Bakkerud & Baumanis return. Kristoffersson takes Nordic crown.

13 August  /  Linus Ostlund is latest Swedish driver to join the RX2e field for his home event at Holjes. A front runner in RX2 and Supercar Lites since graduating from Crosskart, Ostlund joins a handful of compatriots in the second round of the new all-electric series.

13 August  /  ESmotorsport names Janis Baumanis as its driver for the FIA European Rallycross Championship for RX1. A World RX regular in recent years, Baumanis drove in Projekt E at his home event in Latvia last year and will now race the Lithuanian team’s Skoda Fabia. “I’m very happy to be back on the grid. I’ve been in the World RX family since the beginning back in 2014, so last year felt very odd for me. There will still be great competition in Euro RX1, which looks stronger than ever with a lot of very good names in the field, some of whom have shown their speed in the World Championship too,” said Baumanis. ESmotorsport has never hidden its ambition to be part of World RX when it goes electric and see Baumanis as someone who can help that move. “Janis is the driver we expect to be working with longer-term. He has considerable experience of electric technology from driving the Projekt E car, and he brings feedback that will be essential to our development plans for next year’s transition into RX1e,” said ES team manager Robertas Maneikis.

15 August  /  RallyX Nordic concludes its 2021 season at Arvika where Johan Kristoffersson takes the event win to secure the title at the wheel of his Kristoffersson Motorsport VW Polo. Fraser McConnell led the pursuit of Kristoffersson but had to settle for second place, ahead of Anton Marklund who was third in his first event with Hedstroms Motorsport’s Polo.
Starting the weekend with a strong lead in the Supercar Lites series, Tommi Hallman completed the task in front of him with a clean event and second place in the final behind Casper Jansson. In the series Nils Andersson and Linus Ostlund placed second and third to Hallman.

Isak Reiersen beat Patrik Hallberg in the Crosskart final to take the title by a single point. Lukas Andersson worked hard to take the Junior Crosskart title by one point from Alex Gustafsson who won the final, but could not shake Andersson from his tail. Simon Tiger won the Open 2WD title.

15 August  /  The first round of the German Rallycross Championship – DRX – takes place at the Estering where Dietmar Brandt (VW Polo) wins the Supercar final ahead of Maik Bohling and Sven Heck. The 1600cc Supernational category was won by Svenb Seeliger with his trusty Super1600 Ford Fiesta while Bjorn Urbach (VW Polo) won the over 1600cc section. DRX has a production car section split at 1400cc and 2000cc, the former female racer Maike Glode took the win in an Opel Corsa, while Andreas Huhn (Honda) won the larger capacity section.

15 August  /  The third and final round of the Baltic Rallycross Championship took place at Vilkyciai in Lithuania. Paulius Pleskovas made his first Supercar start of the year and won the event ahead of Maiko Tamm (Mitsubishi Lancer) and Edijs Oss (Skoda Fabia). Janis Ikers won the Super2000 category and Janis Baumanis (the crosskart one) beat Reinis Nitiss to win the final on the day, although Nitiss won the series title. Marko Muru was best of the Super1600 field and Rauno Rappu won the NEZ TouringCar final.

15 August  /  The first rounds of the Dutch and Belgian Rallycross Championships took place at the Euroicircuit at Valkenswaard. Both championships have suffered through delays caused by COVID-19 and also because of various difficulties with circuits. With no Supercars present the Supernational runners took the limelight and in the over 2000cc section Luc Maris (Volvo S40) beat the similar car of Ludo Hermans to win the final with Andy Leysen (BMW M5) in third place. In the up to 2000cc section the victory was taken by Steve Volders (Ford Fiesta) who was joined in the podium by Ron Snoeck (Volvo C30) and Martijn Vanhove (BMW 1). Steve Otzer (Citroen C2) beat Davy Van Den Branden (Citroen DS3) and Yves Teelen (Peugeot 208) to win the Super1600 final. The event also featured the RST class in which adult and junior wins were collected by Sander van Hoof and Robin de Bolle respectively. The crosskart senior victory was takenb by Jan Kellers (Peters Crosskart) while Allart Emilien (Squal car) won the Junior final and Sjoerd de Visser (Spies Kawasaki) won the Superbuggy race.

15 August  /  The third round of the Norwegian Rallycross Championship – NM Rallycross – took place at Momarken. Supernational is the leading class in the series and among the up to 3000cc cars competition was again close with victory in the final being taken by Fredrik Agedal (BMW M3) who overcame Jonas Dalseth Jacobsen (VW Polo) and Emil Sivesind (Audi) to take the win. Andreas Aarhaug (Audi) was best of the 2400cc runners and Andreas Myhre (Volvo) claimed victory in the 2000cc section. The Super1600 field was strong but but dominated by Marius Solberg Hansen (Citroen C2) who won all four qualifiers and the final. Robin Bakker Andresen (Opel) and Sindre Loland (Peugeot) completed the podium with favoured runners Espen Isaksaetre (DSQ), Sebastien Hoidalen and Martin Kjaer all having less successful days. Jens Hvaal beat Torjus Svenneby and Sindre Madsen Moe to take the Junior victory.

17 August / ESmotorsport announces that Andreas Bakkerud will drive a second Skoda Fabia alongside Janis Baumanis in the FIA European Rallycross Championship RX1 season opener at Holjes. “Having to watch one more race weekend from the sofa would just have been unthinkable, and especially Holjes – my stomach wouldn’t have stood for that! I really enjoyed the new RX+ broadcast in Barcelona and all the on-board camera angles are really cool, but the bottom line is that I’m a racer and I want to be out there racing!” said Bakkerud. “I’ve been competing there since 2009, with some amazing races and a lot of great memories – including my first Euro RX Supercar (now RX1) win in 2013 and a World Championship event win three years later – so to sit at home this weekend was simply not an option. My expectations are always high – whenever my name is on the entry list, I’m there to win – but I also need to be realistic given that I haven’t done many laps in the Fabia. Results come over time, so I can’t expect to go out there and be the fastest straightaway, but this is a great opportunity to get to know the team and car.”

Nathalie Maillet – We are sad to record the death of the CEO of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps who was found dead at her home after a shooting on 15 August. Reports of the incident quote police as saying they suspect Maillet’s husband shot Maillet (51) and another woman before killing himself. Maillet had been the CEO at Spa for five years and led the move to gain a round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship for the circuit as well as overseeing the design and development of the rallycross circuit at the venue.

This weekend  /  The FIA World Rallycross Championship moves to Holjes in Sweden for round two. Elsewhere the Austrian and Hungarian championships share the weekend at Greinbach’s PS Racing Center.

For our full guide of where to watch rallycross this year see the link below. This is updated regularly but remember to check with event organisers before travelling, even if events are on there may be restrictions on public access.

Pics: RallyX Nordic, DRX, RX2e, World RX, ESmotorsport, Baltic RX, NBF, Hedstroms Motorsport