There’s no place like home. But…

Mid-late September, it’s good to have a weekend at home in this season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. But…

But wouldn’t we all like to be soaking up the autumn sunshine at a rallycross track?

For many years, this weekend in mid-late September meant Lydden Hill and the British round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship. Pretty much from the start of the championship until 1992, when Lydden hosted round one, the British round was run with chill autumn mornings and, when we were lucky, warm sunny afternoons. Arguably Britain at its best.

When Poland joined the championship in the new century the now vacant calendar slot in mid-late September became the regular date for the event at Autodrom Slomczyn.

There were not many similarities with Lydden, but Slomczyn too lays in a fruit producing region and freshly harvested apples were always plentiful on race weekend.

Lydden, of course, is the birthplace of rallycross, Slomczyn a semi-industrial site on which the race track nestled between a concrete works, a busy airfield which often saw light aircraft wobbling over the race track. And the market. A huge open air market at which it seemed possible to buy anything from car parts to, well, whatever you wanted. And which also meant you had to be in the track very early on Sunday to beat the queues of eager shoppers.

Now there’s another fixed occupant of the mid-September date and another event that has found its foothold in the calendar. As different in nature as Lydden and Slomczyn, the Bikernieki at Riga is an urban circuit that slots perfectly into the capital city of Latvia and has become a shining beacon of excellence in the World Championship era.