Jeanney king of the castle at Chateauroux. Engsvik wins at Gardemoen.

23 June / Sir Chris Hoy is to race in the 5 Nations British RX event that will form the support class for the World RX round at Lydden Hill in July. The Olympic cycling champion has previously raced in the British championship and in World RX at Barcelona. He will drive a Citroen C4 owned by Pat Doran. “I’m absolutely buzzing to be getting back in a rallycross car, it’s been a couple of years but I can’t wait. I’m also really excited to see the new jump at Lydden; it sounds like what was already an amazing track is now even better,” said Hoy.

23 June / Estonian Marko Muru will race in the Swedish and Belgian rounds of the FIA RX2e championship. A former event winner of the RX Academy, Muru has become a regular event winner in his native Estonia while away from the international scene. “As the 2022 season was really successful for me, we looked for options to compete again at international level in 2023 and RX2e seemed the best option. After I tested the car I was certain that is the way to go, I felt right at home,” said Muru who will run under the SET Promotion banner.

26 June / Round three of the French Rallycross Championship took placed at a sun-drenched Chateauroux which attracted its biggest ever crowd and produced a popular winner in local star Davy Jeanney. Fighting back from the crash at the end of round two, Jeanney was worked hard through his home event and top qualifier was Julien Febreau who again shone in one of his sporadic outings with DA Racing. When the chips were down in the final, however, Jeanney came out on top, Febreau and teammate Anthony Pelfrene joining him on the podium. Defending champion Samuel Peu placed fourth, ahead of Jonathan Pailler. Super1600 got a new winner in Julien Meunier who guided his Skoda Fabia to victory over series leader Anthony Paillardon (Audi A1). Tom Le Jossec (Renault Clio) continued his excellent graduation by taking his third podium finish in as many events. Incidents turned the Division Three order on its head, Nicolas Beaucle, Christophe Saunois and Emmanuel Danveau all fel and it was Paul Cocaign (Renault Clio) who took the opportunity to win for the first time ahead of Kevin Jacquinet (VW Scirocco) and Anthony Lanoe (VW Polo). Tom Daunat, on the other hand, was little troubled as he notched up another Division Four win. Chanel Launay was another to make up ground lost at Faleyras and charged away to take the win in the Coupe Feminine and Marceau Launay was the winner in the Junior series, Andrea Benezet the closest challenger

26 June / Simen Engsvik won the second round of the Norwegian Rallycross Championship. The NM Rallycross field gathered at Gardermoen for round two in which Engsvik (VW Polo) was best of the 14 starters in the headlining Class Four Supernational category. Fastest in heats two and three, Engsvik was bettered by Emil Sivesind in H1 and Herbjorn Haug in H4 but then bagged the final ahead of Haug and Jorgen Syversen. Bjornar Johansen (Volvo) won through from the B final for fourth ahead of Sivesind and Oyvind Johansen Myhren who second in both C and B finals to make his way to the A. There were 21 starters in Class Three which was won by Mathias Minge. The Ford racer was fastest in H2 and H3 but did not start H4 which was won by Andreas Aarhug’s Audi. Peter Leirhol (BMW) has been fastest in H1 and eventually placed third in the final, behind Aarhug. Thomas Bryntesson progressed to fourth having earned in his A final start with second place in the B. Sigurd Erik Egeland took a clean sweep be best of the Class Two field in his Mazda. Class One (S1600) was won by Jens Hvaal (Peugeot) who led a young podium and was flanked by Andrine Rafoss and Mats W Marthinsen. There were 17 starters in the Junior class, Henrik Gjervan emerging as best of them having split the heat wins with Johannes Rafoss. Tobias G Spangen placed second in the final, ahead of Rafoss. The Historic class drew 16 starters, Amund Walle beating Arnfinn Bergseng to the win with Ole Johan Saether in third place.

This weekend / It’s World RX at Holjes. The Magic weekend and the first time the FIA World Championship has been at Holjes since 2021. At Valkenswaard open and closed cars now share a combined event for the Dutch championship. And that’s it this weekend.

And… We love this. Norway might not be the first place you’d expect to find a Renault R8 Gordini, but Terje Brunsael raced this fantastic car in the NM rallycross event at Gardermoen and top photographer Rune Johannesen was there to capture it.

pics: World RX, Red Bull content pool, Rallycross France, RX2e, SET Promotion, Rune Johannesen,