World Rallycross Championship 2017

[crossfades]

It is Kristoffersson's car from last year. According to the Swedish expert on SVT Wilks has made some big changes to the set up of the car.

[FIRE]

Ekstrom's EKS Audi World Rallycross team faces uncertain future
World Rallycross champion Mattias Ekstrom's EKS team faces an uncertain future, and may not continue with its Audi-backed project in 2018.

...

He made no secret of the fact EKS would be unable to defend its RX crowns without additional support from Audi Sport, which was secured for this year.

Asked if he will continue in World RX in 2018, Ekstrom told Autosport: "I would love to continue but I don't know if we are continuing.

"As a driver I would love to continue in rallycross. If I answer as a driver, I can see my DTM career - with Mercedes pulling out - coming to an end in 2018.

"I would enjoy doing rallycross for a couple more years, but from a team perspective it's a different story.

"I don't know if we will have what it takes to be here next year."

...

In the Loheac paddock on Thursday evening, EKS revealed that it will sell four of its five Audi S1 Supercar chassis, and invited other teams and drivers to view the cars in what it called its 'used car sales' awning.

The S1s will sold be via an eBay auction, which will conclude with a live event on the evening of the German round of the series at the Estering on September 29.

The cars are for sale individually, or as a 'family package' combining all four plus spares.

...

Factory Peugeot RX team Hansen is also yet to confirm if it will continue in the series.

Team principal Kenneth Hansen said: "For the winter, I don't know yet how the future looks, but of course if we should be here next then we should do something during the winter to try to develop.

"It's difficult to say exactly what; we've tried our best during the season, we have a great car, it works very fine and it's not been enough still."

https://www.autosport.com/wrx/news/1...certain-future

Even for the big teams it gets already to expensive?

[chunder]

Are we really surprised

GFlad to see the back of it to be honest.

but I am sure IMG will find a way to make it all sound amazing

[crossfades]

This is very odd from EKS. A couple of months ago they were planing to relocate to Västerås with hopes of cooperating with engineers and tech firms. They were really looking towards the future.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by chunder

Are we really surprised

Surprising. Yes and no. It surprises me this is about EKS and already for 2018. I assumed EKS and PSRX would be secured for the next fews years. Teams like Hansen, Team Austria, STARD is a different story.

[FIRE]

Another victory for Kristoffersson in France.

[Hickey]

The thing is, he didn't dominate. There were a few different Heat winners but then semi and finals he is a cut above. He's a class apart in those wet conditions. Helps that there's little overtaking on the track. Solberg, conversely, looks off the pace.

ERX was hilarious. Driving standards are so poor that it is so funny to watch! Rustad and Hvaal in the semis being a case in point.

[tbtstt]

Yeah, the first day of racing was a bit more open. Once it started raining, Johan looked to have an edge. Unfortunate end to the weekend for Block in the semis, he looked very competitive in the heats. As said, Solberg never seemed to hit full stride.

The PSRXVW cars both look so planted. Even in the wet neither seemed to break away (virtually every Supercar was sliding round the last corner) and the cars seemed to behave differently to the other Supercars when they did go sideways: a consequence of having all the weight up front perhaps? Or maybe the suspension setup is that much better.

Agreed that the ERX races were very messy at times, there was a hell of a lot of paint traded!

Not directly related to the World Championship, but engine configuration (and the lack of pictures) was a subject discussed earlier in this thread. The Xite Racing mechanics were OK with me taking a shot of the Fiesta engine bay at Lydden last month:



Obviously it's not the latest car, but it is a relatively recently built OMSE Fiesta. I was surprised by just how far they have managed to push the engine back in the car.

[FIRE]

According to motorsport.com MXGP world champion Antonio Cairoli will take part in the South-African event.

[chunder]

Cairoli has already won the MXGP title so will be free to try a car, he also competes regularly in the Monza rally and a few other events.

As for WRX I think IMG have some work to do to stop costs spiralling out of control, or they are going to lose teams like Peugeot. Ekstrom is already dithering about quitting.

[tbtstt]

Just seen a Tweet (from Hal Ridge) indicating that Petter has broken two ribs as well as his collarbone, so he is unlikely to be on the grid in Germany.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Just seen a Tweet (from Hal Ridge) indicating that Petter has broken two ribs as well as his collarbone, so he is unlikely to be on the grid in Germany.

He has a talented 16 year old son...

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by FIRE

He has a talented 16 year old son...

Haha, I had the same thought! Would Oliver be eligible to race at a World event?

[crossfades]

I think so, he wanted to race in Höljes but at the time he was 15 which was too young.

[tbtstt]

Did anyone watch the final round of the Championship? I thought the track was decent and there was some good racing.

Semi final two was absolute chaos at the start, Block's Focus seemed to have shed most of it's front end by lap six! I thought the ruling against Block was a bit harsh though, would like to know more details about it (i.e. was it because of the weight of the car at the end of the race or prior to it lining up for the final).

Great pace from Timmy Hansen, shame that Kristoffersson got a bit of breathing space at the start of the race, as Timmy looked faster in the latter part of the race.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Did anyone watch the final round of the Championship?

Saw some short clips. Didn't look bad.

[ebby]

I thought it made a great spectacle especially the camera angle with the joker I thought that worked really well.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[mivec]

Great race, very nice track!

Punish Block is the easy way, he told already this was his last race.
So no chance losing him.

They do need the other drivers for next year