2003 rallycross

[Peter S]

The 2003 rallycross is going to be the best yet.

The European championship is shaping up to be a cracker.

Alredy we have the follwing drivers commited in the Division 1 category:

Kenneth Hansen - Citroen Xsara Wrc
Jean Luc Pailler -Peugeot 206 Wrc
Sverre Isachsen - Ford Focus Wrc
Jos Kuypers -FOrd Focus Wrc
Per Johansson - Hyundai Accent Wrc
Michael Jernberg - Ford Focus Wrc
Lasse Larsson - Audi A4
Jan Willy Noordgaard - Subaru Impreza
Morgan Antonsson - Saab 9_3
Ludvig Hunsbedt - FOrd Focus Wrc
Morten Bermingrud - Citreon Xsara Wrc
Glen Voie - Opel Astra

to name just a few. British driver Will Gollop is also going to a couple of rounds of the european championship. THe new division 1a class will be introduced for 1600cc cars which will be well exciting. Add in the prospect of alarge international tv deal, european rallycross is all set to boom again.

British rallycross should also be an improvement with a great deal more supercar entering the fray in 2003. The grid sizes in this class could potentially be up above 15 cars

It will surely be a battle between Doran and Gollop with Carnegie and Holfield (in the ex HAffey Escort not far behind)

role on the start of the season

The European series opener is in Portugal in May, but for all you British fans get on down to croft on march 9th for the first round of the british championship.

This is the best form of motorsport that exists!!

for all latest information and results go to www.rallyracing.nl

[SJ Spode]

It's definitely on my 'events to do' list to get to a meeting this year. Probably the Blyton(?) venue in N Lincs.

Peter, do you know if the WRC machines are ex-works rally team cars, or do they tend to be bought new direct from the teams, (ie; not having been used in rally events previously)

[Peter S]

There are a mixture.

In the European championship, the rules state that you kind build a Wrc replica which means Per Ekland can build a Saab wrc and so on

Of the European drivers Kenneth Hansen uses the same xsara as in the world rally championship, obviously with a more powerful engine due to a smaller restrictor (45mm in rallycross) Per Johansson Hyundai Accent Wrc is an ex rally car as is torben mollers Seat Cordoba (used to be Didier Auriols world rally car). Prodrive does a lot of work on Eklands saab. Most of the other Cars like Hunsbedt, Kuypers, Jernberg are all self built.

In the British championship Carnegie did have has car prepared by M Sport. Rallycross cars are very specialised and more advance than a rallycar. They generate 500 + bhp in the european and 700 + in the british.
The rest of the British cars are more or less self built. Kevin McCann's new subaru has been prepared by rally team Gartrac.

Will Gollop's G tech motorsport preperation company has prepared a lot of cars. They also ran a team in british GT's. His new Ford Focus Wrc is self built and with development will probably one of the fastest and technologcaly advance cars around.

take a look at the following websites of some of the world rally cars used in the european championship:

www.hansen-motorsport.se (Citreons world rallycross car)
www.seat-sport.dk (Seat denmarks driver/car)
www.yokohamateameurope.com (Hyundais world rallycross car)

The event not to miss this is the British rallycross grand prix at Croft, held again in October. All the european compeitiors come over for this and has a internations cup for 2 wheel drive cars. Last year the event was superb and this year promises to be a lot better.

For more information on world rallycross (including british, go to www.rallyracing.nl)