2020 World RX calendar revealed. Godfrey takes sixth British title. Lydden to promote BRX.

25 October    Motorsport UK and Lydden Hill Race Circuit (LHRC) publish statements to say that LHRC will promote the British Rallycross Championship in 2020, 2021 and 2022. LHRC’s in-house club is to be renamed BRX and will be the event organiser for all rounds of the championship. The Supercar category is scheduled to run over six two-day events and a minimum of six events while other classes are to run a mix of single events and double-headers with at least eight rounds. Truck Rallycross is due to join some events and LHRC promises to put a ‘dedicated team in place’ to manage and promote the championship. The provisional calendars (below) remain subject to confirmation.

Provisional Supercar Calendar: 1, 12-13 April – Lydden Hill Race Circuit; 2, 24-25 May – Pembrey; 3, 20-21 June – Valkenswaard TBC; 4, 18-19 July – Mondello Park, 5; 30-31 August – Lydden Hill Race Circuit, 6; 26-27 September – Knockhill. Provisional Calendar For All Other Classes: 1, 12-13 April – Lydden Hill Race Circuit; 2, 24 May – Pembrey Circuit; 3, 25 May – Pembrey Circuit; 4, 18 July – Mondello Park; 5, 19 July – Mondello Park; 6, 30-31 August – Lydden Hill Race Circuit; 7, 26 September – Knockhill Racing Circuit; 8, 27 September – Knockhill.

26 October    The first day of a double-header weekend that completes the 2019 British Rallycross Championship takes place at Croft. Heavy rain in the days before the event and rain on the day makes conditions very difficult. Julian Godfrey (Fiesta VI) survives the day as well as transmission and engine problems in the final to take the win. Tony Bardy (Fiesta VII) qualifies on pole but slips to third before passing Derek Tohill (Fiesta VII) to finish second. Tohill places third struggling with broken washers on his car. Tristan Ovenden (Renault Clio V6) takes his seventh-straight Supernational win, Craig Lomas (Citroen C2) wins in Super1600 and Luke Constatine is the Junior winner. The Retro Rallycross championship has its final round on the first day of the weekend, Gary Simpson (BMW E30) completing an unbeaten run through the year to win the Super Retro (over 1600cc class) and Steve Cozens (Citroen AX) taking the up to 1600cc win on a tie-break with Simon Hart (Escort MkI) despite missing the final round.

26 October    The iRacing virtual Rallycross World Championship has its fourth event on a digital track at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Raceway. The event is won by Otto Taskinen (UI1-Positive SimRacing) who is the fourth winner of the series. Of those winners only Sami-Matti Trogen (SET ESports) made it to the final. The young Finn has regained the points lead as the series reaches the half-way point at this week’s fifth event.

27 October    Derek Tohill wins the final round of the British Rallycross Championship at Croft. In dry weather conditions are better than the previous day but Tohill’s win is too little, too late to deny Julian Godfrey the title. Placing second in the final, Godfrey ends the year two-points ahead of Tohill to secure the British championship and its coveted GB1 race number for the sixth time. having set two fastest times on Saturday only for his Mitsubishi Lancer E10 to suffer an engine sensor problem in the final, Steve Hill places third in the final round. Tristan Ovenden completes his unbeaten run through the eight-round championship to win the Supernational title for the third successive year. Craig Lomax wins again to become the Super1600 champion and Luke Constantine becomes the Junior champion by finishing second in the final to Roberts Vitols. Drew Bellerby wins the BMW Mini series with victory in the final round, 2018 Junior Champion Tom Constantine wins the Swift Sport Championship by winning the final round of the year. Chrissy Palmer is the RX150 champion again, despite crashing out of the final round which is won by debutant racer Sam Clennel.

30 October    The calendar for the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship is published. Featuring 11 events (up one from the 10 rounds of 2019), the shape of the calendar is notably different with Abu Dhabi moving to the end of the season where it will be the penultimate round before the final in Cape Town. The Canadian event that has been part of World RX since its launch in 2014 is missing from the schedule, so the first nine rounds are all in Europe. A new event at the Nurburgring will form round seven, the first FIA rallycross event at the ’ring since 1993. The calendar includes two events slated as To Be Confirmed, one on 18-19 July and the other on 19-20 September. The championship opens at Barcelona on 18-19 April.

30 October    Organisers of the Irish Rallycross Championship confirm that the final round of the 2019 series will take place at Mondello Park on 24 November as planned. A double-header weekend scheduled for 19-20 October was cancelled through lack of entries and put the future of the championship in doubt.