Hansen wins Nitro RX. Speed injured. Bryntesson tops Euro RX. ES picks newboy for Loheac.

16 August    Scott Speed fractures three vertebrae after overshooting a jump and making a heavy landing in the Nitro Games rallycross event. On his Facebook page Speed said: “After landing hard in Q1 I broke my back. Was rushed to the local hospital for checks. CT scan confirmed a destroyed t6.. then was taken to a spine specialist at University of Utah. Finally got an MRI done around 3am.. we found I have 3 fractured vertebrae.” The former F1 racer, defending ARX champion and series points leader is expected to make a full recovery but his position in the Subaru Rally Team USA Subaru squad for the balance of the year is not yet clear.

17 August    Kevin Hansen wins the second Nitro Games rallycross, following in the footsteps of older brother Timmy who won the event in 2018. The younger Hansen leads the final from the start, chased by Patrik Sandell throughout the final. Timmy Hansen slips to sixth in the first lap but works his way back up the field, passing Ken Block, Tanner Foust and Travis Pastrana to take third place.

18 August   The first standalone FIA European Rallycross Championship event since 2013 is won by Thomas Bryntesson. Held at the Estering, Buxtehude in Germany, the event features the Supercar and Super1600 championships and is run in two days of mixed weather. Supercar points leader Robin Larsson (Audi S1) is fastest in Q1and Q2 to be top qualifier and then wins semi-final one. Bryntesson (VW Polo) claimed semi two and then surged ahead in the final for his first win of the year. Rene Munnich is in the mix throughout the weekend and places third in the final with his Seat Ibiza.

Aydar Nuriev lost out to Marat Knyazev in Q4 but otherwise dominated qualifying. Yuri Belevskiy and Gergely Marton (both Audi A1) win the semi-finals and then run in close company throughout the final with Swiss-domiciled Russian Belevskiy taking the win from his Hungarian rival. Marius Bermingrud (Skoda Fabia) displaces Nuriev to take third place.

20 August    ESmotorsport names 19-year-old Russian Matvey Furazhkin as its driver for round eight of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Loheac. Fined €50,000 for missing round seven in Canada, ESmotorsport has recruited Furazhkin to drive its Skoda Fabia in France. The Russian currently leads the FIA European Autocross Championship having won all six events run to date in the Touring category (for four-wheel drive cars) where he races a Skoda Fabia. He has raced since he was eight-years-old and was runner-up in the Junior Buggy class in 2017 European Championship.”I believe that autocross is the best school for rallycross … this year I am participating in the Touring class in order to … make it easier for myself to transition in to rallycross. We chose ESmotorsport because it is a very promising team that is developing and wants to achieve high results, which coincides with our goals and desires,” said Furazhkin. Kevin Abbring is due to return to ESmotorsport for the season finale in South Africa but the team has yet to nominate its driver for round nine in Latvia.