VW Speeds to COTA ARX win, Heikkinen tops in CEZ, Chicherit takes France and more…

7 July Misso hosts the fourth round of the Estonian Rallycross Championship where Raini Roomets (Skoda Fabia) takes the win ahead of series points leader Andri Oun (Ford Fiesta). Ain Laiverik places third in his Mitsubishi Lancer. Andre Kurg (Skoda Fabia) wins the Super1600 final ahead of Janno Ligur who used an old Peugeot 206 for this event.

7 July The third round of the Finnish Rallycross Championship took place the at the Botniaring where Ari Perkiomaki (Ford Fiesta) took the win over Riku Tahko (MINI) and Miko Ikonen, Perkiomaki  able to draw away to take his second win of the year while a battle raged for second place, Tahko eventually making the place his own. Joni-Pekka Rajala (Ford Escort) claimed the Supernational win (his second of the year) to maintain his points lead over Mika Perttula (Toyota Corolla)

8 July The Belgian Rallycross Championship returned home to Maasmechelen for an event in which the over two-litre Supernationals were again the main draw in the absence of any Supercars. Luc Maris (Volvo S40) took the final win over Steve Volders (Fiesta) and Bert Bosmans (Volvo C30). Kurt Lambers (BMW M3) won the up to two-litre class and Steve Otzer (Citroen Saxo) claimed the Super1600 victory.

8 July RX2 front runner Ben Philip Gundsersen (Fiesta) returned to national competition in round three of the Norwegian Championship at his local event at Finnskog and took the up to two-litre victory ahead of Euro RX regulars Jan-Emil Wilsburg (Citroen) and Sivert Svardal (Mazda). Martin Kjaer (Opel Corsa) won the Super1600 category at the event.

14 July Volkswagen driver Scott Speed wins the second round of Americas Rallycross on the Circuit of The Americas new rallycross circuit, which will host round 10 of the World Rallycross Championship in September. Speed is fastest for three of the four qualifiers, wins semi-final one and the final. He is beaten to the best time in Q4 by team mate Tanner Foust, who is forced to take the joker on the first lap of almost every race as the Volkswagen pair avoided running side-by-side through the opening corner. The lap one joker in the final means Foust can only finish third, held up in traffic in the opening laps as Ken Block takes a lap two joker to remain in front of Foust on track, the Loenbro Hoonigan driver holding second to the finish. Travis Pastrana makes his rallycross return and is fourth, best of a trio of Subarus. Patrik Sandell and Chris Atkinson completed the final finishers. RX2 International Series regular Conner Martell dominates the ARX2 final to claim victory ahead of Christian Brooks and Cole Keatts. Jamaican Fraser McConnell tops the Intermediate Classification on his rallycross debut and finishes fourth.

14 – 15 July Luke Constantine maintains his impressive unbeaten run in the fifth and sixth rounds of the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship at Pembrey and continues to lead the BTRDA rallycross points. Tom Constantine finishes third and second over the two days, while James Constantine finishes second on Saturday and Archie Thomas is third on Sunday. Patrick Ryan and Tony Lynch each win a round of the Supermodified category, Lynch spinning off on Saturday and ending up fourth as Ryan chases Lynch to the finish in Sunday’s final. Keith Kershaawe and Andrew Smith are victorious in arguably the Clubmans series’ most competitive class, Production, while Ryan Taylor and Ryan Stutchbury take a win each in the Classic category. Dan Beattie wins twice in Production 4×4 as Michael Morris and Nigel Burke win in Clubmans 4×4.

15 July Arron Windus (Hyundai i20) wins the third round of the Australian Rallycross Championship at Winton. While Windus broke free of the pack, Troy Dowel (VW Polo) battled with Steve Glenney and Cahal Carey (Mitsubishi Evos) for second place. Windus took second place ahead of Glenney. Will Orders (Escort) won the two-wheel drive category.

