Karai wins at home. Volterra in Italy. Ribeiro bosses S1600 in Portugal.

17 July / RX Italia shared a weekend and Castelletto with the CEZ series for which this event had a coefficient of 1.5. Davide Volterra (VW Scirocco) won the event in the slim Supercar class, among which the RX5 category remains provisional. In what appears to have been a contentious day, it’s the same story in the -2000 STC group and in kartcross with results not published for any of these. STC -1600 produced a win for Polish racer Conrad Gryz (Peugeot 106) who led home the Citroens of Paolo Barbieri and Matteo Valazza. The +2000 group became a battle of survival won by Zoltan Held (BMW M3) who led home the similar car of compatriot Tibor Vamosi. Jenni Sonzogni (Renault Clio) passed Marco Valazza (Ford Fiesta) to win the Super1600 final.

17 July / Montalegre hosted RX Portugal for the second time in the 2022 tour, and did not have snow! Having skipped two events while focusing on the FIA European Championship, Joao Ribeiro returned claimed victory in the championship’s burgeoning Super1600 class with his Audi A1. The final needed two starts, and behind Ribeiro it was Rogerio Sousa (Ford Fiesta) who claimed second place with Tiago Ferreira (Peugeot 208) third. There were just two Supercars present, Jose Oliveira (Peugeot 208) the best of these. Jorge Gonzaga (LBS) was top qualifier and winner of the final among the kartcross runners. Alexandre Borges (Semog Bravo) and Sergio Castro (ASK Evo) completing the top three in the 14-strong class. Adao Pinto (Opel astra) won the 2WD class, Adelino Camelo (Peugeot 106) was top of the Junior category, Leandro Macedo (Citroen Saxo) led home the Ntional 1.6 field and Guilherme Matos (Semog Bravo) won the Junior Cross Car final.

17 July / The Hungarian Rallycross Championship returned to Nyirad where Tamas Karai took a home track win in his Audi S1. Usually able to muster a decent Supercar field, Karai was best of a slender four-car grid, Mate Benyo (Ford Focus) placing second ahead of Zoltan Koncseg (Audi S1). Lehel Laczko (Opel Astra) won the the Super1600 field while the STC groups delivered victories for Attila Beke (BMW E87) who beat Robert Nagy’s E36 in the +2000 final, Gyorgy Janzer (Renault Clio) who was best of the -2000 class and Csaba Pallag-Bozsak (Honda Civic) who claimed victory in the -1600 final. Adam Kelo Gere took his second Junior win of the year and notched up a maximum points clean sweep in the Suzuki Swift-based class.

And / Portugal, like almost all national championships has a junior category these days but at Montalegre wheeled out something new that might just take young drivers to a whole new level.

This weekend / Sweden and Poland look like being the hubs this weekend. In poland Poznan hosts the national series and the visiting Czech Championship. There are also CEZ points on offer. In Sweden RallyX Nordic concludes at Strangnas which has been subject to wide ranging updates and revisions in the last few months. At Lycksele the ‘Motorveckan’ event will include SM Rallycross on Monday and Tuesday of next week. The new Spanish CERX series moves to Miranda de Ebro (Burgos) and the Latvian/Lithuanian series goes to Laitse Rally Park in Estonia.

pics: RX Italia, RX Portugal, Nyirad Racing Center