Andersson stars in Extreme E debut. Karai wins huge Hungarian event.

24 September / The ABT Cupra XE team announces that Klara Andersson will race for it in Chile. World RX star Andersson replaced Jutta Kleinschmidt who was detained in hospital for precautionary checks after a crash in free practice. Andersson partnered Nasser Al-Attiyah in the Cupra team. She had previously tested with the Acciona Sainz team and had been slated to race for Xite Enegry in the 2022 season opener before a positive covid test left her on the sidelines. In the event Andersson and Al-Atiyah finished in third place.

25 September / Nyirad in Hungary hosted an event that formed a qualifying round of the Hungarian, Austrian, Czech, Slovakian and CEZ championships and for which the entry list had 147 drivers; not necessarily a good thing. At the end of the weekend home favourite Tamas Karai (Audi S1) came home the winner in an event that had mixed weather. Karai was joined on the podium by Istvan Antal (Mitsubishi Colt) and Ales Fucik (VW Polo). The top two were the only finishers. Fucik managed a lap but grabbed some useful CEZ points on a day when defending champion Zbigniew Staniszewski (Fiesta), fifth at the intermediate, was dumped out of the event in semi-final one. The event also lost Alois Holler (Fiesta) at the semi-final stage, the Austrian veteran disqualified from SF2 for not having an onboard judicial camera working in his car. Top qualifier Mate Benyo (Focus) was one of three to go out in the first lap of the final. Lehel Laczko (Opel Astra) took a popular home win in Super1600. Jiri Susta (Skoda Fabia) had been top qualifier, but was beaten in the semi-final by Robert Repasi (Skoda Fabia) and then by Laczko in the final.

The three SuperTouringCar classes again provided a large and varied entry and in the +2000 section the win was taken by Austrian Karl Schadenhofer (VW Golf IV). Slawomir Woloch (BMW E92) was top qualifier and won semi-final one but slipped to fourth in the final as Robert Nagy (BMW E36) and “Halk” (E36) made their way to podium places. Jakub Michal (Peugeot 208) took the -2000 win, climbing the order in the final phases of the event after being disqualified from Q2. Ferenc Ficza (208) was top qualifier and the winner of semi-final one, but was out in the first lap of the final. Roman Castoral (Opel Astra) was second qualifier and won SF2 but was also a non-finisher in the final, out at half-distance. The -1600 section was won by Czech racer Martin Knapek (Skoda Fabia), the similar car of Lukas Dirnberger third and the pair split by the Honda Civic of Michal Sklenar.
Among the Hungarian national classes, Adam Kelo Geres took another win in the Junior Championship and Levente Kaczor won in the Suzuki Swift-based Hankook Racer Cup. Also based on Suzuki Swifts, the Hybrid RX Cup had just starters, Aurel Bartha the winner and the Gabor Kenesei won the Magyar Cup. The MX5 Cup drew just five starters, Bence Varkonyi the best of them while Daniel Patrik Panyik worked much harder to win the 18-strong Astra Kupa class. Panyik also had luck on his side; he progressed to the final from semi-final one in which there were no finishers, but in which he was judged the winner!

25 September / The Polish championship returned to Slomczyn and had perhaps a slightly unusual look as a number of front runners in the major classes were away in Hungary. This opened the door to Lukasz Tyskiewicz (Ford Fiesta) to take the Supercar victory. Racing in the ‘Supercar Light’ class, Tyskiewicz grabbed to the overall win. Tyskiewicz was also the top qualifier with an unbeaten run in the heats and took a comfortable win in the final ahead of Michal Peterlejtner (Skoda Fabia) and Zbigniew Kwasniewski (Mitsubishi Lancer E9). The Supernational classes were reduced in number because of those who’d gone to Hungary. The three classes raced together and in the final it was -1600 pacesetter Rytis Gurklys who made his trip from Lithuania pay off by winning in his Skoda Fabia. Best of the +2000 runners was second placed Igor Sokulski who held off Lukasz Zoll (Volvo S40). There were 29 starters in the BMW Cup . Stamping his authority over this sizeable field, Jaroslaw Frydrych was unbeaten in the event, topping all four heats before winning the semi-final and final. Kamil Pietraszko and Mariusz Szczepanski joined him on the podium. The Fiat-based SC Cup mustered 30 starters of which Bartlomiej Mirecki was the best. Julian Smiechowski and Sebastian Grabias placed second and third.

28 September / Swedish racer Daniel Thoren will make his first appearance in a British RX event when he races an Eklund Motorsport Beetle Supercar at Lydden Hill in November. With a couple of rallycross events and a hillclimb under his belt in the car, Thoren is fulfilling a long time ambition to race at Lydden. “The Beetle is a good solid car but I haven’t had as much time to drive this year as I would have liked, I’m really looking forward to racing at Lydden, it’s somewhere I’ve wanted to go for a long time. My target is just to have as much fun as possible. I have no idea what my chances are compared to the British drivers, but I will do my best,” said Thoren.

This weekend / Nitro Rallycross begins the US leg of its season with the third event of the year ERX near Minneapolis, one of the venues used in 2021. The Porsche Ring hosts the final round of the Estonian Rallycross Championship on Saturday and the Eurocircuit in Valkenswaard the Dutch and Belgian Championships come together.

pics: rallycross.cz, Rallycross.pl, Extreme E,