Projekt E test. Bakkerud, Solberg & Godfrey awarded. Timerzyanov v Typhoon.

28 November   Lovecars release a teaser video before the full review of its recent test off the Projekt E electric rallycross car.

29 November     CARX publishes a video of its  Leyendas del Rally (Legends of Rally) race at the recent Alta Gracia event which featured the three prototype SupercarX machines in the hands of various rally stars.

30 November    The final round of the iRacing virtual Rallycross World Championship brings title glory for Sami-Matti Trogen and a fifth event win in the nine-round series for Mitchell deJong (Coanda Simsports). Going into the last event, Trogen required just three points to secure the crown and achieved that during the qualifying stages in which he placed second before going on to finish second to deJong in the final. “Of course it was good to lock up the championship in qualifying,” said Trogen. “I wanted to win this race, but we didn’t get the pole in qualifying. I was matching Mitchell’s pace in the feature, but we didn’t have the pole, and I think that was key. It’s good to have this kind of racing for the off season—it helps me prepare myself for the real world next year.” Trogen’s SET Esports teammate Joni Heikkinen completed the series in third place. Trogen was the 2018 winner of the RX Academy and race in RX2 in 2019.

*     On a similar but unrelated theme, the DiRT Rally 2.0 World Championship final will take place at Autosport International where there will be separate rally and rallycross events and a $10,000 prize pool. Autosport International takes place from 9 to 12 January 2020 and tickets are available now from AutosportInternational.com

30 November    Rallycross drivers were awarded and recognised at the Norwegian ASN’s annual Bilsport Gala in Oslo. Petter Solberg, who began and ended his competitive career in rallycross, was celebrated by the ASN which also used the event to launch the new Petter Solberg Scholarship which will be awarded each year to a ‘promising young car athlete’ and which will carry a value of NOK150,000. Other award winners on the night included Andreas Bakkerud who won the ‘Car Athlete of the year’, the second time in his career that he lifted the major national awards (he also won in 2011). “It’s such a big honour for me to receive such an honorary award. This shows that many people appreciate the work and effort they put in during a season. This is huge for me and I am very grateful,” said Bakkerud. Rallycrosser Sivert Svardal won the ‘Car Sport Talent’ award which pitches drivers from. Many disciplines against each other and is judged in a shoot-out between the five leading contenders. Svardal, who has won the up to two-litre category in the Norwegian Rallycross Championship for the last two years with a TouringCar-spec Mazda RX8 receives NOK300,000 for winning the award.

30 November    The prize-giving for the 2019 Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship takes place at the Night of Champions event where Julian Godfrey collects the British crown for a record sixth time. Prior to the evening awards ceremony drivers were invited to a presentation by Lydden Hill Race Circuit (which will promote the championship from 2020) at which it was revealed that the championship would be rebranded as the ‘Five Nations Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship’. Adding detail to the provisional calendar a seven-event schedule was published with a Pembrey event on 18 October added to the dates previously announced. Supercar will race across six weekends, and will not feature at the October Pembrey round.

3 December    Swede Anders Lindstrom wins the FIA’s Smart Driving Challenge. The Paris final followed a series of 14 week-long heats, the contest encouraging and rewarding smart, safe and eco-friendly skills. Motorists, who joined the challenge through their Motoring Club or online, saw their driving patterns assessed in real time thanks to an AI-based phone app, powered by Enerfy, transforming real trips into a digital score. Lindström’s team Leader and FIA World Rallycross Championship star Kevin Hansen, added: “Anders did a very good job and I’m really proud of him for winning the challenge. It has been very interesting to see drivers from across the world join the challenge and adopt smarter and more efficient driving behaviour.”

3 December    TitansRX publishes its 2020 calendar which details 14 events over seven weekends and promises to make 15-20 Pantera RX6 cars available on an arrive and drive rental basis. The calendar includes events at Trois-Rivieres in Canada where Titans effectively replaces World RX at GP3R. “It is very satisfying for me to see the natural progress of the 2020 TitansRX season with the addition of a North American event at Trois-Rivieres and two embedded regional cups” said TitansRX founder and CEO Max Pucher. The calendar includes north and south cups with at final events taking place at Nyirad in Hungary and requiring drivers to have taken part in at least ten rounds over five weekends to qualify.

TitansRX 2020: 1 & 2, 25-26 April – MJP Arena (AUT); 3 & 4, 9-10 May – Nyirad (HUN); 5 & 6, 27-28 June – Montalegre (PRT); 7 & 8, 11-12 July – Essay (FRA); 9 & 10, 1-2 August – Trois-Rivieres (CAN); 11 & 12, 12-13 September – Estering (DEU); 13 & 14, 3-4 October – Nyirad (HUN)

3 December   Timur Timerzyanov publishes a video featuring the Dodge Dart rallycross Supercar that he owns. The dart was built by OMSE for the 2012 GRC programme led by Travis Pastrana. The video is shot at the Kazan Ring, Timerzyanov’s home circuit and also features a RemDiesel Typhoon military vehicle  driven by Igor Zarakhovich.

4 December    Among the decisions taken at the FIA World Motor Sport Council is the approval of the calendars for the FIA World Rallycross Championship and FIA European Rallycross Championships in 2020. The World RX calendar reveals that the second of the events listed as TBC in the original calendar announcement is Igora Drive near St Petersburg in Russia. The WMSC also announces that GCK Energy has been selected as the winner of the tender to provide recharging for World RX and the Junior Rallycross Championship when the new electric cars are introduced in 2021. P1 Racing Fuels will continue to supply fuel for the internal combustion engined categories in 2020, ’21 and ’22.