Kristoffersson wins on RX2e debut. Tamm and Odins in the Baltics. Loeb to Loheac.

5 August / The fifth round of Estonia’s EST RX takes place at Kehala where Maiko Tamm continued his winning ways and notched up a clear win ahead of Arvo Kask and Mart Tikkerbar. Rytis Rutkauskas emerged as best of the Super1600 bunch and Prit Rebane won in TouringCar. Tamo Toodo beat Ragnar Kaljuste and Lucas Orav to be best of the senior Crosskart field while Jonathan Lee Mae won in the 650 final and Armin Raag topped the 125 field.

6 August / The FIA World Rallycross Championship moved on to Belgium, or rather it did not. World RX of Benelux took place as planned but as investigations into the cause of the fire that destroyed the Special One Racing cars at Lydden continue, the World RX cars were absent from the event. Johan Kristoffersson, OC Veiby, Timmy Hansen and Kevin Hansen transferred into the RX2e series which started with 12 drivers. The four guesting World RX drivers did not take championship points and in a hotly contested event, only two of them made it to the final in which they bracketed the regulars. At the top of the heap, Johan Kristoffersson worked steadily through Saturday and was the leader at the end of the first day before dominating on Sunday. At the other end of the final, Timmy Hansen won SF2 but stopped after four laps in the final. Ole Henry Steinsholt was second on the road, but then penalised by the Stewards and dropped to fifth which meant that Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky placed second with Marko Muru third and Nils Andersson in fourth.
The FIA European Rallycross Championship for RX1 was also in Belgium and had 16 starters and provided Anton Marklund with his first victory of the year. Top qualifier, Marklund won SF1 and shared the front row of the grid with Ulrik Linnemann. Tamas Karai was 13th in the ranking but got to the semis after Rene Munnich non-started. Eventually classified third in SF1 (after Patrick O’Donovan was penalised), Karai made it to the final and the podium behind Marklund and Linnemann.

06 August / The Cross Car classes of the RACB Belgian Rallycross Championship formed a support race for the World RX event at Mettet. Kobe Pauwels won the senior class after duelling throughout the event with Tom Heindrichs. The latter was top qualified having won two of the three heats. Jari Van Hoof (Peters Bullit) won SF1, Pauwels (Mygale XC04) took SF2 and Heindrichs (LifeLive) led the way in SF3. When the leading players came together in the final it was Pauwels who got ahead to led lead home Heindrichs while Romauld Demelenne (LifeLive) took third ahead of Van Hoof. Lucas Cartelle (LifeLive) won the Junior final ahead of Jordan Genten and Marius Debuisson (both Kamikaz K3).

6 August / Vilkyciai was the scene of the fifth round of the Latvian – Lithuanian Rallycross Championship where Arnis Odins was the winner. Edijs Oss was top qualifier, winning heats two and three to Odins’ single win in H1, but dropped to fourth and last in the final as Odins was joined on the podium by Marcis Martinovs and Aldis Kasparovics. Laurynas Petraska took the Super2000 victory ahead of Maija Stakena and Lenards Patriks Lepsis while Rytis Gurklys beat Audris Kragas and Andreas Aulik to be best in Super1600. Xtreme Crosskart managed just five starters of which Matas Zavarskis was best but the Adrians Apstis had to work hard to win the 17-strong BMW RX 3000 class. Niks Mezins won the Lada final and Kemius Sulinskas was best of the Yaris Cup.

7 August / The Norwegian ASN announces that the third round of its NM Rallycross series scheduled to take place at Finnskogbanen this weekend is cancelled due to extreme weather which has left parts of the track flooded and which is forecast to continue until the weekend. The NBF hopes to be able to reschedule the event.

7 August / Sebastien Loeb is to race in the Rallycross France event at Loheac. Loeb has been invited to drive Patrick Guillerme’s Hyundai i20, joining the team alongside championship leader Davy Jeanney. “When Davy Jeanney offered me a place as part of his team at Loheac, it didn’t take me long to accept. I contacted a few people who know the French Championship and the PGRX team and then I remembered my previous participations here in Brittany: I said ‘banco!’ Loheac is a flagship motorsport event in France and the public and the atmosphere are incredible. Driving in Rallycross after last month’s events in WRX will also have a special flavour for me and I will obviously have a thought for the whole SpecialOne Racing team when starting the first round. Sportingly, when I see that Davy is leading the Championship, I tell myself that I am in the right place with PGRX to achieve a good result even though I know that the tricolor championship is one of the toughest. I can’t wait to be there now,” said Loeb.

This weekend / The CEZ Series headlines at Poznan where it is joined by the Polish and Czech championships. Belgian RX returns to Arendonk which is now the hub of the series.

pics: World RX, Red Bull media pool, Rallikross EE, Rallycross LV, Rallycross France, Belgian RX, NMK Solor