Van Gisbergen wins World RX Esports. New calendar for France & UK. Kristoffersson to Holjes.

27 May    Rallycross France announces a new four-event calendar for its 2020 championship. Events are now planned for Mayenne 12-13 September; Kerlabo 26-27 September; Essay 10-11 October and Dreux 24-25 October. Jean-Jacques Benezet, president of series organiser AFOR said: “After moving heaven and earth for all these long weeks, I am happy today to be able to make such an announcement. We will continue to work to set up this “new” championship, in particular by supporting the organisers who will have to face unusual government measures to be able to hold their event. We will all have to do the best in this particular context but I repeat, I think it is a good thing, for everyone from volunteers to drivers through officials, fans but also all those who live from this discipline, to offer a French Championship and a French Rallycross Cup in 2020!”

28 May    The Polish ASN withdraws the Polish championship from the event at Sosnova in the Czech Republic on 27-28 June. The event would have formed the opening round of the Polish series and the ASN’s action comes because there is no clear date from the government on the opening of borders between Poland and the Czech Republic. The Polish Championship is now reduced to four events (with a change in regulations to allow this to constitute a title), Torun 10-12 July; Slomczyn 11-13 September; Torun 25-27 September; Slovakiaring 23-25 October. The Czech Championship event at Sosnova, which is still expected to count towards the CEZ series, is set to go ahead and recently reported that it already has 149 entries.

29 May    A new four-round schedule for the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy is published. The shortened series is now planned to start at Lydden on the UK’s August holiday weekend, 30-31 August before moving to Knockhill in Scotland on 26-27 September and Pembrey in Wales on 17-18 October. The latter two events have retained their original dates, but the British Championship Supercars will now join the Pembrey event which was previously not on their schedule. The series is due to conclude at Mondello Park in Ireland on 14-15 November, running alongside the Irish Championship. “Obviously, we can’t predict what will happen, but we hope that in the 12 weeks leading up to the first event at the end of August we will see further relaxation of the restrictions and that we can safely hold events with fans in attendance. We are working closely with Motorsport UK to ensure that happens, while of course adhering to HM Government’s directive. What this means is that fans and racers have a goal and that, all being well, we are back on track for a great championship,” said series MD Pat Doran.

29 May    The Swedish ASN, the SBF, issues details to state that national championship events will be able to resume from 14 June, but that no more than 50 spectators will be able to attend. Restrictions on operations remain in place and SBF said it will provide further information but also said: “50 people must be respected but only refer to the public, not competitors or officials … we are not a contact sport and also outdoors … we can work around this”

29 May    Cyril Raymond is hosting a training camp at Paul Ricard circuit from 1 to 5 July. “When I thought about this training camp, I listed everything that I would have liked to have had when I started out,” said Raymond. “This internship will allow drivers to learn, analyse, share and also to progress as a pilot. With the Paul Ricard Circuit, and in particular its international karting track, we will provide exceptional infrastructure to participants. In addition, living together 24 hours a day will create a great atmosphere among all, in a magnificent setting! ” A product of the junior rallycross category in France, Raymond climbed the ranks and contested the FIA World Rallycross Championship with GCK in 2019. To book a place on the training course contact Raymond here.

31 May    The first round of the new World RX Esports series takes place on a virtual Yas Marina Circuit rallycross track and is won by New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen. The Australian V8 Supercars racers is fastest in all four qualifying rounds and beaten only in the semi-finals where, after the usual jostling in the first corner, “SVG” settled into second place behind Tom Blomqvist. Kevin Hansen won semi-final two but in the final it was Timmy Hansen – starting the five-car final as fastest of the third place finishers in the two semi-finals – who emerged from the scrum to chase van Gisbergen home. “That was so much fun racing with all those guys. There were a bunch of my friends from circuit racing but also on our chat we had the Hansen brothers and racing with them, and getting tips when to joker and things like that, was great. We were all pretty fast and had some really cool racing and also having Charles Leclerc racing was really cool. It was so fun to be a part of, I’m getting better and hopefully I can come back for the next races if the schedule allows and have a good time. It’s really awesome to do this racing,” said van Gisbergen. Ferrari F1 racer Charles Leclerc also started the event having spent time in the previous week practising by racing against the Hansen brothers and DiRT game World Champion Killian Dall’Olmo. He took a race win in Q4 but was placed 12th at the Intermediate Classification and missed out on the semi-finals. Esports racers were given their own races, ten star invited to drive in semi-finals and a final during the event. French brother Quentin and Killian Dall’olmo placed first and third, the pair split by Czech sim racer Lukas Mateja.

2 June    IMG, the promoter of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, announces that Champion Lubricants will be the official lubricant partner of the championship in 2020 and 2021. Champion will also continue its support of Gronholm RX having been prominent on the teams third car when raced by Joni Wiman and Toomas Heikkinen in 2019.

2 June    The latest twist in the long-running saga over permission for racing to take place at the Glosso Circuit at Arendonk in Belgium comes with news that an appeal against the permission granted in March has been upheld. There now follows a 120-day review period, but that means that there will be no use of the full circuit during 2020. A short statement from the circuit management said: “We accordingly hope for a favourable judgement from the environmental licencing commission, to still be able to start the necessary work and adaptations of our circuit this year. We then hope to be able to organise our opening in the spring of 2021, after which we can again organise our beloved hobby on an adapted and complete circuit.”

2 June    RallyX Nordic announces Johan Kristoffersson as the “first big name to officially commit to next month’s ground-breaking ‘All-Star’ Magic Weekend at Höljes”. The first RallyX Nordic event of the year will on the traditional Holjes date on the first weekend in July – the WorldRX event having been postponed until 20-23 August. The Nordic event will run behind closed doors (see the story above regarding limits for events in Sweden) and will be livestreamed on a pay-per-view basis. Kristoffersson will drive the KMS VW Polo used by Sondre Evjen in the 2019 European Rallycross Championship. “I must pay tribute to the fantastic job done by the entire organising team to bring this event to life, which cannot have been an easy task in the current circumstances … I’m constantly looking to measure myself against my peers and see where I am, so it would certainly be cool if some of my fellow World Championship drivers came along too … now is the time to really get behind Holjes – and the best way to do that at the moment is by tuning in from a safe distance,” said Kristoffersson.