World RX drivers to RX2e in Belgium. Jeanney at Kerlabo. Liimatainen double at Kouvola.

29 July / Mika Liimatainen had a great weekend at Kouvola in the third round of Finland’s SM Rallicross. Liimatainen started from the front row of the final, alongside the winner of the first two events of the year, Mikko Ikonen. Run in wet conditions, the final had not even reached turn one before the decisive moves were made, contact in the pack scattering cars and leaving Ikonen, Jari Putkinen and Ari-Pekka Niemi all off the track and out of the race. The podium had a different look, with Liimatainen flanked by Jari Tuuri and Jukka Pykalainen. Liimatainen had earlier won the Autokross final, surviving out front under pressure from Rolf Putkonen to guide his Porsche to victory. Joni-Pekka Rajala used an early Joker Lap to make space for some fast laps and then took the lead, and the win, as early leader Christian Jensen took his Joker. Riku Huuhka swept through the Xtrem Crosskart class to take a dominant win. Never beaten in the event, Huuhka was joined on the podium by Mika-Matias Huttula and Mika Polvis. Anton Seppa won the V1600 final before, in the second day of competition, Mikael Uitto led home Lauri Halonen and Joonatan Ylilammi in the Junior Crosskart final, Jesper Rantanen won the 85-125cc final and Alex Lofvik was best of the ‘Mini’ class.

30 July / Kerlabo got Rallycross France back on track and sent it into the summer break on the back of a strong event in which Davy Jeanney bagged his fourth win of the year. Title holder Samuel Peu was top qualifier, but Jeanney eventually came through to take the win in the final. Fabien and Jonathan Pailler placed third and fourth on what is their home track. Julien Meunier’s stellar season continued with a third successive Super1600 win while Nicolas Eouzan (Twing) placed second from Jimmy Terpereau who returned to action after his crash at Faleyras. Andrea Benezet won a closely fought Junior contest against Marceau Launay to take a another win in the Clio-based series while in the Coupe Feminine Melanie Lefrancois claimed her third win of the season, beating Amelie Moliexe for the victory. Paul Cocaign (Clio) claimed his second Division Three win of the year and Tom Daunat won again in Division Four.

30 July / The Portuguese Rallycross Championship made its second visit of the season to Montalegre for round five of its season where perhaps the highlight was a maiden Junior Kartcross victory for Yesica Lorenzo. Joao Dinis led the final but was out played by Spaniard Lorenzo who had a better Joker Lap and moved ahead for her first win. Dinis finished second with Raquel Nunes placing third. Alexandre Borges won the senior Kartcross final to be best of the 18-strong field. Borges was joined on the podium by Mario Rato who had started seventh on the grid but climbed to second, helped in part by an incident that Joao Pinheiro and Rui Nunes out of the running, B final winner Nunes later disqualified from the event. Adao Pinto had to work a little harder than usual in the National 2WD class but eventually emerged on the top step of the podium once more. Andreia Sousa actually got to the chequer first but had failed to take the Joker Lap and so dropped to eighth and last place in the final once penalised for the error. Pinto was joined on the podium by Ricardo Costa and Rafaela Barbosa. Jorge Machado was top qualifier for the Super1600 final but was undone at the start by Andre Sousa who quickly pulled clear at the start and was able to drive free of the pack as Antonio Sousa and Machado disputed second place. Jose Oliveira beat Tiago Alexandre in the Supercar class that managed just two starters.
*The results of the disputed S1600 final in Sever do Vouga were confirmed after a hearing at the National Court of Appeal. Andre Sousa was disqualified and the top three in the event were confirmed as Sergio Dias, Jorge Machado and Leonel Sampaio.

30 July / The Austrian and German championships met at the MJP Arena at Horn-Fuglau where the Czech championship also contributed to an event that had 15 classes. Maik Bohling was best of the visitors in DRX1 category and collected the win in his Audi TT after Jakob Huszarek missed the Joker Lap in the final and Dietmar Brandt retired from the event. There were four in the Supercar class for the home series, Alois Holler best of them ahead of Gerald Eder. Widely travelled Dutchman Bart Bel (BMW E30) claimed the DRX2 victory while Benett Zobel used his Fiesta to beat the similar car of Sven Seeliger in DRX4. Nathan Ottink (LifeLive) won in a six-car Cross Car final. Daniel Habicht (BMW E36) won DRXN1 and Dominic Drange (Citroen Saxo) was best of the DRXN2 field. The Austrian Championship’s SuperTouringCar featured the usual three classes, Gerald Woldrich (Mercedes C200) leading home the five-strong +2000 final while with one more starter the -2000 group had a familiar face on the top step of the podium as Roman Castoral won with his Opel Astra. A dozen started the -1600 group, Marek Micik best of the them in his Skoda Felicia. Marcel Strobl won the Peugeot 206 cup and Melvin Alic (Suzuki Swift) topped the National 1600 class which, with 14 starters was the largest of the event. The Czech Championship’s Historic series visited, Lubos Slaba (Honda CRX) running out as best of the 1600cc section while Michal Vynhal (VW Golf III) won the up to 2000cc group. The Czech National 1600 class completed the card for the weekend and was won by Marek Honzik (Renault Twingo).

31 July / Four leading World RX drivers are to race in RX2e at Mettet in Belgium. Johan Kristoffersson, OC Veiby, Timmy Hansen and Kevin Hansen are to feature in a 13-car RX2e field at Mettet. The move comes along with information that World RX cars will be unable to race in Belgium as FIA is still investigating the cause of the fire at the British event.

1 August / VMV Racing makes a statement on social media to say that Viktor Vranckx will withdraw from the RX2e championship because of World RX drivers will race in the series in Belgium.

1 August / Extreme E racer and former champion Molly Taylor is to race with #YellowSquad in RX2e at Mettet. Taylor, currently racing Veloce alongside Kevin Hansen in Extreme E, will join Isak Sjokvist in the Swedish team.

This weekend / World RX returns to Mettet in Belgium where leading drivers will appear in the RX2e series. The Estonian championship is at Kehala on Saturday and the Latvian-Lithuanian series at Vilkycai over the full weekend.

pics: World RX, Red Bull media pool, DRX, FPAK, Rallycross France, RX2e, RallicrossSM