JK sets paces in World RX test. Ohman’s Kouvola wins. Pelfrene at Faleyras.

28 May / The first round of the CERX Spanish Rallycross Cup took place at Miranda de Ebro, the second year of national rallycross action in Spain opening with a win for Tino Iglesias. Roberto Mendez lost any real chance he had to turn the tables on Iglesias in the final after making a jump start that consigned him to taking the Joker Lap twice. Iglesias had a fairly easy run to the win, defending champion Inaki Barredo taking second after fending off Domingo Molinos. Pepe Arque won the Cross Car final with Diego Martinez winning in Junior Cross Car.

28 May / The NM Rallycross season begins at Bolandsmoen where first blood in the Norwegian Rallycross Championship was drawn by Emil Sivesind who was fastest in the first and third heats to be top qualifier before going on to win the final Jorgen Syversen (Ford) and Simen Engsvik (VW) completed the podium ahead of Herbjorn Haug’s Mercedes, Knut Over Borseth and Marcus Myrseth. In Class Three top qualifier, Petter Leirhol (BMW) took a narrow win in the A final ahead of Thomas Bryntesson (BMW) who had been fastest in the fourth heat. Andreas Aarhaug (Audi) had set fastest time in the first heat – Leirhol taking H2 and H3 – but slipped to sixth in the final. Fredrik Kviserud (Volvo) won the B final and climbed to third ahead of Kenneth Hansen and Sander Engsvik. Sigurd Erik Egeland (Mazda) won the B and A finals to be best of the Class Two field. Top qualifier Lasse Aaberg won everything except H1, which went to Andreas Myhre, but was fifth in the final. Class One (S1600) was topped by Anders Hansen (Audi) with Sean Olsen (Citroen) second ahead of Jens Hvaal (Skoda). Markus Rosrud led a trio of Honda drivers to win the Junior final, Johannsen Rafoss and Henrik T Hakonsen completing the podium. The Historic class drew 12 starters with Marius Sannerhaugen (VW) taking the victory ahead of Morten Bjerke who placed second after winning the B final. Amund Walle was third.

28 May / The Polish Rallycross Championship held it third round at Slomczyn where Zbyszek Staniszewski faced no real opposition as he notched up a clear win in his Ford Fiesta. Fastest in all four heats, Staniszewski was one of just three Supercar starters, Lukasz Tyszkiewicz and Michal Peterlejtner competing the order and also placing first and second respectively in the Supercar Light class. A combined final for Supernational cars was taken by -2000 winner Roman Castoral (Opel Astra) who led home Daniel Krzysiak, who had won the +2000 final with his BMW E46, and “Halk” (E36). Julian Smiechowski was beaten only in heat two as he raced to victory in the SC Cup. With 33 starters the competition was as strong as ever and Alan Czyz, the only driver to beat Smiechowski all day, placed second with Bartlomiej Mirecki third. There was a similar story in the RWD Cup where Mariusz Szczepanski won everything except H3 in his BMW 318is. Darusz Krupa and Piotr Dobrowolski (both E36) completed the podium.

28 May / The third weekend of RallyX racing took rounds five and six to Kouvola in Finland where Kevin Eriksson experienced the highs and lows of motor sport. The winner in Saturday’s event, Eriksson exited the Sunday race after being tagged into a spin by the identical Honda Civic of younger brother Oliver Eriksson. The slip meant that neither of the Eriksson brothers made it to the round six final in which Yury Belevskiy (Audi S1) took the win ahead of Peter Hedstrom (Hyundai) and Jere Kalliokoski (Fiesta). Mats Ohman took a brace of wins in the Supercar Am class in his first events for three years and Simon Olofsson was a double winner in Supercar Lites. Casper Jansson was third on each day, Martin Enlund and Isak Sjokvist placing second on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Thomas Eek Murstad (Speedcar Wonder) was best of the 31-car Kartcross field on Saturday while it was Sebastian Enholm who took victory on Sunday in a similar Speedcar. Joonatan Ylilammi (Speedcar Extreme) continued the Finnish dominance of the Junior class. Olli Lahti (Toyota Corolla) was the winner of the 2WD class on both days.

28 May / After crashes in both Super1600 and Supercar the second round of the French Rallycross Championship ran out of time at Faleyras. Jimmy Terpereau was taken to hospital after his S1600 crash and the Supercar Final made it no further than turn one where contact sent top qualifier Anthony Pelfrene and series leader Davy Jeanney spearing into the barriers. There is an 8pm curfew at Faleyras and with delays because of both incidents, the Supercar result was declared based on grid order. Pelfrene claimed the victory having been top qualifier and winner of semi-final one to place his DA Racing Peugeot on pole. JB Dubourg placed second with DA Racing’s older Citroen DS3 and Jonathan Pailler was third ahead of Jeanney, Samuel Peu and Damien Meunier. Anthony Paillardon (Audi A1) took the Super1600 win ahead of Julien Meunier (Skoda Fabia) and Tom Le Jossec who again went well in the Renualt Clio. Valentin Lumet was best in the Clio-based Junior series, Melanie Lefrancois topped the Coupe Feminine and Nicolas Beaucle took the Division Three spoils with his Mercedes. The D4 win was scooped up by Anthony Mauduit.

28 May / DRX, the German Rallycross Championship went to Grundau for an all-asphalt weekend that formed the third and fourth rounds of the championship. Fortunes were varied with the Saturday victory going to Michael Grunwald (Subaru Impreza) who led home Mark Bohling (Audi TT) and Marc Schneider (Lancia Integrale). Fifth on Saturday, Dietmar Brandt (Audi S3) stepped up to take the win on Sunday. Schneider was second and Christian Tauber (Impreza) taking third place. Bart Bel (BMW E30) ventured across the border from Holland and bagged a brace of DRX2 victories while Sven Seeliger (Fiesta) was doubly victorious in DRX4. Dutch hotshot Nathan Ottink (LifeLive) scooped all the glory in Cross Car while in the two national categories Philipp Peine (Seat Ibiza) claimed both victories in DRXN1 and Peter Cordes (Citroen C2) shared DRXN2 honours with Dominic Drange (Citroen Saxo).

29 May / Three days of pre-season testing ends at Montalegre with Johan Kristoffersson fastest of the nine FIA World Rallycross Championship contenders present. The Munnich Motorsport team did not take part in the test – but announced that Timo Scheider will return to the team for World RX this year, initially driving the Seat Ibiza that team boss Rene Munnich raced last year before a new car arrives. Special One Racing drivers Sebastien Loeb and Guerlain Chicherit shared the driving of the team’s first car, the second due to be arrive in Portugal for the event this weekend. The World RX cars have new software this year that improves the dynamic behaviour of the car on-track. Kritoffersson was fastest in the test, finishing with a best lap time of 38.959s.

This weekend / World RX returns to action with a growing field of 10 cars and more on the way. Portugal’s spectacular and unpredictable Montalegre hosts round one. The Irish Rallycross Grand Prix hosts British and Irish championships at Mondello Park, Belgian RX goes to Arendonk and Misso is the scene for the the third round of Estonian Rallikross on Saturday.

pics: World RX, RallyX, DRX, Rallycross France, Rune Johannesen, 5NBRX/Lydden, Rallikross, JC Raceteknik