Peu retains French crown. Karai is Hungarian champ. Grunwald’s German title.

14 October / Motorsport UK has nominated former British Rallycross Champion Dan Rooke to race in the CrossCar section of the Motorsport Games. Rooke will be joined young rallycross racer Cory Padgett who will race in CrossCar Junior. Team UK will have drivers in ten disciplines at the event that takes place in Marseille on 26-30 October.

15 October / The German DRX series concluded with a double header at the Estering which, as in the good old days, drew in some visitors from Denmark and Sweden. In Saturday’s round eight of the championship Dane Magnus Dall (Renault Clio) clambered up from fourth in the Intermediate Classification to take the win ahead of compatriot Dennis Romer (VW Polo) who had been the top qualifier. Jorg Jockel was best of the home drivers in third place with his VW Golf VI. Lukas Ney (Skoda Fabia) was best of the two Super1600 starters. Belgian Jelle Blockx (Volvo 240) beat Ariane Vanlommel (BMW E46) to win the Supernational +2000 final, Bennett Zobel (Ford Fiesta) best of the -2000 final head of Ole Bech (Peugeot 306) and Dustin Volzer (Opel Manta B). Swedes Rasmus Berggren (BMW E30), Mikael Persson (VW Golf IV) and Timmy Enlund (E30) locked out the podium in the Supernational support race. Samuel Drews (LifeLive TN5) won both Junior and Senior sections of the Cross Car category. The DRX Production class was won by Andreas Huhn (Honda Civic) and Dominic Drange (Citroen Saxo) was best of the Rookie class.

16 October / The French championship reached its conclusion at Dreux. The Circuit Philippe Chanoine welcomed a full grid of Rallycross France regulars, plus seven Supercar starters from the visiting British Championship, and Yuri Belevskiy in his Volland Racing Audi S1. The home racers were dominant, defending champion Samuel Peu (Peugeot 208) winning the event and retaining the title. Starring again in one of his occasional appearances, Julien Febreau was top qualifier after four heats that included a race in darkness on Saturday night. Febreau then won the first semi-final and placed second in the final. Romauld Delaunay (Citroen DS3) was second to Peu in SF2 and completed the podium in the final. Damien Meunier (VW Polo) was fourth in the final and Patrick O’Donovan (Ford Fiesta) finished fifth having battled his way through from 14th at the Intermediate Classification to be third in SF2 and get into the final, the only non-French driver in the main event. David Meslier (Citroen DS3) called time on three-decades of racing and completed his last rallycross event in sixth place, ahead of David Vincent (208) and Fabien Chanoine (Renault Clio), a welcome addition to the field at his home track. Belevskiy exited having finished seventh in SF2.

Vistors were rather more successful in Super1600 where Nils Volland and Damian Litwinowicz finished first and second. David Bouet (Renault Clio V) was the top qualifier but lost the semi-final to Anthony Paillardon (Audi A1). Volland topped SF2 and then went on to win the final leading home Volland Racing teammate Litwinowicz. Best of the French drivers was Jimmy Terpereau (Citroen C2), but eighth place was sufficient for Paillardon to remain ahead in the points race and secure the championship title. Belgian Steve Otzer (Citroen C2) had a notably good day out and finished fifth in an event that was rather more competitive than his home series. In the Renault Clio-based Junior series, Tom Le Jossec was again in fine form, third at the intermediate, Le Jossec won his semi and the final and sealed the title in the best way possible. Tom Pieri and Mathieu Fretin completed the podium on the day. Emma Chalvin emerged as the Coupe Feminine champion despute managing no better than seventh in the final round. Chanel Launay (the SF2 winner) was the winner as top qualifier Melanie Lefrancois slipped to sixth in the final having already womn SF1. Anthony Pelfrane came out on top in Division Three, Nicolas Beaucle winning SF2 and placing second in the final to secure the class title in his Mercedes A Class. Top qualifier Sebastien Le Ferrand (Peugeot 207) won SF1 and was third in the final. Tony Bardeau was top qualifier in Division Four but ended the day in seventh place. Jean-Francois Blaise (Renault Clio IV) won the final and class title on a day when he was joined on podium by Tom Daunat (Peugeot 206) and Jessica Tarriere (Renault Clio III).

16 October / The second day of racing at the Estering brought down the curtain on the 2022 DRX season. Making up for disappointment of the first day when he non-started the final, Stefan Kristensson (Ford Fiesta) took a comfortable win over Saturday winner Magnus Dall. Dietmar Brandt (Audi S3) was best of the home racers in third place. Fifth place was enough for Michael Grunwald (Subaru Impreza) to become German champion. Jelle Blockx repeated his win of the previous day in the Supernational +2000 final, Bastian Sichelschmidt (BMW E30) and Andres Maschkotter (Volvo 242) joining the Belgian on the podium. Bennett Zobel also repeated his Saturday win, the Supernational -2000 podium completed by Ralph Wilhelm (Renault Clio) and Ole Bech. Samuel Drews again doubled-up on success in Junior and Senior CrossCar, Timmy Enlund took the Supernational support race ahead of Peder T Jensen(Volvo 240) and Frank Lehmann (Volvo 242). The Production class win was again carried off by Andreas Huhn, Daniel Genz (Peugeot 206) and Daniel Habricht (BMW 318ti) second and third. Sonke Glode (Opel Corsa B) won the Rookie final.

16 October / The Hungarian rallycross Championship reached the end of its season at Kakucs where Mate Benyo (Ford Focus) took the event win bit could not deny second place finisher Tamas Karai (Audi S1) the championship title. In an unusually slim Supercar class, third place was taken by Zoltan Koncseg (Audi S1) with fourth-placed Zoltan Lencse (Mitsubishi Colt) the last finisher. Entries in the SuperTouring categories were lower than usual too, Zion Gabay (BMW E36) best of the +2000 runners, Roman Castoral the only -2000 racer and Gergo Kormoczi (Skoda Felicia) the winner of the -1600 class. Adam Kelo Gere continued his strong run and landed a fifth successive event win to become the Junior champion. Mihaly Stadler was best of the Astra Cup field, Levente Kaczor won the Suzuki Swift-based Hankook Cup, Akos Kormoczi was the Swift Hybrid Cup winner, the field numbering just three cars here. Magyar Cup honours were taken by Csanad Szabo and Tamas Herczeg won the MX5 Cup class.

Spain CERX / Having recently completed a test event at Motorland Aragon, the fledgling CERX announces dates and venues for its final two events. The new for 2022 Spanish Rallycross Championship will return to Calafat on 19-20 November, this time the event will admit public spectators. The final round will then be held on 3-4 December on a new rallycross track within the race circuit at Kotarr in Tubilla del Lago (Burgos).

This weekend / Maggiora in Italy hosts the final round of the RX Italia series and also the CEZ season finale across two days of action while the Polish Rallycross Championship reaches its conclusion with a second visit to Tor Poznan.

pics: Rallycross France, DRX, RX Italia