scheider the cape crusader ends JK’s world RX winning streak.

7 October / The FIA World Rallycross Championship resumes for its first event since the incident at Lydden Hill in July in which Special One Racing’s two cars were destroyed in a fire. Billed as rounds seven and eight, a double-header event at Cape Town also marked the championship’s first post-covid appearance outside of Europe. With the RX1e cars still not approved for use World RX teams switched to Zeroid X1 (RX2e) cars produced by QEV, but all uprated to 300kW for these events. Kevin Hansen became the first driver to beat Johan Kristoffersson in the SuperPole section of the event and both Timo Scheider and Timmy Hansen won heats, but come the finals it was business as usual, Kristoffersson winning semi-final and final. Hansen minor grabbed second ahead of Scheider.

8 October / Timo Scheider gave Munnich Motorsport its first World RX event victory with victory in round eight of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Cape Town. Johan Kristoffersson was fastest in the first heat before Scheider, who had been in the mix all day Saturday, won heats two and three to be top qualifier. The pair each won their semi-finals, Scheider then making the best start in the final and leading all the way to record his first World championship event win and adding rallycross to the impressive list of victories achieved by Rene Munnich’s team. Kevin Hansen was again second, Kristoffersson taking third place and, over the weekend, edging closer to his sixth World title.

8 October / The rescheduled Finnskog event formed the final round of Norway’s NM Rallycross Championship. Simen Engsvik (VW Polo) was down in seventh place after the heats but bounced back, winning the B final and then climbing up to take honours in the A final and collect the championship title with a win. Petter Leirhol similarly guided his BMW to victory in Class Three, confirming his championship title while among the Class Two racers, second place was enough for Volvo driver Andreas Myrhe to secure the series crown despite a final round win by Asmund Holten (Fiesta). Jens Hvaal (Skoda Fabia) was unbeaten in Class One (Super1600) and took a clear win ahead of Per Magne Svardal (VW Polo) and Sandrine Rafoss (Citroen). Hvaal also collected the championship title. Markus Rosrud won the Junior final on the day and also collected the series title while among the Historic runners, Bjorn Egil Dalen (VW Beetle) won the final in the last event of the year but Amund Walle (Ford Escort) had already done enough to secure the championship.

8 October / The Slovakiaring welcomed the Polish, Czech and CEZ series alongside its own national championship for a three-day event that comprised 17 classes. Just four Supercar racers took the start and at the end it was Hungarian Zoltan Held (Audi A1) who took the victory over Austrian Gerald Eder (Skoda Fabia). Tibor Vamosi (BMW E36) took a clear win in the SuperTouringCar +2000 final, the Hungarian outpacing the Honda Civic of Polish rival Piotr Budzynski and third placed Lukasz Zoll (Volvo S40). Roman Castoral (Opel Astra) was top qualifier in the -2000 class but was toppled in the final and could do no more than third place as Robert Dabrowski (VW Polo) and Martin Sindelek (Peugeot 207) both went ahead. Vilem Sagner (Skoda Fabia) won the -1600 section while Vaclav Tuma (Fabia) won in Super1600 (where only two of the five starters managed to finish), and Jiri Sterba (VW Polo) took Czech National 1600 honours. Poland’s RWD Cup made the visit, Igor Sokulski taking the win and Tomas Martan won the Czech-based Skoda Cup.

8 October / Kristof Bex won the season closing event at the Eurocircuit. The Supernational +2000 front runner was top qualifier after three heats and won his semi-final before completing the day with victory in the final in his Volvo S40. Yorick Maeyninckx (Volvo 240) and Glenn Cools (Volvo 242) were second and third in qualifying and also won their semi-finals (there were three semis) but neither made it to the chequer in the final. Johnny Verkuringen (BMW E92) and Roel Verhoeven (BMW E36) completed the top three. The Supernational -2000 was similarly dominated by Peter van de Wege (Toyota Yaris) who held the edge over Jorrit van Dasselaar (VW Polo) and Mandy Kasse (Ford Fiesta). There were just two Super1600 starters and they ran with the -2000 Supernationals in the heats before getting their own final in which Willem Veltman (Citroen C2) easily outran Niels Boerekamp (Yaris). Luca van Hoof won the RST final and Eric Bourguet (Kamikaz) beat Ronnie Grauwels (Speedcar Wonder) and Jari van Hoof (Peters) to win the Cross Car final. Theo Devleeschauwer (Semog) won the Kartcross final.

