Jeanney wins second French title. Staniszewski smashes Slomczyn.

17 September / Third place in the penultimate round of the championship brought Davy Jeanney his second Rallycross France crown – adding to the title he first won in 2010. In mixed weather Samuel Peu was top qualifier with fastest times in two heats, Jeanney taking heat two and Jonathan Pailler top in H3. Peu and Jeanney won in the semi-finals but come the the final it was third qualifier Anthony Pelfrene who scrabbled through the first corner and made off with the win. Penalised later, Pelfrene has now appealed the decision that left him classified eighth in the event. Pelfrene’s penalty handed the win to Fabien Pailler, Peu and Jeanney second and third at the moment. Super1600 top qualifier Anthony Paillardon went out in the semi-finals which was a get out of jail free card for Julien Meunier who had problems DNF in H1 but fought his way back into contention and eventually placed fifth in the final that was won by Alexandre Lefeuvre (Skoda Fabia). Valentin Lumet topped the Junior order and setup a title showdown in the final round while Melanie Lefrancois bagged her fourth event win of the year to extend her lead in the Coupe Feminines. Nicolas Beaucle (Mercedes A) won in Division Three and Tony Bardeau (Honda Civic) topped the D4 final.

17 September / The CEZ series joined Polish championship runners at Slomczyn where points for the Slovakian championship were also on offer. In the absence of any real CEZ rivals, Zbyszek Staniszewski (Ford Fiesta) dominated the event and took a clear win over Lukasz Tyskiewicz (Fiesta) who was best of the ‘Supercar Light’ runners and second overall. The combined SuperTouringCar final was won by Roman Castoral (Opel Astra) took the win having already won the final for the -2000 category. Villem Sagner was the winner of the -1600 final and then placed fifth overall while +2000 winner “Halk” failed to get the final in the combined group. Igor Sokulski (E36) won the BMW-based RWD Cup and Bartlomiej Mirecki won the Fiat-based SC Cup, emerging as best of the 32 starters.

17 September / The Dutch championship welcomed 5 Nations British RX racers to the Eurocircuit for a shared event. Kristof Bex and Bart Bel qualified first and second in Supernational and made their way through the semi-finals to the final, where they were both non-finished. The beneficiary of that was Yorick Maeyninckx (Volvo 240), the rising star of the class taking the win ahead of Glenn Cools (242) and Ludo Triekels (BMW E30). Steve Volders (Volvo C30) was top qualifier and the winner in Supernational -2000 where Peter van de Wege placed second in his Toyota Yaris and Mandy Kasse (Ford Fiesta). Davy Van Den Branden (Citroen DS3) was best of the five-car Super1600 field and Luca van Hoof won in the RST category. Of the 5NBRX classes, the RX150 field numbered five and it was Guillaume De Ridder who jumped into the class and took a arrow win over Viktor Vranckx. The two Belgians were comfortably clear of Ben Hardy who was best of the Brits in third place. David Bell won the combined Mini All4 and BMW Mini final ahead of Max Langmaid and Leigh-Anne Sedgwick while among the Junior racers it was Tyler Mcalpin who won ahead of Will Ovenden and Benjamin Bartlett.

17 September / Momarken hosted the penultimate round of the Norwegian championship with the NM Rallycross classes joined by a non-championship Supercar class in which Frank Valle took the win. Among the championship classes Emil Sivesind (Audi A1) qualified second in Class Four but stormed to victory in the final where he beat top qualifier Simen Engsvik (VW) and Jorgen Syversen (Ford). Petter Leirhol (BMW) qualified second in Class Three but then moved on to take the win as top qualifier Mathias Minge (Ford) slipped to sixth in the final. Andreas Tveter and Kenneth Hansen (not that one) placed second and third. Asmund Holten beat Andreas Myrhe and Thoams Voie to win in Class Two while Jens Hvaal (Peugeot 208) won Class One (Super1600) ahead of Mats Marthinsen and Per Magne Svardal. Markus Rosrud took a narrow win over Johannes Rafoss (both Honda) to win the Junior final.

17 September / Extreme E returns to Sardinia for the seventh and eighth events of its 2023 season. Laia Sanz and Mattias Ekstrom win round seven on Saturday 16 September, in a Grand Final that saw considerable to damage to four of the five cars competing, Sebastien Loeb/Klara Andersson crawled across the line in second ahead of Molly Taylor/Kevin Hansen, as the British squad struggled to find the finish line with broken wipers. In Sunday’s round eight Fraser McConnell and Cristina Gutierrez took the win ahead of Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Johan Kristoffersson with Andersson/Loeb third.

19 September / Nitrocross announces that Viktor Vranckx will race in the US-based series. Vranckx’s family team VMV Racing is slated to run two cars starting with the December event at Glen Helen. The second driver is to be announced soon.

This weekend / Much of europe will be at Nyirad in Hungary where the Hungarian chamopionship is joined by the CEZ, Austrian, Slovakian and Czech championships. The German DRX series is off to Schluchtern for its final round, which really is this weekend and not last week (sorry!).

pics: World RX, Red Bull media pool, Rune Johannesen, Rallycross France, Mistrzostwa Polski Rallycross, 5NBRX