world • monde • welt • värld EUROPE’S CHAMPS RETURN TO POWER Rallycross HOW HANSEN, SNOECK #24 – December 2005 AND PINOMÄ KI WON British and Irish share ’06 dates Rustad back to take his crown 4WD – older Teenage kicks than the 16-year-old to race G-Tech Focus in BRC quattro world • monde • welt • värld 3 4 Will Gollop puts a 16-year-old in his Focus Tommy Rustad back to Rallycross Supercar, & why the move is so important for Rallycross and aiming for Looking good the development of Rallycross Hansen’s crown The 2005 season has only just finished but up and said he’d agreed to drive a full European already there is news to make you eager for the championship season with Isachsen Motorsport. 2006 season to get here soon. This really is the return of the prodigal son. In Britain there is the prospect of Junior Rustad is one of the finest drivers ever to sit in 5 6 champion Andrew Jordan going head-to- a Rallycross car; a proper racer. Just as long as head with the likes of Pat Doran and Dermot the team can keep his car in winning condition Christopher Evans beat Kenneth Hansen in the British and Irish Carnegie in a bid for the British Rallycross throughout the ERC’s gruelling 11-event Championship. Jordan is just 16-years-old but schedule, he stands a very real chance of being Superprix and plans a busy 2006 season Championships share will race with Will Gollop’s G-Tech team and it the man to claim King Kenneth’s crown. At the could be quite a force. very least, he will be a contender. dates in 2006 And while this news was breaking in the UK, Christmas has come early for Rallycross fans, over there is Norway there was much, entirely and they’ve got gifts that will keep on giving. justified, excitement when Tommy Rustad stood [email protected] Click it! