World RX Esports series. France loses more races. Paasonen tests World RX car.

13 May    Rallycross France organisers cancel three events of the French Rallycross Championship. The announcement covers events at Faleyras, Touraine (Pont de Ruan) and Lessay, the latter already postponed from its original date to August. “We are still working with the FFSA and the four organizations still on the programme (Mayenne, Dreux, Kerlabo and Essay), as since the beginning of the health crisis, to find the best solutions for our partners, our competitors and our rallycross audience in France. It is clear that our goal will not be to overload the calendar between September and mid-October in order to maintain the financial balance of the pilots and the teams with which we are in permanent contact. And for that, three events seem to us to be the best option,” said championship boss Jean-Jacques Benezet.

15 May    The final round of the iRacing iRX series takes place, returning to a virtual iteration of Hell in Norway. Mitchell deJong had secured the title in the fifth of the six-round esports series and is unable to better ninth in the final round after a first lap incident in the final. The lead battle features two young real-world racers Travis PeCoy and pole starter Sami-Matti Trogen. After passing PeCoy on lap five, Trogen moved away for a clear win with Craig Breen progessing to second place, ahead of PeCoy at the chequer.

15 May    Finnish rally and rallycross star Jani Paasonen revels plans to drive in selected rounds of the FIA World Rallycross Championship this year and is planning a full-time assault on the series in 2021. “If Sweden is the first race of the season, we plan to enter there, then probably Latvia and I hope Spain as well. Maybe some other races, but that’s not decided yet. It will depend a little bit how the first one is going,” said Paasonen. The Finn has established his own team together with partner financial technology company Ferrartum. The new car is based on an ex-MJP Racing Fiesta but uses a new engine from an as yet unnamed tuner. “My friend has talked to me for three or four years that he has an idea how the rallycross engine needs to be, and he’s been working with turbos for 25 years. That’s why we needed our own car, so we can test as much as we want,” said Paasonen who is also interested in progressing to the World Championship’s electric era in 2022. “I have a lot of information from the World Championship about the electric things. One idea is that when we build our own team, we can more easily start to build an electric car, maybe even using this Fiesta chassis. There are some possibilities,” he said.

16 May    OMSE announces a private race event to take place at Holjes on 19 and 20 May.

20 May    IMG, the promoter of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, announces a series of four Esports events to be run in conjunction with Motorsport Games and Codemasters using the latter’s DiRT 2.0 game. The series, which may be expanded to include further events, follows two successful standalone esports events played on the weekends of the postponed Spanish and Portuguese World RX events. The first event will be held on Sunday 31 May using the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, before continuing on to Norway, Sweden and South Africa. The events will continue to feature a mix of World RX racers and guest drivers from other disciplines. For the championship series gamers are separated from the real-world racers and will qualify via a separate event on Saturday to take part in their own semi-finals and a final run within the last hour of the event. The events will be shown on Motorsport.tv as well as the World RX Facebook and YouTube channels. 

20 May    British RX competitor Slawomir Woloch will race a new BMW M3 when the 5 Nations BRX eventually gets underway later this year. The UK-based Pole has raced a variety of cars in Britain for the last decade and has had the new car built by compatriot Krzysztof Skorupski’s Automax Motorsport after trying a similar machine at the end of 2018. “The feeling when I tried the BMW was very good, so the decision was easy for what to do next. The car has a stock BMW M3 4-litre V8 engine, with a Sellholm sequential box and Selholm rear axle. Compared to my old Fiesta the M3 is much faster, but also much easier to drive; the longer wheelbase makes a huge difference,” said Woloch who also hopes to race the car in Poland during the year.

20 May    OMSE runs a series of private races for a small group of RX2/Supercar Lites competitors at Holjes. The races are shown on the team’s Facebook page. Local boy Linus Ostlund wins the final, beating Simon Olofsson and category newcomer Martin Enlund. Johan Kristoffersson, Oliver, Kevin and Andreas Eriksson share the use of a guest car, Andreas placing fourth in the final.

Calendar    We are doing the best to keep our calendar of events and where you can watch rallycross in 2020 up to date for you.