Marklund takes Euro RX at Holjes. Solberg Hansen and Vranckx teen winners.

29 June / The FIA World Motor Sport Council meets in Paris and among the decisions made is a revised calendar for the FIA World Rallycross Championship with Barcelona added on the weekend of 29-30 October.

2 July / Maiko Tamm continued his winning ways as the Estonian Rallycross Championship when round four took place at Piiroja. Arvo Kask was fastest in the first heat but thereafter the day belonged to Tamm who was consistently best of the two similar Mitsubishi Lancers. Sigmar Tammemagi placed third in his Lancer. In Super1600 Marku Muru won all three heats and semi-final one but was a non-starter in the final which left the way open for Sergei Bronski (Renault Clio) who led home Rytis Rutkauskas (Audi A1) and the Ford Ka of Kristjan Kutsar. Robin Allik (Honda Civic) won the Junior 1600 final. Rommi Pukk (BMW 120) stepped up to win the TouringCar final as top qualifier Priit Rebane (Volvo C30) slipped back to third place. Second was taken by Andreas Aruaas (Ford Fiesta). There were 31 starters in Crosskart Xtrem in which Riku Huuhka (Speedcar Wonder) was top qualifier and winner of the final. Andre Kiil (Semog Bravo) placed second ahead of Mika-Matias Huttula (Speedcar Xtreme). Karl Martin Miliste was best of the slim 650 kart field and Armin Raag won the Junior class.

3 July / Holjes returns to its traditional date at the start of July and hosts the FIA European Rallycross Championships as well as the FIA RX2e Championship. at the end of the weekend Anton Marklund is declared the winner in Euro RX1, adding to his round one victory in Hungary. Marklund, however, had been the second car to pass the chequered flag but was handed the win after Oliver Solberg’s similar Hyundai i20 was disqualified from the final because its underbody protection did not meet the regulations. Solberg was reclassified fifth in the final, Markluynd taking the win ahead of JB Dubourg (epuegto 208) and Andreas Bakkerud (Audi S1) who had stopped during the race with suspension damage. “Obviously you never want to win this way, and I feel very sorry for Oliver because he drove amazingly all weekend. I know the heartache he is feeling right now, since I lost what would have been my first World RX win in Norway in 2017 due to a technical infringement, but that’s the way it is and the result is obviously very positive for the championship for us. Here at Holjes, there’s always a lot of drama. I hoped I wouldn’t be struck by it, but in the semi-final, I picked up a puncture and had to really fight to hang on for the last two laps. In the final, I then completely overshot the jump on lap one and after that, the front end of my car didn’t really feel like it should. I couldn’t keep up with Oliver’s pace, but I got lucky with the other guys having issues and we ended up with the win. Hopefully we can now capitalise on this momentum over the rest of the year,” said Marklund.

The level of competition in the national RX3 series in neighbouring Norway became very apparent as Norwegian drivers took the fight to the Euro regulars and young race Marius Solberg Hansen (Skoda Fabia) emerged as the winner. Martin Kjaer and Espen Isaksaetre were also in the hunt for most of the weekend but both went out in the semi-final phase. Round one winner Kobe Pauwels (Audi A1) placed second with Portuguese Joao Ribeiro (Audi A1) taking his best Euro placing to date.

The opening round of the FIA RX2e series was roundly dominated by Viktor Vranckx who, with last year’s champion in his corner, topped the Ranking after heat three and then won his progression race, and semi-final before leading home Nils Andersson in the final. Isak Sjokvist placed third with series newcomer Raul Ferre fourth and Pablo Suarez fifth.

This weekend / The Finnish championship finally gets underway this weekend. Among the very best championships out there, Rallicross SM will pack in five races between this weekend and mid-September. Jalasjarvi is first up. Arendonk hosts the Belgian championship as well as visitors from the German Championship and some of the British Championship categories. Rallycross France moves on to Pont de Ruan while Riga hosts the Latvian Championship and guests from RallyX Nordic.

pics: World RX, Red Bull Content Pool, Rallikross, FIA