Construction Equipment Dealer team in World RX. Vincent pips Febreau in France.

26 April / JC Raceteknik names its Juniorteam drivers for the 2022 season. Lukas Andersson (14) and Erik Nilsson (13) will race with the team in the Junior Cross Car class on RallyX. Andersson started his Crosskart career aged nine-years-old, and has won the Swedish Cup and the Swedish Sprint Cup in the 85cc class. Fifth in his debut crosskart season in 2020, he narrowly beat JC Juniorteam driver Alex Gustafsson to win the 2021 title. Nilsson has raced since he was seven and placed fourth in the RallyX Junior crosskart class last year. “We have had our eyes on Lukas and Erik for a long time, and both have done very well despite their young age. Lukas was our biggest competitor last year in the battle for the RallyX gold in Crosscar Junior. We will build on what he has achieved so far and invest further so that he can continue to achieve strong results. Erik is doing his second season in RallyX, and despite being very young, he has already impressed. We will work to give him the correct support to be able to fight for good results in the championship. We’re really looking forward to the season,” said JC boss Joel Christoffersson.

28 April / Hedstroms Motorsport completes a test at Holjes with Oliver Solberg and announces that the WRC driver will drive its Hyundai i20 in the FIA European Rallycross Championship event at the Swedish venue in July. “This is going to be really fun, we have now done a lot of work with details on the car according to our own philosophy we had from the PSRX cars, that together with Peter and his team’s experience around the car will be really good,” said Solberg. Having originally hoped to continue with Anton Marklund, Hedstrom approached Solberg when the car became available. “It struck me that Oliver would be perfect match for the Hyundai in Höljes, I called and he grabbed immediately, then everything went fast and together with Petter’s mechanics we have taken the car another big step forward in development … we leave nothing to chance and the engine has already been to manufacturer Pipo Moteurs in France for a thorough review.” said Hedstrom.

28 April / With the RallyX season about to start JC Raceteknik announces that Norwegian Sondre Evjen will be back with the team in which Swede Philip Gehrman will be his teammate. Jimmie Walfridsson will return to racing after a year out and tackle a full Supercar Lites season with the squad.

29 April / The new Copa de Espana de Rallycross announces that its events will be shown on the specialised sports channel of Radio Television Espanola, Teledeporte. The Royal Spanish Automobile Federation which has created the new series will also show the events on its YouTube channel.

30 April / The opening event of the Estonian Rallycross Championship took place at Kulbilohu where Tonu Peek won the event in his Mitsubishi Lancer. The rallikrossi Eesti meistrivoistluste had more than 80 starters, the biggest entry the series has ever recorded for its first round. Peek was chased home by fellow Mitsubishi racer Maiko Tamm with Latvian Janis Vegeris third in his Citroen DS3. Rommi Pukk (BMW 120) returned to action and won the TouringCar class, second place taken by the new Volvo C30 of Priit Rebane ahead of the Lada mounted Kalmer Vaht. Kevin Allik dashed off a Super1600 victory while his younger brother Robin claimed the Junior S1600 class. The 30-strong Crosskart Xtreme was won by Markus Abram (LifeLive TN5). Andre Kiil and Janis Baumanis completed the podium, both in Semog Bravos. Kartcross 650 and 125 has been added to the series this year, the 125s for 10-15 year-olds was won by Armin Raag while Laur Langproon was best of the adults in 650.

