Ikonen wins again in Finland. Staniszewski beats Fucik at Sedlcany.

9 June / The RX2e field for the first round of the 2023 series adds Catie Munnings to his strength. Her entry is later joined by that of Laia Sanz who becomes the fourth woman racer in the 10-car field that already contains Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Cristine Gutierrez.

10 June / The Rallicross SM dash around Finland in the short summer took the Finnish Championship north to Oulu where Mikko Ikonen backed up his round one victory by taking another win. Mike Liimatainen (Fiesta) was fastest in the first two heats before Ikonen moved ahead in his Hyundai i20, winning the third and fourth heats to be top qualifier before going on to win the final. Liimatainen placed second with Joni-Pekka Rajala third. The SRC (supernational) win was collected by the BMW of Ville Mikkonen while Toni Niemi won in the Autokross class. The Xtrem (kartcross) class had 22 starters and a dominant winner in Riku Huuhka who was top qualifier. In the final Huuhka was kept honest by Eetu Virkkunen was finished less that 0.3s behind. In Xtrem Junior this year’s dominant trio again led the way, this time Mikael Uitto leading home Joonatan Ylilammi and Lauri Halonen. Elias Kalliokoski won the V16 class, leading home Huuhka. Eemil Piira was best in the combined 125/250 final while the 85cc final was won by Ivari Mannisto and Sofia Nummela won the Mini final.

11 June / The historic Sedlcany track in the Czech Republic was the scene for the latest round of the CEZ series, the event also counting towards the Czech, Austrian, Polish and Slovakian national championships. Zbyszek Staniszewski (Ford Fiesta) held off the challenge of home favourite Ales Fucik (VW Polo) to take the win the latest of their head-to-head battles. Miroslav Neumann claimed third place in his Mitsubishi Lancer. the SuperTouringCar classes again provided the greatest entry and were split into the usual three groupings, Pole Piotr Budzynski winning the +2000 section in his Honda Civic. Ondrej Senk (Skoda Fabia) and Belgian visitor Joel Strackx (Honda Civic) completed the podium. In the -2000 section there was a clear win for Roman Castoral (Opel Astra OPC) who overcame Polish challenger Robert Dabrowski (VW Polo) and another Belgian, Ivo Van Den Brandt who claimed third in his Mitsubishi Colt. The -1600 split drew 13 cars of which Jiri Cermak (Honda Civic) was best ahead of Vilem Sagner (Fabia) and Konrad Gryz. In contrast there were just five Super1600 runners, Libor Tejes (Audi A1) the best of them. The Czech National 1600 class also had 13 starters of which Marek Honzik (Renault Twingo) emerged as the winner. The Kartcross category was won by Stanislav Brousek while the two historic classes drew 17 starters and were won by Pavel Koutny (Skoda 130 LR) and, in the over 1600cc section, Karel Faktor (Skoda Felicia).

11 June / Filip Martinsson took a clean sweep to win the Supernational class as the Swedish Championship moved to Vasteras for its third round. Martinsson was only 11th in heat one, but won heat two and was second in the third to be top qualifier. He then won SF1 and the final to claim the Rallycross SM win. Tommie Svard (BMW M3) was fastest in H3 and won the second semi but had to settle for second in the final, ahead of Anders Johansson’s BMW E87. Home racer Robin Staro was fastest in H1, but ended the event 11th of the 17 starters. The 2150 class attracted a massive 33 starters. Oskar Hellstrom was top qualifier after winning H1 and H2 in his E30. Fourth inn SF1 he missed the final. David Hjertberg (E30) was fourth at the intermediate before winning SF1 and then going on to win the final ahead of Erik Magnusson, the winner of SF3 and Simon Olsson. Three semi-finals paved the way to the fifth overall for Mats Engstrom who was 18th at the intermediate and then booked into the final with second place in SF3. the JSM series brought nine starters and victory for Isac Torlamb (E30) was won in the first and third heats, and SF1 before lifting victory in the final. Gustaf Westerlund and FilipBerstrom joined Torlamb on the podium while fourth placed Joel Uhr had won H2.

12 June / As Nitrocross prepares for the start of its 2023-24 season, the DRR JC squad announces that Indycar racer Conor Daly will drive one of its cars in the first event of the series at MidAmerica Outdoors in Oklahoma. The series has also released details of the new venue for the series opener which it describes as “a massive rollercoaster”.

This weekend / The FIA World Rallycross Championship is in Hell for the second round of the 2023 season and, in its tenth season, the 100th event. In America, Nitrocross starts its 2023-24 season on a new track in Oklahoma while in Germanyt one of the oldest tracks is in use as DRX goes to Schluchtern for a double-header. The Portuguese championship is at Sever do Vouga and the Latvian-Liuthuanian series visits Viljandi in Estonia.

pics: World RX, Vasteras Motorsallskap, Rallicross SM, SBF, rallycross.cz, DRR JC, Nitrocross, RX2e,