Hansen, Larsson and Eriksson win at SpeedMachine. STARD is Projekt E supplier. Kalliokoski in Finland. Piquet to Titans. More…

24 MaySTARD will be the supplier of the electric powertrain kit for the Projekt E initiative from IMG.The partnership is the first of a number of activities of STARD´s recently announced “REVelution” campaign, set to sustainably influence rallycross and other motor sport by introducing groundbreaking electric powertrain systems.“As usual in such projects and despite being part of IMG´s initiative from the very first moment, so far we preferred to stay in the background in order to process our development entirely undisturbed. As we have now moved on to a very advanced development stage, we are more than happy to announce our exclusive involvement in this ground breaking and incredibly brave undertaking by IMG.” Said STARD president Manfred Stohl.

24 May ARX2 graduate Travis PeCoy is named as Steve Arpin’s team-mate at Loenbro Motorsports for the 2019 ARX season. The 18-year-old raced with Dreyer & Reinbold in ARX2 in 2018 achieving a best finish of third on the first day of the Canadian double-header. He is the second ARX2 racer to step up to ARX; Cabot Bigham will move to Andretti VW. “We’re excited to welcome Travis PeCoy and his group of partners to the Loenbro Motorsports family for 2019,” said team owner Paul Leach. “Travis is an incredibly talented young driver who has earned his way into a Supercar with strong results and consistent year-on-year progression. We’re excited to see what he can do while racing alongside Steve at the sport’s highest level!”

25 MayThe first round of the Finnish Rallycross Championship is run at Jalasjarvi. On a rain-soaked day Jere Kalliokoski (Fiesta) takes the win ahead of Juha Rytjonen (Fiesta) and Joni-Pekka Rajala (Mitsubishi Mirage). Kalliokoski was fastest in the first two qualifiers and won semi-final one on his way to the final. Rajala drove in all three championship categories at the event, third in Supercar he placed fourth in Supernational with a Ford Escort and second in the Autokross category in his Datsun.

26 May GCK signs FIA Super1600 Rallycross Champion Rokas Baciuska for a “long-term” agreement. The 19-year-old Lithuanian will make his first start with the GCK Academy team in the Norwegian round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship (15-16 June) and will drive a Renault Megane. Baciuska drove for ESmotorsport in Abu Dhabi and Barcelona where he placed ninth and 13th. “I’m really excited that I’m able to continue my progression in World Rallycross and that I’ve found such an incredible team to be part of. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the guys at GCK and I’m super impressed with the way they work, the performance and promise of the car and I cannot wait to race alongside the GC Kompetition and GCK Academy drivers in Norway,” said Baciuska.

26 May Timmy Hansen takes his second victory of the 2019 World RX season, coming out on top of a close duel with Andreas Bakkerud at SoeedMachine, the British round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship. Bakkerud led the final but lost out on Joker Lap strategy and ended the event in second place. Anton Marklund took his best result of the year with third place. The event brought Oliver Bennett’s first semi-final run, although a broken oil line and fire halted his Mini before the end of the race. Joni Wiman again covered for Niclas Gronholm but ended another strong performance with his Hyundai laying on its side in the first lap of semi-final two.

26 May The British World RX event also brought the opening round of the 2019 FIA European Rallycross Championship for Supercar. Robin Larsson won the event with his JC Raceteknik Audi S1, the former champion leading home Thomas Bryntesson (VW Polo) and JB Dubourg (Peugeot 208) in a closely matched final.

26 May The third round of the RX2 series is also on the card at Silverstone where Oliver Eriksson racks up his third win of the year, leading home Jesse Kallio and Vasily Gryazin. Only three cars make it to the end of the final. The first two attempts to start the race were both red-flagged for first corner incidents that claimed the cars of Anders Michalak and Ben-Philip Gundersen. Sami-Matti Trogen made it to the third start but retired his wounded car before turn one.

28 MayTitans RX announces that Nelson Piquet Jnr. will race in four of the six event weekends for the new series. “I’m very happy to be joining TitansRX. I love all forms of motor sport and I really enjoyed competing in rallycross in America a few years ago, so it will be great to get back behind the wheel of a rallycross car. We’re going to have a lot of fun!” said Piquet.

28 May Buhl Sport Detroit launches its 2019 ARX2 season and confirms that Alex Keyes will stay with the squad for a second successive season. Keyes ended the 2018 season with victories in both events at the double-header weekend at COTA last September, that result coming on the heels of third place in the second day at GP3R. Buhl Sport will continue its Racing 4 Detroit backing in 2019.

30 May Ahead of this weekend’s Rally X Nordic event at Nysum in Denmark, the RX Academy publishes the first of its YouTube shows. Covering round one of the RX Academy series at Holjes, the show offers an insight into the ethos of the one-make series.