1 May / The first round of the 2022 French Championship took place at Lessay where Julien Febreau dominated the event up until the final where a slip in the first corner handed the advantage to David Vincent (Peugeot 208) who retained the lead and won the event. In the first of four scheduled outings in 2022 with one of DA Racing’s Peugeot 208s, Febreau was fastest in the event and started the final from pole but ran wide in turn one in the very dusty finals and then held off the strong challenge of Samuel Peu to place second. Peu rose from the back row of the grid to take third in his 208. Febreau left the event with a one point lead in the series over Vincent and Romauld Delaunay (Citroen DS3) who qualified well bit slipped to the tail of the final in the dust. Super1600 also had a dominant driver who lost out at the end but the case of 2021 Junior Champion David Bouet it was a technical issue with his Skoda Fabia that caused him to lose a debut victory and handed the win to Jimmy Terpereau (Citroen C2). A first corner crash immediately accounted for three cars and at the chequer only three cars were running. David Moulina (Dacia Sandero) was elevated to second after Bouet’s penalty. Dylan Dufas was classified third on the debut of the new Renault Clio V. The Renault Clio-based Junior championship final was won by Tom Le Jossec who battled back from a difficult run in qualifying to win when it really mattered. Luc Derrien finished second with newcomer Valentin Lumet third. 2021 Women’s champion Alizee Poitier was tipped into a roll before the first corner of the final, the incident forcing a restart.
The Coupe de France Feminine boasted 21 starters, all in the control Renault Twingo, and had a different driver fastest in each of the four qualifiers. Amelie Moliexe made up for a slow start to the final by winning on her rallycross debut, joined on the podium by Chanel Launay and Emma Chalvin. Nicolas Beaucle (Mercedes) won the Division Three final and Division Four was won by Anthony Marduit (Renault Clio).

1 May / Sondre Evjen came within an ace of winning the Norwegian Championship for Supercars at Momarken where he dominated the event and led the final before a broken driveshaft dropped him to fifth place. The beneficiary of Evjen’s heartbreak was Tobias G Andersen who became the Norwegian champion in the single-event that decides the Supercar crown. Hans-Joran Ostreng (Hyundai) was second ahead of Tom Daniel Tanevik (Volvo). Frank Valle (Ford Fiesta) placed fourth, Thomas Eek Murstad (Focus) retiring after three laps. More than 100 drivers started the event the star of which was Andrine Rafoss (Audi A1) who won the Super1600 final beating Mats Marthinsen (VW) and Per Magne Egebo Svardal (A1). Former European Champion Guttorm Lindefjell had his first event in the ex-Ole Henry Steinsholt Skoda Fabia and placed 12th of the 15 starters. Thomas Harberg (Opel) won Class Two (Touring Car), Kenneth Hansen (Volvo) best of the 2400 category and Jonas Dalseth Jacobsen (VW Polo) topping out the resurgent Class Four 3300cc Supernational class which mustered 19 starters. Emil Sivesin (Audi) and Simen Engsvik (VW) joined Jacobsen on the podium. Knut Ove Borseth was last after being disqualified in Q2 and non-finishing Q4. Arnfinn Bergseng won the Historic class in his Escort Mk1.

4 May / World RX announces a new team for its 2022 season as Construction Equipment Dealer Team is revealed. Run by PWR RX, a sister company multiple Scandinavian Touring Car Champions PWR Racing, CE Dealer Team will be led by Emil Axelsson, a former team manager at EKS RX and successful rally co-driver, with Junior WRC, SWRC and Asia-Pacific titles to his credit. The Nordic-based operation will field a pair of cars, with the programme supported by a number of independent distributors of Volvo Construction Equipment – including Ascendum, SMT and Swecon – and benefitting from the backing of several prominent industrial partners, amongst whom Engcon and SSAB. “It’s always a pleasure to welcome a new team to the grid, particularly one of this calibre, bolstered by the experience and expertise of Volvo Construction Equipment dealers and PWR. All parties wholeheartedly share our vision for a more sustainable and diverse society and strongly support the direction in which we are taking the championship. As we head into this bright new era, there is a great deal of belief in the future of World RX, and we will be revealing even more exciting news in the weeks to come,” said World RX boss Arne Dirks.

This weekend / The newly combined Latvian/Lithunian Championship begins at Bikernieki in Riga. The event also counts for the Baltic Series so should get a bumper entry. The German and Belgian Championships meet at the Estering while the Hungarian series continues at the new Monorierdo venue and Macao Verde Horizonte hosts the Portuguese Championship. See our full events listing below.

pics: JC Raceteknik, Hedstroms Motorsport, World RX, Rallikross EE, NBF, DA Racing, Rallycross France