Chicherit again in France. ARX goes live

A less busy week in the World of rallycross; the French Championship played at Essay and ARX announced a ten-car line up for its opening event at Speedmachine wth Subaru and Volkswagen confirmed for the season.

20 May Guerlain Chicherit claimed his second successive victory in the French Rallycross Championship as the series moved to Essay-Alencon for round two of its 10-event season. Chicherit was top qualifier, won semi-final one and then claimed the final. Julien Febreau qualified second and won semi two but slipped back to seventh in the final as Jean-Sebastien Vigion (Citroen DS3) and Fabien Chanoine (Clio)  came through to lead the chase of Chicherit. Laurent Chartrain (Citroen C2) claimed the Super1600 honours while in the Twingo Cup round one Emmanuel Danveau won again.

20 May At Valkenswaard in Holland in the latest round of the Dutch Championship Bert Bosmans spectacularly rolled out of the event. With no Supercars racing, the over two-litre Supernational category is the ‘top’ class and is won by Steve Volders (Ford Fiesta).

22 May A ten-car entry  was announced for the first round of the new ARX season. The new US-based series begins at Silverstone where it shares the Speedmachine bill with World RX and RX2 on 26-27 May. The entry is headed by a pair of Beetles from Volkswagen for Scott Speed and Tanner Foust. They are joined by three Subaru Impreza’s to be handled by Chris Atkinson, Patrik Sandell and David Higgins. The entry is completed by five European cars; a pair of Munnich Motorsport Seat Ibizas for Rene Munnich and Timo Scheider, an Albatec Peugeot 208 for Andy Scott, Philippe Maloigne in a G-Fors Renault Clio and Liam Doran in one of his Citroen DS3s. Coverage of the events will be streamed on the ARX Facebook page.

23 May Subaru USA confirms its participation in the new ARX championship with Chris Atkinson and Patrik Sandell its regular driver pairing. A third car will be part of the team and is to be shared by David Higgins (who drives in the series opener at Silverstone) and Travis Pastrana with other drivers to be announced. “We are excited about the growth of rallycross in the USA and it is a key platform to showcase our production technologies like the Subaru boxer engine and symmetrical all-wheel drive. IMG has done a great job with the World RX series and so we are excited to join their new ARX series,” said Dominick Infante, Director of Corporate Communications at Subaru of America.

23 May Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross names Scott Speed and Tanner Foust as its drivers for the new ARX season. The pair will race Volkswagen of America’s Beetles. “Our team has been able to achieve great success in rallycross and we look forward to continuing that legacy with Volkswagen in the new ARX competition,” said Michael Andretti, CEO Andretti Autosport.

24 May EKS announces that it will begin to broadcast its new live TV show ‘Pre Grid’ on Sunday 27 May direct from Speedmachine, the fourth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Silverstone. “Our aim is to show all our fans and followers what’s going on behind the scenes and to show a more complete picture of our team. There are a million things happening from Wednesday to Sunday and we are planning to show a bit of everything. Food, comments directly from the grid, interaction with fans, fun stuff and serious business,” said EKS boss Mattias Ekstrom. The show is on the EKS Facebook page from 1415 UK time on Sunday.