First rallycross win for an electric car. Racing in Portugal & Estonia. Keith Ripp dies.

11 July    The first event of the Estonian Rallycross Championship, Est Rallikross, is run on the Kulbilohu rallycross track near Elva. Andri Oun (Fiesta) won the event and was best of the six-car Supercar field. Ainar Arula (Mitsubishi Lancer E6) and Seido Nommkula (Peugeot 207) completed the top three. Estonian veteran Valdur Reinsalu returned to action at the wheel of his new Ford Ka Supercar, placing sixth after an eventful day. Rommi Pukk (BMW 120) won the TourinCar class, the Super1600 win was taken by Siim Saluri (Citroen C2) and Martin Juga (Lada Samara) won the Junior 1600 final. Markus Abram was best of the Cross Kart field while Joosep Ralf Nogene won the Junior category. The series moves on to Misso for round two on 25 July.

12 July    Four months after completing round one of the championship PTRX returns to action as the second round of the Portuguese Rallycross Championship is run at Lousada. Ford Focus racer Joaquim Santos claimed the win ahead of the Skoda of Jose Lameiro. Super1600 is the strongest class in Campeonato de Portugal de Ralicross and was won by Joao Ribeiro (Skoda Fabia). Joaquim Machado (Peugeot 208) grabbed second place late in the race, passing Bruno Goncalves (Citroen Saxo) for the place. Pedro Rosario (Semog) won the Kartcross class, Nuno Godinho (Semog) was best of the SuperBuggy category and Andre Monteiro (Toyota Corolla) won the Junior class after winner on the road Rafael Rego (Peugeot 106) received a penalty. Debutant racers Goncalo Rocha (Peugeot 106) and Rafaela Barbosa (Citroen AX, the daughter of European Championship regular Mario) finished third and fourth in their first events. See a replay of the livestream here.

12 July    The Hungarian Championship opener at Kakucs becomes the scene of a historic victory as Manfred Stohl takes the first event win for an all-electric rallycross car. Using the event as final verification of the Projekt E development car, Stohl surprises even himself by being fastest in Q1 and then going on to win the event. Tamas Karai (Audi A1) is second ahead of Mark Mozer (Skoda Fabia) and “CSUCSU” who returns to rallycross with a Citroen DS3.  The Hungarian Championship has three engine capacity classes within its Super Touring Car category (Supernational), Zoltan Koncseg (BMW E46) wins the over two-litre section, Czech visitor Roman Castoral (Opel Astra) is best of the 1600-2000cc runners and Janos Robert Repasi (Skoda Fabia) wins the up to 1600cc class. Kristof Csuti (Suzuki Swift) wins the Junior class, the best of 13 starters.

12 July   Timmy Hansen wins the World RX Esports Series after placing fourth in the final event of the four-round series which is run on a virtual Killarney International Raceway at Cape Town. The event is won by Supercars racer Shane van Gisbergen who missed round three but manages to place third in the series, Tom Blomqvist between him and Hansen. The separate section for Sim Racers sees Killian Dall’olmo emerge as the champion.

13 July   TitansRX announces a 2020 Austria Cup to begin this weekend at the PS Racing Center at Greinbach. Future events on 8-9 August and 19-20 September are provisional.

14 July    RallyX Nordic announces a revised calendar with the second event of the year scheduled to take place at Arvika on 7-9 August and the third round at Nysum (Denmark) on 4-6 September.

Keith Ripp    The death of rallycross superstar Keith Ripp (1943-2020) was announced on 13 July. A driver who built his reputation during the 1970s when rallycross was a staple of Saturday afternoon TV in the UK, Ripp won a hat-trick of British Championships in 1981, ’82 and ’83. Racing Minis throughout the formative stages of his career, Ripp achieved his greatest successes with a Ford Fiesta and, appropriately won his last ever British Championship event at the close of the 1984 season. In business Ripp was a pioneer of the aftermarket tuning industry, building Ripspeed into a hugely successful company before guiding sons Adrian Jason in their own automotive enterprises. See here for their own appreication of Keith Ripp. 
Perhaps the most famours moment of Ripp’s rallycross career came in an enormous televised crash at Lydden, complete with immortal commentary of Murray Walker.

Right at the end of his racing activities, there was perhaps an air of sadness about his imminent exit from the sport.

Calendar    Real racing has been back over the last two weekends, this weekend is a little quiet, but SM Rallycross, the Swedish national series visits Vasteras and next weekend you can plan around events in Estonia, Latvia and Portugal. We are doing the best to keep our calendar of events and where you can watch rallycross in 2020 up to date for you. Postponed and cancelled events remain shown but marked as a record of the carnage wrought on the 2020 schedule by Covid-19.