Larsson wins Nordic. Godfrey top in British. Gryazin x 2 in RX2. More.

25 August    The RallyX Nordic series moved to Kouvola in Finland for its sixth event of the year where it shared the track with round four of the Finnish championship (below). Jere Kalliokoski (Fiesta) sets the qualifying pace until Q4 when Robin Larsson (Audi S1) hits his stride to go fastest. A clear win in the semi-finals preceded victory in the final as Larsson cut five points out of the series lead held by Oliver Eriksson (Honda Civic). Kalliokoski placed second in the final, Eriksson (who had won the other semi-final) third. Eriksson now leads Larsson by just four points with one round remaining.

Adding this home event to his RX2 schedule Jesse Kallio won in his first RallyX Nordic start. Ben-Philip Gundersen was Kallio’s closest challenger. The pair each won their semi-final but while Kallio chose a wide line in T1 and avoided the scrum, Gundersen made a slow start and was later disqualified for contact in his progress back through the field. Simon Olofosson and Anders Michalak completing the top three. Gundersen retains the series lead.

25 August    The fifth round of the RX Academy is also on the bill at Kouvola where Tommi Hallman took the win. Fastest in three of the four qualifiers, Hallman won the first semi-final and then led the closely contested final, leading home Rasmus Tuominen and Jonne Ollikainen. Tuominen leads Hallman by five points with one round remaining.

25 August    The fourth round of the Finnish championship is run alongside the RallyX Nordic series at Kouvola. Jere Kalliokoski (Fiesta) was best of the Finnish racers so took maximum points for the ‘win’. Toni Kuhanan (Hyundai i20) and Juha Rytkonen (Fiesta) complete the top three, the latter retaining the series lead and now 11 points up on Joni-Pekka Rajala (fourth at Kouvola) with only the final remaining. Henri Haapamaki (BMW M3) is best of the Supernational field again and Jori Seppala (Toyota MR2) wins in the Autocross category.

25 August  On the eve of the fifth round of the British Rallycross Championship Lydden Hill circuit publishes information on a proposed ‘Five Nations Rallycross Series’. A two page document suggests events outside the UK at Mondello Park (Ireland) and Valkenswaard (Holland) as well as the introduction of a Truck Rallycross class. The promised demonstration of Truck Rallycross fails to take place during the Monday event.

26 August    Julian Godfrey moves into a clear lead in the British Rallycross Championship after winning round five at Lydden Hill. Godfrey starts the day level on points at the top of the table with Derek Tohill and starts the final from pole after being fastest in Q2 and Q3. Tohill (Fiesta) was fastest in Q1, second in Q2 but slipped to fourth in Q3 after hitting the wall and damaging the car. Jack Thorne had a strong first event in the ex-Thomas Bryntesson Fiesta and led the final through turn one before running wide and losing the place to Godfrey. The top three were evenly matched throughout but at the end Godfrey won from Thorne and Tohill, the latter climbing back to third in the last lap having raced hard with Roger Thomas (Fiesta) and Steve Hill (Mitsubishi E10). Tristan Ovenden (Renault Clio V6) maintained his unbroken run of success in Supernational but had to overcome technical problems and a jump start in Q3 for the win. Peter McGarry (Vauxhall VX220) placed second ahead of Super1600 winner Darren Scott. Patrick O’Donovan took his first Junior win at the end of a particularly close race while Tom Constantine won the Swift Sport final, Drew Bellerby was top of the BMW Mini category and Gary Simpson (BMW E30) gained his fifth Retro Rallycross win of the year.

27 August    Former World RX champion Mattias Ekstrom is named as ambassador for Cupra’s new electric touring car racer. “Joining Cupra is a natural move for me. After a career dedicated to the racing world where I had explored all combustion engine formats I wanted to transition to electric racing with CUPRA, wich has been a pathfinder in this segment since its creation”, said Ekstrom.

27 August Nikolay Gryazin will join older brother Vasiliy in the RX2 field at Loheac this weekend. The 21-year-old currently leads the FIA World Rally Championship’s WRC 2 title chase but Loheac will be his first rallycross event. “My main aim at Lohéac is to have some fun, though obviously when the helmet goes on, you always race to win! I think my biggest challenge will be getting used to having a spotter, because that is something completely new for me, but I hope we will make progress throughout the weekend,” he said.