Wins for Kristoffersson and Hedstrom; Pucher crowned CEZ champion

Experienced motorsport all-rounder Johan Kristoffersson (Volkswagen Polo) dominated the second day of competition at the eighth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship to win his first World RX event of the season, while Andreas Bakkerud (Ford Focus) passed title contender Mattias Ekstrom (Audi S1) to win the first semi-final and finished second to Kristoffersson in the final.

Much to the delight of the partisan crowd, French hero Sebastien Loeb (Peugeot 208) fought back from a pair of mistakes in a wet and slippery Q3 to finish on the podium. The Frenchman’s rostrum finish came in an action-packed final, which concluded with the Peugeot-Hansen driver making a last lap pass on long-time rival Petter Solberg (Citroen DS3) who finished fourth in his repaired Citroen following the finish-line accident in Canada a month previously, that caused significant damage to both his and Anton Marklund’s (Volkswagen Polo) cars. Just days after announcing his departure from the All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport team, Reinis Nitiss (Seat Ibiza) signed off his time with the squad with his best result of the season, in fifth. Ken Block (Ford Focus) also made the final for the second time this season but crashed out on the last lap. Ekstrom didn’t make the final after suffering a puncture in the closing stages of his semi-final. Krisztian Szabo won the Super1600 final to take the championship lead from Ulrik Linnemann (Peugeot 208) who finished second. Josef Susta (Skoda Fabia) finished third.

Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division team, along with several other World RX outfits, followed event the with a day of testing in France, where Block’s squad ran it’s newly built test-car.

Peter Hedstrom (Volkswagen Polo) won the fourth round of RallyX Nordic Championship at Solvalla, Stockholm, in his first event win the ex-Marklund Motorsport car. Alexander Hvaal (Volkswagen Beetle) finished second in an Eklund Motorsport run car, with Frode Holte (Hyundai i20) third. Points leader Kevin Eriksson (Ford Fiesta) missed the World RX event in Loheac to concentrate on the defence of his Swedish crown and finished ahead of title-rival Lukas Walfridson (Renault Clio), who was classified sixth. Fredrik Tiger (Ford Focus) finished fifth. Following the event Hedstrom announced that he will conclude his season in the European Championship in Spain and Latvia with the newly acquired Polo.

In the Supercar Lites category at Solvalla, Thomas Bryntesson extended his lead in the points with victory, while Oliver Eriksson and Andreas Wernersson finished second and third. Simon Olofsson, Joachim Hvaal and Thomas Holmen completed the list of final finishers. Patrik Ydrefalk led home Thomas Ohman and Mikael Sandberg in the Supernational category.

World RX Team Austria owner Max Pucher (Ford Fiesta) secured the FIA Central European Zone Rallycross Championship title by completing what is now the final round of the series at Bednary in Poland, with the originally intended final in the Czech Republic now cancelled. David Gerencser (Suzuki Swift) secured the Super1600 title while Miroslav Pospichal (Volkswagen Polo) and Roman Castoral (Opel Astra) won the SuperTouringCars + and – categories respectively.

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