Gronholm grabs Portugal win. CARX night race. Italian and German titles won.

17 October  /  Niclas Gronholm takes his second World RX  win of the year in a closely fought competition at Montalegre in Portugal. The absence of Unkorrupted and Kevin Abbring left the World field at just seven cars for the event that had been subject to a late date change.  Timmy Hansen won three of the qualifiers with Kevin Hansen being fastest in Q4. Timmy Hansen won the first semi with Johan Kristoffersson snatching SF2 away from Gronholm in the last lap. In the final the battle between Kristoffersson and Hansen brothers raged at the front of the field but Gronholm jokered early and then slashed the gap to the lead group and went ahead as all three went to the joker in the last lap. Kristoffersson was third on the road but demoted to sixth after getting a five second penalty for leaving the track in his battle with Kevin Hansen.

The Euro RX3 championship was decided in Portugal where Yury Belevskiy was beaten just once in the weekend as he claimed his fourth event win to claim the title in the five-round series. Marat Knyazev was fastest in Q2 and second in his semi and the final to step on to the podium ahead of Kobe Pauwels. In the championship, however, the pair finished the other way around, rookie Pauwels taking second in the series by one point over the much improved Knyazev. Damian Litwinowicz made the final again and placed fourth ahead of Portuguese racer Nuno Araujo (Audi A1) and Timur Shigabutdinov who had a big crash in Q2 but raced again on Sunday and made the final in his battered car, only to be pushed into a spin at the start of the race.

17 October  /  RX Italia held its sixth event of the year at the new Ittiri track in Sardinia. Davide Riccio (Hyundai 120 R5) secured the Italian Championship title and won the event ahead of Gianluca Leoni (Mitsubishi Lancer). Paolo Barbieri (Citroen C2) won in Super1600 after championship leader Silvano Ruga (Renault Clio) hit technical problems. Kartcross was again the best contested class. Marco Berniga (Planet Kartcross K3) led in the heats but it was Marcello Gallo (LifeLive TN5) who stepped up take the final ahead of Riccardo Canzian and Mauro Vicario (both Speedcar Xtreme).

17 October  /  The final round of the German Rallycross Championship takes place at the all-asphalt Grundau where Bastian Sichelschmidt (BMW M3) became the DRX champion. Sichelschmidt won the over 2000cc Supernational final to seal the title ahead of Sven Seeliger (Ford Fiesta) who was best of the up to 2000cc field. Marco Wittkovski (VW Golf) was second to Seeliger in the under two-litre final on the day and third in the overall championship. Viktor Smolski (Audi A4) won the Supercar final, new champion Dietmar Brandt (VW Golf) finishing fifth in the final. Tim Kulikowski (Opel Corsa) became the Junior champion,Andreas Huhn (Honda Civic) won the Rallycross Trophy class

17 October  /  Tamas Karai took a clean sweep to win as the Hungarian Rallycross Championship visited the Slovakiaring. Running out the clear winner ahead of Zoltan Vass (Audi A1), Karai was also joined on the podium by third-placed Mark Mozer (Peugeot 208). Recet event winner Mate Benyo was disqualified from the final but maintains a slender two point lead over Karai in the series. Balazs Kormoczi (Suzuki Swift) won the Super1600 final while SuperTouringCar was unusually poorlly supported and topped out again by Roman Castoral (Opel Astra). Moric Csermely (Suzuki Swift) won the Junior final. The series moves to Nyirad in November for its final round.

17 October / CARX returned to Buenos Aires for rounds four and five of the Argentine and South American Rallycross Championship, the first part of the double-header including night racing. In Saturday’s night event the winner of the Turbo class was Gaston Gonzalez who pipped Miguel Baldoni to the victory. Mauricio Lambiris took victory in the Turbo Light final, Juan Ignacio Alvarez and Cesar Folledo also on the podium. Folledo stepped up to win the Sunday final in his Ford Fiesta while the round five battle in the turbo class was taken by Federico Villagra in his Toyota.

17 October  /  Not strictly a rallycross event, but something that is within our focus, the NGK Masters folkrace event took place at Karlstad in Sweden. The event attracted 96 ‘senior’ drivers, 29 female races and 86 juniors, the latter group racing on Sunday after the male and female adults had raced on Saturday. The event was not run in 2020 and the result in 2021 mirrored that of 2019 with Sebastian Eriksson and Sandra Hultgren winning the senior and female categories respectively. On Sunday Isac Torlamb topped the junior field.

This weekend  /  Rallycross France reaches the  end of it’s topsy-turvy season – in Faleyras! Usually a centrepiece of the French Rallycross Championship in June, the undulating  Bordeaux track hosts the final with Samuel Peu leading the title race.

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: World RX, RX Italia, DRX, Karai, CARX, NGK Masters