Baldoni, Masse and Godfrey in Argentina, France and Britain as summer breaks

Seven days in rallycross 2 August

by Rallycross World |

29 July Europe’s scorching summer weather finally breaks and round six of the MSA British Rallycross Championship takes place in amid heavy rain and strong winds at Croft where Julian Godfrey comes through to take his first victory of the year. Just 12 weeks after he rolled Spencer Sport’s Mitsubishi Mirage almost to destruction the result is also the team’s first victory in rallycross. The puts Godfrey one point ahead of Ollie O’Donovan and Mark Higgins (tied in second place) with three events remaining. Kevin Procter placed second on the day, bringing an end to the run of poor reliability with his Fiesta. Higgins was third and O’Donovan fifth with broken steering. Tristan Ovenden (Renault Clio V6) claimed his fourth Supernational victory of the year ahead of Paige Bellerby (Lotus Exige) and Super1600 category winner Paul Coney (Vauxhall Corsa). The Junior win was taken by Norwegian Marius Solberg Hansen who beat a record 12-car field for his second win of the year.

29 July The French were also challenged by rain on their annual visit to Kerlabo. Jonathan Pailler (Peugeot 208), Fabien Chanoine (Renault Clio), Fabien Pailler (208) and Guerlain Chicherit (Renault Clio) won across the four qualifiers. Fabien Pailler was felled in the first semi which, against the odds was won by Antoine Masse (208). Chicherit won the second semi. Chanoine crashed out of the final in which Masse gained his second victory of the year and leads the championship by 13 points over Chicherit. Chicherit was second on the road before the Stewards relegated him to last place which elevated Laurent Bouliou (208) to a personal best second place ahead of Samuel Peu (208). Among an enormous 25-car Supercar field, it is worth noting David Olivier’s (Dacia Logan) fourth place, sixth for debutant Christophe Saunois in an elderly Peugeot 207 and 14th place (and semi-final appearance) for Jean-Luc Pailler (208), France’s most successful driver of all time enjoying a rare outing at his home track. Yvonnick Jagu (Skoda Fabia) was unbeaten in Super1600, making the most of Jimmy Terpereau’s absence and an early retirement for Laurent Chartrain. Jagu now leads the series by a massive 45 points… Valentin Comte gained his third Renault Twingo win and Divisions Three and Four were won by David Vincent (Renault Clio) and Jean-Mickael Guerin (Peugeot 206) respectively.

29 July the CEZ series moved on to Sedlcany in the Czech Republic where normal service was resumed and Austrian veteran Alois Holler (Ford Focus) won again and extended his series lead. Home racer Lukas Marek (VW Golf IV) placed second ahead of Austrian Tristan Ekker (VW Polo IV). The Super 1600 win was taken by Russian Jury Belevskiy (Skoda Fabia), but second place was more than sufficient for Czech Jan Ratajsky (Fabia) to retain his series lead over Raphael Dirnberger (Fabia) who could not better fifth place on the day.

 

29 July CARX the Argentine Rallycross Championship moved on to San Luis – scene of the FIA World Championship’s first vist to Argentina in 2014 – where local star Miguel Baldoni emerged as the winner. Run in mixed weather conditions, Baldoni claimed the honours in his Fiesta, leading home Gabriel Abarca (Agile) and Baldwin Martino (VW Gol). Sebatian Monserrat (VW Gol) took Junior honours with the ’N4’ win taken by Diegi Levy (Lancer E9).

2 August World RX teams assemble in Trois-Rivieres for the seventh round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship. Now live streamed, World RX is more accessible than ever before. As a taster, here’s the 2017 final.

The new ARX series in also on the bill at GP3R in  Trois-Rivieres. Volkswagen USA is enjoying a great run in the championship and also using it in marketing campaigns. 

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