Foust and McConnell win ARX crowns. FIA names electric suppliers. More…

4 October    The FIA World Motor Sport Council meets in Cologne and among the decisions taken are the announcements that Austrian firm Kreisel and Spanish company QEV Technologies have won the tenders for the powertrain supply of the 2021 World RX electric Supercar and ‘Junior eRX’ cars respectively. Kreisel will supply a kit which can be retro-fitted to an existing Supercar chassis or incorporated in a new-build car and which consists of two 250kW motors, two inverters and a 53kWh battery with what is promised to be an ‘innovative’ cooling system. The kit is priced at €300,000 with a four-year service support of €100,000 – costs that are lower than current internal combustion engines. QEV will operate an arrive-and-drive ‘Junior eRX’ series that will use identical four-wheel drive cars powered by a 32kWh battery and producing 250kW. Up to 20 of the spaceframe chassis cars will compete in the series which will commence in 2021.

5 October    The penultimate round of the ARX2 series opens the ARX finals weekend at Mid Ohio. Points leader Fraser McConnell qualifies fourth and wins semi-final two but the day belongs to Sage Karam who is top qualifier and wins both semi one and the final for his first victory in Rallycross. McConnell’s safe strategy for the day goes awry in the final where he eventually places fifth and after an adventurous race. Cole Keatts and Alex Keyes join Karam on the podium. Off-Road truck racer Keegan Kincaid wins ARX3 on his rallycross debut.

5 October    Round nine of Titans RX takes place at Nyirad in Hungary where Timmy Hansen leads home Toomas Heikkinen and series leader Kevin Hansen. Rain before the final changed weather conditions but did not trouble Hansen who led from the start. “Csucsu” led the chase until hitting Hansen and damaging the suspension on his car. Jerome Grosset-Janin lost second place to Heikkinen and then third to Kevin Hansen late in the race.

5 October    The second year of iRacing’s Rallycross Championship starts with an event run raced on Atlanta Motor Speedway. The first event is won by SET Esports driver and real world RX2 front-runner Sami-Matti Trogen. Former RX Academy winner Trogen became the youngest winner of the series at just 17-years-old and took the win over 2018 champion and former GRC racer Mitchell de Jong. SET Esports racer Tommi Hallman placed third. ARX Subaru star Patrik Sandell, Loenbro Motorsports and DirtFish are also associated with competitors in the series which runs every Saturday for the next eight weeks.

6 October    The second day of action at Mid Ohio brings the conclusion of the ARX championship as well as the final round of ARX2 and after heavy overnight rain the venue became Mud Ohio. On a roll since his round four victory in Canada, Tanner Foust emerges with the title at the wheel of his Andretti VW Beetle after being second in the Intermediate Classification; Subaru driver Joni Wiman tops the order as he was fastest in the fourth qualifier after he and Foust achieve equal points. Subaru stars Patrik Sandell and Chris Atkinson win the semi-finals. Atkinson made his break early the final and then drove cleanly away for his second win of the year. Steve Arpin (Fiesta) placed second with Wiman third on the road but dropped to fourth after receiving a track limits penalty, which pushed Sandell into third place. Atkinson and Sandell place second and third in the championship with Subaru taking the teams championship.

Sage Karam again top the qualifying order among the ARX2 racers, Cole Keatts again second with Fraser McConnell third and bagging enough points to put the title beyond the reach of his rivals before the final stage of the event. Able to race freely in the finals, McConnell wins semi-one and survives the busy opening laps of the final before edging away from Karam to take fifth win in the nine event series. Alex Keyes completes the podium finishers. Cole Keatts and Conner Martell place second and third in the championship. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing wins the teams championship. Keegan Kincaid wins ARX3 again, John McInnes is the class champion.

6 October    Kevin Hansen takes a lights to flag victory in round ten of Titans RX at Nyirad. Chased home by his older brother Timmy, Hansen minor maintained his record of being the only podium finisher in every event. Toomas Heikkinen lost third place to Jerome Grosset-Janin in the third lap. The series now moves on to Entering in Germany on October 19-20.

6 October   The final round of the Belgian Rallycross Championship takes place at Maasmechelen (the planned December event at Mettet now cancelled). In the absence of any Supercars, the over two-litre Supernational class is the main event and won by Kristof Bex (Volvo S40). Luc Maris (Volvo S40) did not drive in the final event, having already done enough to win the championship. Nick Neyens (Escort) is the up to two-litre winner on the day, but the title goes to BMW E30 racer Kurt Lambers. Steve Otzer (Citroen saxophonist) retains the Super1600 crown despite the last round being won by Denis Remans (Fiesta). The CrossCar championships introduced this year are won by Rens Van Pelt (Junior) and Ronnie Grauwels (Senior) while the VAS series concluded the previous day delivers Didier Dexters (up to 1600cc), Bart Joris (over 1600cc) and Jenthe Putzeys (‘promo’) as the champions.