11 October / First Corner and OMSE announce a recycling programme that will allow owners of Supercar Lites cars to ‘recycle’ them into a new ‘supercars’ via a kit of parts including a 550bhp internal combustion engine that runs on fossil free fuel. There will be 24 FC2 kits, the first 12 available from early in 2024. The kit is expected to cost €75,000 but may be reduced to approximately €50k via an ‘investment reduction programme’ which aims to resell parts removed from the cars back to other Supercar Lites users. Supercar Lites, of which 55 cars have been built, will continue unaffected by this.

14 October / Riga’s Bikernieki track was the venue for a single day of racing to determine the NEZ championships. Janis Baumanis (Peugeot 208) emerged as the winner of the Supercar class, leading home Maiko Tamm (Ford Fiesta) and Arnis Odins (Mitsubishi Lancer). Toms Bumbiers was best of the Junior racers in the Yaris Cup class and Kristaps Kronbergs won the BMW RX3000 final. The TouringCar class was won by Kristaps Grunte who led home Estonian racers Marko Muru and Prit Rebane. Rytis Gurklis was best of the Super1600 field and Kristaps Kasparovics topped the Super2000 final. Sten Oja emerged as best of the Crosskart Xtreme class.

15 October / The final Rallycross France event of the year took place at Dreux where the Philippe Chanoine Circuit welcomed a group of drivers from the British Championship for which this also formed a points scoring event for Supercar drivers. It was not, however, the British visitors who took the glory, but Swiss Yury Belevskiy who bagged victory. In a great weekend out for Volland Racing (which runs Belevskiy’s Audi S1), Nils Volland was also a winner, taking Super1600 glory in his Audi A1. Irregular French Championship racer Julien Febreau (Peugeot 208) was best of the home racers in second place, British champion Patrick O’Donovan (Peugeot 208) third. The French title was the property of Davy Jeanney before the weekend begun and, other than a win in heat two, the champion elect had a quiet weekend and was classified ninth. Behind Volland, Tom Le Jossec took second in S1600, ahead of new champion Julien Meunier. Valentin Lumet won the Junior final but second place was enough for Marceau Launay to secure the championship. In the Coupes Feminines, Chanel Launay was the event winner and third place Melanie Lefrancois became the champion. There was a final round victory to seal the D3 championship title for Nicolas Beaucle (Mercedes) and Tom Daunat sealed the D4 crown with victory over Tony Bardeau.

15 October / The Spanish CERX series took an away day to its Iberian neighbour Portugal where it raced on the Sever do Vouga track. Heavy rain during Sunday’s racing created difficult conditions but at the end of the afternoon Roberto Mendez secured his second event win of the year having fought off the challenge of Inigo Alcalde and Sergio Alba. A fierce Cross Car battle was decided in favour of Diego Garcia who mastered both the wet track and his opponents. Closest rivals Yesica Lorenzo and Diego Martinez both went off and non-finished, Iago Rodriguez and Guillermo Paz staying the course for second and third places.

The World RX event in Cape Town was supported by the local championship among which was this successful team

This weekend / The CEZ series reaches the end of the road for this year at Maggiora in Italy, a double-header also forming the final of the RX Italia series after a calendar change. The Hungarian Championship wraps up at Mariapocs, Poznan is the setting for the final round in the Polish championship and Lousada hosts the final round of the Portuguese championship.

pics: World RX, Red Bull media pool, NBF, Rune Johanessen, Rallycross.CZ, Rallycross France, CERX, Baltic RX