15 July Guerlain Chicherit and Julien Febreau (below) renewed their battle as the French championship moved on to Pont de Ruan for its sixth event of the year. Points leader Antoine Masse (Peugeot 208) beat Chicherit’s Renault Clio in the first semi-final, Febreau taking the second. Febreau made a poor start in the final, dropping to fifth before fighting back into contention. Chicherit and Masse contested the lead in the early laps before Chicherit emerged as the clear leader to win and close the gap to Masse in the series. Febreau managed to reach third place by the finish. Laurent Chartrain (Citroen C2) won in Super1600 leading home title favourites Yvonnick Jagu (Fabia) and Jimmy Terpereau (C2). Valentin Comte won in the Twingo Cup, David Vincent and Florian Zavatin (both Renault Clio) won in D3 and D4 respectively.

15 July In the fourth round of the Russian Rallyross Championship the main category was Super1600 where  Artur Egorov again won while the ‘National’ category was won by Egor Sanin and the Junior victory went to Fathutdinov Rustam. The series moves on to Tatarstan for next month’s event at Atron.

15 July The CEZ series moves on to Nyirad in Hungary where the series gets a new winner in the shape of former World RX racer Toomas Heikkinen. Getting his first competitive run in one of MJP Racing’s new Fiestas the Finn dominated the event setting fastest time in each of the three qualifiers and winning his semi-final and the final. Tamas Karai (Audi A1) is second all the way through the event and takes maximum CEZ points as Heikkinen in not eligible to score in the championship. Local racer Attila Mozer (Audi A1) was third. Hungarian David Gerencser (Suzuki Swift) takes the Super1600 win ahead of Czech pairing Zdenek Kucera and Tomas Krejcik (Skoda Fabia). Andrea Carretti is fourth in Tedak’s Alfa Romeo Mito.

16-18 July The mid-season World RX test takes place in Riga. The test is not mandatory for World RX teams, but Team Peugeot Total, EKS Audi Sport and PSRX Volkswagen Sweden are all present, the latter running only for the first two days of the test with World Champion Johan Kristoffersson sharing driving duties with Petter Solberg. Peugeot driving duties were shared between Sebastien Loeb and Timmy Hansen. EKS Audi Sport had two cars present with Mattias Ekstrom and Andreas Bakkerud both driving. It also ran Nico Muller and Krisztian Szabo. The test was open to other categories, Euro Supercar champion Anton Marklund driving for two days while Lukas Walfridson was slated to drive but missed out thorugh illness and his Clio was driven by Kevin Eriksson and Oliver Solberg. Volland Racing had the second its new Super1600 Audi A1s on hand for Artis Baumanis. The squad also ran Rokas Baciuska (A1) and Gergely Marton and Aydar Nuriev (Skoda Fabias) and tested some potential 2019 racers in the car. Late on the last day Ekstrom and Bakkerud also tried the new Super1600 A1s – Ekstrom unofficially setting the fastest Super1600 lap time of the test after just eight laps.

18 July Petter and Oliver Solberg will race head-to-head in the Norges Raeste Bakkelop hillclimb in Norway this week, with the event concluding on Saturday. RallyX Nordic points leader Oliver will drive his father’s Citroen Xsara WRC while Petter will compete in the Ford Escort RS1800 he has driven in the Historic Rally Sweden event in recent years. “From the first time I tested the Xsara, I have been counting the minutes until the start of the event,” said Oliver. “Driving a car like this, with the power and the (gearchange) paddles, it’s a real dream and I want to make the most of it.”

18 July A record entry of 12 drivers will compete in the sixth round of the MSA Junior Rallycross Championship next week at Croft Circuit. Joining the list of regular competitors, led by points leader Tom Constantine, will be local racer Eleanor Corner and former Ginetta Junior driver Harry Dyson. Full entry list here.

Finally… Just because this is a great review of the madness that is World RX at Holjes, here’s a video from the boy Bakkerud.