugeot 106) completed the podium. In the Clubmans Supercar category, Simon Horton (Subaru Impreza) retired in first practice with engine failure, leaving Dmitrij Sribyj (Subaru Impreza) as the only runner on Saturday. Gary Pusey (Subaru Impreza) joined the event on Sunday and won the joint Supercar / Classic Mini final.

Former F1 racer Scott Speed (Volkswagen Beetle) won his third X Games gold medal in as many years in the rallycross invitational event at Austin, Texas. Swede Sebastian Eriksson (Ford Fiesta) led after a brave move around the outside of the first corner in the final, but picked up a puncture after his fourth lap joker and dropped to third behind Speed and Austin Dyne (Ford Fiesta). Brian Deegan (Ford Fiesta) finished fourth while Tanner Foust (Volkswagen Beetle) finished fifth. World RX star Andreas Bakkerud deputised for Nelson Piquet Jr at the event and made the final, but damaged his Fiesta’s front suspension while challenging Speed for second place early in the race and retired. Ken Block (Ford Fiesta) didn’t make it into the final stages after breaking a driveshaft in his heat race and not having enough time to repair the car, while World RX driver Liam Doran (Citroen DS3) didn’t make it out of the last chance qualifier.

Before heading to Sweden for the second round of the RallyX Nordic series, Niclas Gronholm (Ford Fiesta) finished second at the second round of the Finnish Rallycross Championship at Hyvinkaa, Finland. The event was won by Honda Civic driver Aki Karttunen, who led the race from the front of the grid and was never headed, pushed hard by championship leader Gronholm throughout. Janna Kanerva (Citroen C4) finished third. Atro Maatta (Ford Fiesta) was left on the start line as the lights changed in the final buy eventually got going. Jarno Kukkola (Ford Fiesta) won the SuperNational category ahead of Juha-Pekka Mattila (Ford Fiesta) and Peter Helemius (VW Scirocco).

Tamas Karai (Skoda Fabia) won the fourth round of the Central European Zone Championship at Nyirad in Hungary, also a round of the Hungarian Rallycross Championship. He beat Zoltan Vaas (Mitsubishi Colt) and Peter Kotan (Ford Escort) in the Supercar final. World RX driver Max Pucher (Ford Fiesta) also competed but didn’t make the final, while rallycross convert Tamas Pal Kiss (Skoda Fabia) was forced out of the event blighted by power steering and transmission problems. “Luigi” (Skoda Fabia) won in Super1600 while Roman Castoral (Open Astra) won Super TouringCars – and Oliver Gruber (Ford Sierra) won Super TouringCars +.

The Norwegian championship event at Hell was abandoned following an accident involving Morten Madsen Moe who was taken to hospital but later released. Following the accident one of Moe’s team members was found to have collapsed from a suspected heart attack. He was taken to hospital by helicopter but was declared dead.

Eklund Motorsport has announced that it will debut its new Volkswagen Beetle Supercar at the Swedish round of the World Rallycross Championship at Holjes. Norwegian Daniel Holten will drive the new car, which will feature an engine built to the Custom Engine regulations in Sweden. “This project has taken a huge amount of work to get off the ground but we are really excited to be running the Beetle for the first time at Holjes. We are confident that it is a brilliant base for a Supercar, the dimensions of it are really, really good. We are more motivated than ever and will push hard to continue the development, together with Daniel.” said Eklund.

Canal+ Formula One reporter Julien Febreau will race an Albatec Racing Peugeot 208 Supercar for the first time this weekend at Faleyras, the fourth round of the French Rallycross Championship. Febreau has previous successful campaigns in Super1600, RX Lites and Supercar. He finished third on his RX Lites debut in Canada last year and won on his first Supercar attempt at Pont de Ruan in 2014. “For me, the goal [this weekend] is clear: to keep learning in the Supercar series. I raced only once in this category, and I still have a lot of things to learn before using the car’s potential at 100%. If I don’t make mistakes and if I keep learning throughout the weekend, while still enjoying it, then I’ll be able to say that my weekend was a success, whatever my standing will be when taking the chequered flag,” said Febreau. European Championship competitor Jean-Baptiste Dubourg will warm up for the Germany round of Euro RX at the event, while WRC turned rallycross driver Francois Duval will also compete.

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