Ekstrom, Verkuringen & Baldoni win as Foust announces plans

The second round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship took place at Hockenheim in Germany, where Swede Mattias Ekstrom (Audi S1) drove in both the DTM and World RX over the weekend. Ekstrom qualified top at the Intermediate Classification but it was his EKS team mate who won the first semi-final to take pole position in the final, alongside Liam Doran (BMW Mini) who won a dramatic semi-final two. In the final, Heikkinen led from the start until the end of the third lap, when he was passed by Ekstrom for the lead and ultimately victory. Soon after the final, Ekstrom was back in his DTM car for the German Touring Car Championship feature race. Heikkinen finished second while Ken Block (Ford Focus) made the podium despite qualifying 13^th overall. He only made it into the semi-finals after Timmy Hansen was disqualified from Q4 for his Peugeot 208 being underweight, following a quick repair by the Peugeot-Hansen team after a fire engulfed the car in Q3.

Petter Solberg (Citroen DS3) fought through engine problems to finish fourth while Doran finished fifth and Robin Larsson (Audi A1) completed the final despite rolling his car half way through. Johan Kristoffersson (Volkswagen Polo) led most of the first semi-final with a puncture but dropped to fourth on the penultimate lap. Thomas Bryntesson won the RX Lites Cup final ahead of OMSE driver Cyril Raymond and JC Race Teknik’s Joachim Hvaal.

Miguel Baldoni (Peugeot 208) won the first round of the Argentine CarX Rallycross Championship at Catamarca ahead of Frederico Villagra (Ford Fiesta) and Frederico Bassi (Renault Clio) in the headline Maxi Rally category. Augusto D’Agostini (Volkswagen Trend) finished fourth with Javier Frias (Peugeot 208) fifth and Walter D’Agostini (Volkswagen Trend) sixth. In the N4 category, Leonardo Nazareno (Mitsubishi Evo) won ahead of Diego Levy (Mitsubishi Evo) second and Meliza Prevedello (Mitsubishi Evo) completing the podium.

The second round of the Dutch Rallycross Championship took place at Valkenswaard, where Johnny Verkuringen (Subaru Impreza) won the two-car Supercar final against Dutchman Will Teurlings (Volvo S40). Former European Championship front-runner Peter Vingerhoets (Peugeot 206) won the Super1600 final ahead of Willem Veltman (Citroen C2) and Pascal Roumans (Ford Fiesta), while former Super1600 racer Peter van de Wege (Toyota Yaris) won the SuperTouringcars -2000cc ahead of Mandy Kasse (Ford Fiesta) and Pieter Jan Willekens (Volkswagen Golf). In SuperTouringcars +2000cc, Steve Volders (Ford Escort) won again with Nik Van de Perre (Volvo 242) second and Sefan Vaessen (BMW Compact) completing the podium. Jordi van Weert won the RST Junior Cup final.

The first round of the Estonian Rallycross Championship took place at Kulbilohu, where Oliver Oberg (Subaru Impreza) claimed the first victory of the year and lead in the championship points. Ricardo Bortkevits (Mitsubishi Evo) finished second with Andri Oun (Ford Fiesta) third. Priit Karjuswas fourth in his Mitsubishi Evo with Raini Roomets (Ford Fiesta) fifth and Vadim Kishkurno (Ford Fiesta) sixth. European Championship contender Janno Ligur (Skoda Fabia) won the Super1600 final ahead of Siim Saluri (Citroen C2) and Mihkel Varul (Peugeot 206) third. Sami-Matti Trogen (Ford KA) won the Junior1600 final and Kalmer Vaht (Lada) won the TouringCar final.

American driver Tanner Foust will race in two FIA World Rallycross Championship events this year, at Lydden Hill and at the Estering. The multiple European Rallycross Championship event-winner has won one World RX event to date (in Finland in 2014) and finished on the podium in Canada last season driving a Marklund Motorsport Volkswagen Polo. He will remain with the squad for his appearances this season, which has since amalgamated with Kristoffersson Motorsport to form Volkswagen RX Sweden. “I feel very lucky to be able to compete at Lydden Hill again this year,” said Foust. “As the birthplace of rallycross, the track has a lot of history to it and I jumped at the chance to add the World RX of Great Britain to my competition schedule.” Multiple British champion Julian Godfrey has also entered the Lydden Hill event, as has current British RX leader Dan Rooke, who will make his debut in the RX Lites Cup category.

British and Irish drivers Ollie O’Donovan, Kevin Procter and Andy Scott have all be forced to withdraw from the opening round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship this weekend in Belgium. O’Donovan has changed plans for the specification of his Ford Fiesta and as such it won’t be ready for the Belgian round, while Kevin Procter won’t race in either Mettet or the World Rallycross Championship event at Lydden Hill in two weeks time, a legacy of the engine failure he experienced at the fourth round of British RX at Pembrey. Scott will be present in Belgium, but only in his role as team principle in his Albatec Racing team, his own car not ready for the event.

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