Kristoffersson’s Swedish sweep. O’Donovan, Isaksaetre & Steinsholt are new winners.

2 July / Running wide in the second sector of his SuperPole lap was as close as to having a problem as Johan Kristoffersson came during round three of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Holjes in Sweden. Recovering from that little slip, JK still topped the SuperPole order and maintained his complete dominance of World RX. The Swede’s brilliance was nowhere more evident than in Sunday morning’s heat three which, on a very wet track, was slippery enough to catch out almost everyone. Kristoffersson delivered a masterclass to complete five laps 3.824s faster than anyone else. Timmy Hansen put together a strong performance to wipe away the memory of a difficult round two and OC Veiby made his first podium appearance of the year in third place.
After a very difficult weekend in Norway, Ole Henry Steinsholt starred in a closely fought final and won round two of the RX2e Championship. Viktor Vranckx got his season back on track and landed second place in Sweden, Isak Sjokvst running out third and maintaining the series lead.
Both of the FIA European Championships were also at Holjes and. like RX2e, were won by drivers who have not previously won at this level. The weather was a major factor on the second day and in a hotly contested event, the RX1 win was finally taken by Patrick O’Donovan. Down in 11th place in the ranking, O’Donovan climbed to third in SF1 and then grabbed the lead of the final to topple top qualifier Robin Larsson and take his maiden victory. Ulrik Linnemann worked his way through to third place while fourth was sufficient for Anton Marklund to move ahead in the championship. Espen Isaksaetre was the new winner in RX3, the Norwegian leading home Volland Racing stablemate Damien Litwinowicz and independent racer Jens Hvaal

2 July / The Dutch championship ran a day of combined racing for open and closed-wheel cars at the Eurocircuit in Valkenswaard where Yorick Maeyninckx (Volvo 240) was the new winner in the Supernational + category that is the default headline in the absence of Supercars. The field comprised six starters, but only five in the final in which Bart Bell (BMW E30) placed second. Supernational under two litre shared its qualifying heats with the two Super1600 starters. For the final the six in the former group ran separately, Peter van de Wege (Toyta Yaris) won ahead of Johan Kwinten (BMW 10 and Mandy Kasse (Ford Fiesta). Ben Lenarts (Peugeot 207) beat Willem Veltman in the Super1600 final. Jari van Hoof (Peters) beat Romauld Demelenne and Sven Hofkens (both LifeLive) to win the Cross Car final, the KC Cup was won by Dirk-Jan Gevers and Max van Empel won the RST final.

4 July / Fresh, or perhaps still slightly sticky, from his Euro RX win at Holjes, Patrick O’Donovan joins the Extreme E field in Sardinia. O’Donovan joins Tamara Molinaro as the championship drivers for the Island X Prix. Lia Block is another rallycross graduate to appear in the series, the American teenager will start for Carl Cox Motorsport.

This weekend / Rallycross France is probably top of the bill this weekend as the series moves on to Touraine/Pont-de-Ruan. The Belgian championship returns to Arendonk, Nyirad hosts the Hungarian championship and RX Italia visits a new venue at Pomposa where the track is 100% asphalt. The combined Latvian-Lithuanian battle goes to Vilkycai in Lithunania and Lousada will be a popular stop for the Portuguese championship in what is a busy weekend of summer racing.

pics: World RX, Red Bull content pool, Extreme E