Honda for World RX. Projekt E progress. Estonian and Latvian champs.

24 July    STARD announces that Projekt E car has successfully completed the FIA safety tests and inspections. Previuously only Williams and McLaren had completed the tests so STARD is in good company. “We have invested a lot in our high voltage traction battery development competence. Motor sport and very high-performance battery systems are dramatically different to road car applications for two main reasons: safety requirements and power density. In the area of safety, the FIA has imposed very strict criteria for BEV (battery electric vehicle) traction batteries. That STARD is in a very elite group of industry leading companies like Williams and McLaren, by being able to offer FIA crash tested high performance battery systems for motorsport application, is the result of many years hard work. As part of our turnkey REVelution powertrain package as used in Projekt E, this is immediately available to customers,” said Michael Sakowicz, STARD CEO. The Projekt E series is schedule to start in Sweden on 22-23 August.

25 July    The second round of the Estonian Rallycross Championship is run at Vorumaa where Andri Oun emerges as the event winner with his Ford Fiesta. Seido Nommkula (Peugeot 207) places second in the final with Janis Vergeris (Citroen DS3) completing the podium finishers. Tonu Pdeek (Renault Clio) is best of the Super1600 field, Siim Sundema (Ford Fiesta) wins the TouringCar class and Martin Juga (Lada Samara) is top of the Junior 1600 class. Janar Muttik (Semog) wins in Crosskart where Sander Sepp (Speedcar) is the winning Junior. 

26 July   Former World RX event winner Reinis Nitiss makes an appearance in the second round of the Latvian Rallycross Championship at his home track in Jekabpils. Racing in the Cross Car class Nitiss makes good use of a Kamikaz K3 to win the class ahead of Ronalds Baldins (Speedcar) and Maris Brecis (Semog). Elsewhere in the event, the Super1600 category is won by Juris Spikis (Skoda Fabia) and Janis Miscenko (VW Polo) is best of the TouringCar field.

28 July    GRX SET announce that multiple European Champion Krisztian Szabo will race a Hyundai i20 Supercar in selected World RX events in 2020. “2020 has come with its own challenges and I am really happy that despite everything I can be a part of the FIA World RX grid for multiple events this year. Even more so – I will be driving one of the best and most advanced cars in the championship, supported by a very experienced and professional team. My main focus will be to have a consistent and competitive pace from race to race and to prove myself as a driver, who can challenge the main “players” of the sport,” said Szabo who will race car of the same specification as used by Niclas Gronholm and Timur Timerzyanov in the GRX Taneco World RX squad. Szabo’s first event will be Sweden in August.

28 July    Ferratum Team and Jani Paasonen join the World RX trail for a season of events that will include all rounds run within europe. The Finnish racer has been testing his new Foerd Fiesta in Finland in recent weeks and hopes that engine developments from a new tuner will provide an edge for his new team. “We think we have something new with our Ferratum Team Ford Fiesta which we can bring to the World Championship. The engine side is built in Finland, it has some new ideas about how the engine works. There are big questions about what the potential and speed are, but we hope and trust that we have a fast car.  I believe we can continue into 2021 and the future. We’re planning to maybe build second car and maybe run a two-car team next year, but we will see. First we go step-by-step to Holjes, Kouvola and Riga and we will see where we are,” said Paasonen.

28 July    Kevin Hansen will begin his season with an outing in the a LifeLive TN5 Cross Car in the RallyX Nordic event at Arvika on 7-9 August. Hansen minor will pick up from older brother Timmy who raced the Cross Car at Holjes earlier this month and will also maintain his management duties for #YellowSquad.  It will Hansen’s first Cross Car outing and his first run in this type of machinery since 2018 when he drove a crosskart in RallyX on Ice. “Finally the season for me is getting underway, and at a circuit where I won my first Supercar Lites race in 2014. I have a lot of great memories from Arvika, I love the track and the competition will be very, very tough. Let’s do this!” he said.

29 July    World RX of Sweden winner Sebastian Eriksson will return to scene of last year’s triumph in an attempt to win again, this time armed with one of OMSE’s Honda Civics. “It felt like everything just went our way at Höljes last year. It was the race I wanted to win more than any other and the biggest result of my career, and it was nice to see the reaction of everybody in the paddock – that meant a lot.  This year, we get double the chances to win and double the fun. It’s the first time the World Championship has staged a double-header so the regular drivers might not be so used to that format, but I did a lot of it in GRC back in the day so hopefully that might give me a little bit of an advantage,” said Eriksson. 

Calendar    

Real racing has been back over the last few weeks.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.