ANDERSSON TAKES RX2E CROWN. MARKLUND’S FOURTH EURO. Pastrana & Larsson win Nitrocross.

19 August / Nitrocross visits Utah for the second and third rounds of its 2023-2024 season. Travis Pastrana emerged as the winner of the first day, Kevin Eriksson taking second place after making the final via the LCQ race from which Andreas Bakkerud also escaped to climb onto the podium in third place. Fraser McConnell was excluded from the heat race and unable to recover later in the event. In the second day, Robin Larsson took the win having fought his way out of the LCQ. Eriksson was second again, Tanner Foust placing third while McConnell was fourth from Bakkerud. Lia Block and Casper Jansson were both excluded from the first day in Next, Lane Vacala becoming the winner. Jansson took the day two win to restate his position.

19 August / Joni-Pekka Rajala wins the fourth round of the five-event Finnish Rallycross Championship. Nokia hosts the Rallicross SM series over two days, the premier class racing on Saturday with the lower profile classes scheduled on Sunday. Rajala claimed his first win of the year in the absence of event winners Mikko Ikonen and Mika Liimatainen. Rajala often drives in multiple classes, but set a new national record by starting in five categories at Nokia. Ari-Pekka Niemi and Antti Vare joined Rajala on the podium for the Supercar class. Eetu Virkkunen toppled Riku Huukka to take the Xtreme Crosskart final for the first time. The SRC (Supernational) class was won again by Ville Mikkonen who was chased home by Rajala. The Autokrossi class was won by 14-year-old Joni Turpeinen who claimed his first win the competitive class, beating championship leader Aatu Matikainen and Anton Seppa. Mikael Uitto bagged his fourth Junior Crosskart win of the year, Joonatan Ylilammi and Lauri Halonen second and third. Among Sunday’s winners, Huukka claimed his first victory in a closed car by topping the V1600 class, Eemil Piira won the 125/250 class, Iivari Mannisto won the 85cc final.

20 August / The World RX cars still out of action, RX2e was effectively top billing as the topline FIA rallycross returned to the Estering at Buxtehude for the first time since 2019. Tommi Hallman breezed through the event, taking his second win in as many starts. The title fight in RX2e was between Isak Sjokvist, Nils Andersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky. The latter exited at the semi-final stage while Andersson shadowed Hallman to place second ahead of Sjokvist and take the crown. The final round had four female starters in its 11-strong grid, although Chinese race Yan Zhang exited after a big crash in Sunday morning’s warm-up session.
The all-action Euro Rx1 series also concluded in Germany where Anton Marklund pit his name to a fourth FIA European title at the ranking phase. Spinning out in the semi-finals, Marklund did not make it to the final where Janis Baumanis became the only double winner of the year. Patrick O’Donovan chased Baumanis home and grabbed third place in the championship on a tie-break with Enzo Ide.
The Euro RX3 title was won by Damian Litwinowicz, even though the Polish driver spent most of the race watching after an aggressive first lap of the final in which his car lost a wheel. Espen Isaksaetre was penalised for his part in that. Jens Hvaal was the race winner but was later disqualified after post race scrutineering where his car failed on safety equipment checks. French pair Dylan Dufas and David Bouet had a rocky path the final but placed second and third on the road, before Hvaal’s penalty elevated them to first and second to round out a difficult season for the RX Evolution team with a win.

20 August / Jack Thorne bagged his first British Championship event win of the year on Saturday at Pembrey, and then repeated the feat to take his second on Sunday. Tristan Ovenden placed second while John McCluskey was best of the visiting Irish drivers, third on the road and winning the Irish class which handed third in the 5NBRX class to Ollie O’Donovan. Derek Tohill was first on the road on Sunday, Thorne second ahead of O’Donovan, with Ovenden third among the British championship racers. Pat Doran crashed heavily in the first heat on Sunday and was taken to hospital where he is in a stable condition. Will Ovenden and Tyler Mcalpin took a win each in the Junior series while Dave Bellerby was unbeaten in the BMW Mini class. David Bell and Max Langmaid shared the ALL4 Mini wins and Lee Wood was twice top of the SuperRetro class. Tony Lynch claimed the Retro win on Saturday before Pip Davey took her first win on Sunday. Max Weatherley was the double winner in the Swift Sport series and the RX150 class had different winners in Stephen Jones and Nick Priddy.

20 August / The German and Dutch Championships shared the weekend at the Eurocircuit where Dietmar Brandt was the event winner in his Audi S3. Rising star of the Supernational class in the lowland, Yorrick Maeyninckx took the +2000 win in his Volvo 240 after beating top qualifier Bart Bel (BMW E30) in the 13-strong class. the Supernational -2000 ran with Super1600 cars of which there were just two, Davy Van Den Branden predictably beating Willem Veltman. Peter van de Wege took the Supernational win in his Toyota Yaris after Steve Volders exited the competition after two heats. Romauld Demelenne (LifeLive) beat the similar car of Nathan Ottink to win the Cross Car final. Pim Vlassak was best of the RST field. In DRX2 Bart Bel led home Peter Puttenaers and Philipp Knof who was best of the German visitors. DRX3 and 4 were combined and here Steve Volders emerged on top, the Volvo C30 driver winning ahead of Sven Seeliger and Niels Warrenburg. Daniel Habicht (BMW E36) won DRXN1 while Mika Henning was best of the DRXN2 field.

This weekend / As most of Europe slumbers on its holidays, Norway’s NM Rallycross and RallyX share a weekend at Grenland in Norway where the single event Norwegian Supercar title is also up for grabs.

pics: World RX, Red Bull media pool, DRX, Rallicross SM, British RX