Gronholm, Oss and Staniszewski win as Heathcote and De Ridder set for return

19 July / Former British champion Nathan Heathcote will return to rallycross at Pembrey next month. Following the 2017 British crown with a year in RX2, Heathcote has since raced on circuits in the UK but rediscovered rallycross after driving Pat Doran’s RS200 in some demo runs at Lydden. “I’m really excited to get back in the seat of a Supercar for Pembrey, especially in the Citroen C4 I raced briefly in 2017. Driving the RS200 at Lydden Hill in the Nitro RX demos reminded me how much I miss rallycross,” said Heathcote, who will drive the same car that fellow former champion Christopher Evans raced to a podium finish at Mondello Park recently.

21 July / RX2e champion Guillaume De Ridder will drive an RX150 when the British Rallycross Championship visits the Glosso Circuit at Arendonk next month. Without a regular drive this year the 29-year-old Alpine F1 Team Power Unit Performance Engineer has been working at rallycross events as a data analyist and spotter, notably with Viktor Vranckx. “I’m really excited to be part of the event on my home soil. Glosso Circuit (in the complete layout configuration) has been closed for 29 years, basically since I was born, so I’ve never raced on that track. I am looking forward to jumping into the RX150 and discovering both the track and the car. This is a great opportunity, which could be my only outing in competition this year. I might be a bit rusty, but let’s see if I can get back in the rhythm and adapt quickly to this kind of buggy,” said De Ridder.

21 July / Nitro RX confirms that ERX Motorpark near Minneapolis will host the first of the 2022-2023 season events in the US. The announcement adds that Jenson Button will make his debut in the series at the event.

21 July / World Rally Championship driver Pierre-Louis Loubet will test DA Racing’s Peugeot 208 RX1/Supercar at Loheac this week. The Frenchman won the WRC2 title in 2019 and is driving with M-Sport in the WRC this year. He has previous form with DA Racing having driven in the Trophee Andros with the team. “I don’t have a great knowledge of Rallycross, I know it’s a very intense sprint discipline… It’s an extraordinary category with probably the most successful cars in this configuration. The creation of the World Championship in 2014 gave a “boost” to the discipline and I discovered that the races were very competitive. It is really a discipline that interests me more and more! I can’t wait to get on board the DA Racing 208 RX1 on the Loheac circuit,” said Loubet.

23 July / The third round of the Latvian-Lithuanian Rallycross Championship takes place at Laitse Rally Park in Estonia, a venue new to the majority of competitors. In the headline Supercar division, Latvian driver Edijs Oss continues his winning streak with victory in his Skoda Fabia, while Andri Ouns (Ford KA) finished second and Jānis Vegeris is third. 17 drivers start in the BMW RX 3000 category, where Kārlis Nebars set the pace through the day and claimed victory in the final, ahead of former autocross and rallycross champion, Ivo Traubeg, making his class debut. Kaspars Fricsons fnished third. Jānis Olle wins in the Lada RX class, while European rallycross regular Janno Ligur claims victory in the Super1600 division. Ivo Gabrans wins the Super 2000 final, and Lynard Jason takes the spoils in the Yaris Cup.

24 July / The final round of the Nordic-based RallyX season is held at Strangnas in Sweden, where World Rallycross Championship contender Niclas Gronholm dominates to score a first win of the season. But, before taking the race win at the revised venue, the Hyundai i20 racer does enough in qualifying and the semi-finals to put the title out of the reach of his rivals. Sondre Evjen (Audi S1) and Thomas Bryntesson (Volkswagen Polo) complete the podium, while the pair swapped places in the overall standings. Swede Simon Olofsson secures the Supercar Lites title and then the race win, as returning driver Oliver Eriksson suffers from a puncture early in the final, while Patrik Hallberg scores his first win of the season in the Crosscar division, as his Hallberg Motorsport team mate Oskar Andersson secures the crown. Finn Mikael Uitto does enough to net the Crosscar Junior title as outgoing champion Lukas Andersson scores his first win of the year, and Viktor Johansson wraps up the Open 2WD crown with his home-engineered hybrid Mercedes 190e, but is beaten in a race to the finish line by outgoing champion Simon Tiger when Johansson’s internal combustion engine gives up on the final tour.

24 July / Zbigniew Staniszewski sets three fastest times in qualifying to take top qualifier position in the Polish Rallycross Championship and CEZ round at Poznan, in the headline category amid a myriad of classes, before winning the Supercar final ahead of Michal Peterejtner (Skoda Fabia) and Lukasz Zlotnicki (Ford Fiesta). Czech driver Roman Castoral (Opel Astra) claimed yet another win in the SuperTouringCars 2000- class, while “Halk” won the SuperTouringCar 2000+ final in a BMW E36. 

24 July / Ivan Suarez and Sergi Perez claim respective CERX1 and CERX2 wins at Miranda in the second round of the Spanish Rallycross Cup. Suarez climbs from the back of the grid to lead into the first corner and control the race from the front, while Roberto Mendez chases in second, while Perez in CERX2 starts from the front of the field and also 

25 July / Four-time World Rallycross Champion Johan Kristoffersson is announced by the DRR JC Raceteknik team as racing in the second round of the Nitro Rallycross Championship at Strangnas in Sweden. Kristoffersson will make an appearance in the ‘star car’ FC1-X machine in the headline Group E all-electric category. “The track is a little bit different to what I raced on in Strangnas before, but we worked together last year to win the world championship so I am feeling comfortable in the team,” says Kristoffersson. “For sure it will be a very steep learning curve during the weekend as it will be my first race in an electric rallycross car and the format is a little different to what I’m used to as well. I’m looking forward to trying out the FC1-X and racing against some competitors I haven’t raced against before. It will be a great experience and a huge challenge.”

26 July / The third round of the Swedish Rallycross Championship takes place mid-week across Monday and Tuesday, where Timmy Enlund (BMW E30) wins the 2400 Supernational final ahead of Andreas Israelsson (BMW M3) and Robin Staro (Toyota Corolla). Simon Olsson (BMW E36) leads home Magnus Abrahamsson and Anton Eriksson Therus in similar cars in the 2150 final. Stefan Aeng wins the Supernationaell class in a Toyota Corolla.

27 July / Team RX Racing announces that British Rallycross Championship leader Patrick O’Donovan will race its Proton Iriz RX in the Supercar division of the Nitro Rallycross Championship’s second round at Strangnas in Sweden this weekend. British Rallycross Championship leader and Nitro Rallycross Championship-podium finisher Patrick O’Donovan will race Team RX Racing’s Proton Iriz RX in the second round of the Nitro RX series at Strangnas in Sweden this weekend, having raced the squad’s Ford Fiesta in the series’ Lydden Hill opener. “I’m stoked to be racing in round two of Nitro Rallycross in Sweden after having a good weekend in round one at Lydden Hill,” says O’Donovan. “It will be something new for me to be out in the Proton as the team continues the development of the car in only it’s fourth race weekend. I have never even really sat it properly before, and I’ve not even driven it in the paddock, so the first practice sessions at Strangnas will be interesting. It will be a totally new track for me as well, so the plan is to have a blast, keep it lit and see what happens.”

This weekend  /  The Kehala Ring welcome the Estonian Championship on Saturday. In Joensuu the weekend is handed over to the second round of the Finnish Rallicross SM series, while Rallycross France goes to Kerlabo before taking its summer break in August. A week after the RallyX finals, Nitro reconvenes on the rebuilt Strangnas circuit which adds a further new section for this event.

pics: CERX, Nitro RX, RallyX, Rallycross LV,