Kristoffersson tops World RX Portugal. Tamm again in Estonia. Graham’s Irish GP.

3 June / Misso was the scene for the third round of Estonia’s Rallikross series where Maiko Tamm (Ford Fiesta) completed a hat-trick of victories with his new Fiesta. Mart Tikkerbar survived a wild ride in the heats to bring his Mitsubishi Lancer E10 home in second place ahead of Rico Rodi’s older Lancer. Robin Allick beat Rytis Rutkauskas to win the Super1600 final while the Junior 1600 win was picked up by Andri Kutsar. Pritt Rebane (Volvo C30) and Marko Muru (Ford Fiesta) fought hard for the TouringCar win, Rebane eventually coming out on top. Crosskart Extreme was won by Janar Muttik (Speedcar Wonder) who led home the similar car of Lucas Orav and Jakko Viilo’s older Extreme model. Rait Soot and Armin Raag won the 650 and 125 kart classes respectively.

4 June / The FIA World Rallycross Championship begins at Montalegre in Portugal where Johan Kristoffersson set the pace and topped the order in all phases of the event. After admitting it did not have winning pace in the first day of the event, Hansen World RX Team was in the mix on Sunday and Kevin Hansen battled his way through to second place, ahead of Niclas Gronholm who had looked like Kristoffersson’s closest rival for most of the weekend. “I’m super happy! We did a good job over the winter, and to be able to show the results of that feels great. This place just keeps on surprising and to win here, you have to overcome so many challenges – just when you think you have everything under control, the weather and track conditions change again! The car was an absolute weapon throughout so big thanks to everybody in the team for making this possible,” said Kristoffersson. In the accompanying European Championships there was a solid victory for Enzo Ide. Janis Baumanis led the final, but had to double joker after making a jump start and thus lost position to Ide. Rene Munnich also got the better of Baumanis for a good second place while pole starter Anton Marklund had a slow start and dropped to sixth place. In Euro RX3, Damian Litwinowicz repeated his round one victory and was joined on the podium by Volland Racing stablemates Espen Isaksaetre and Nils Volland.

4 June / the third round of the Belgian championship was held at Arendonk’s Glossocircuit where Kristof Bex (Volvo S40) was best of the Supernational +2000 field but challenged throughout the event by Glenn Cools (Volvo 242). Bart Bel (BMW E30) placed third. In the -2000 category Peter van de Wege was gifted victory after finishing second on the road. First to the chequered flag, Nick Neyens (Ford Escort) was penalised and dropped to fourth place for his part in a first corner incident in which Steve Volders (Volvo C30) spun. Davy Van Den Branden (Citroen DS3) passed the Opel Corsa of Yenthe Putzeys to take the Super1600 win. The Cross Car class continues to gain prominence in Belgium. Eric Borguet (Kamikaz) was best of the field after H1 pacesetter Kobe Pauwels was forced out by engine problems. Tom Heindrichs climbed up from fifth on the grid to place second in the final, his first lap joker helping him on the way, while top qualifier Kyandro van de Vivere placed third in the final. Lucas Cartelle gained his first win in the Cross Car Junior class, overcoming top qualifier Jordan Genten.

4 June / British and Irish rallycross championships met at Mondello Park for a double double-header and with Sunday’s event carrying the added bonus of the Irish Rallycross Grand Prix title. The pace of the weekend and some robust racing took its toll on the field Derek Tohill and Tommy Graham emerged as the winners on the circuit, the latter also grabbing the GP title. John McCluckey placed second in Saturday’s final, Julian Godfrey best placed of the British championship runners in third place. Godfrey’s weekend went south on Sunday when he rolled his Citroen DS3. Tohill was disqualified from the Sunday final in which Graham went the distance to claim his biggest win after Jake Harris had led most of the race in his electric Mini. McCluskey was second again while third place meant that Tristan Ovenden was best of the British drivers. British racer Jason Bleasdale (Vauxhall VX220) is chasing the Irish title, and collected the Supernational win ahead of Peter McGarry’s Volvo C30. Third place meant that Polish racer Slawomir Woloch was best of the British points contenders. Bleasdale repeated his win on Sunday, this time chased home by brother Darren’s similar VX220. McGarry was third on a day when home racers dominated; best of the British series drivers Phil Chicken not progressing from the semi-finals. Max Langmaid won twice in the BMW Mini All4 class, Will Ovenden also bagged two wins in the British Junior series, Toby McGuire winning the Irish equivalent on both days. Michael Duke was the double winner in the Clubman class, Ian Lawlor and Thomas O Rafferty claimed a win each in the rally car class and in the Buggy class it was Michael Muldoon who on Saturday before Darach Duffin went ahead to take the Sunday final.

This weekend / Sedlcany in the Czech Republic, a proper old-skool track, should have a full house as it hosts the Czech, Austrian, Polish, Slovakian and CEZ championships this weekend. Up north, Rallicross SM goes to Oulu for the second round of the Finnish Championship while SM Rallycross (yep, we know) gathers at Vasteras for round two of the Swedish Championship.

pics: World RX, Rallikross, Belgian RX, 5NBRX,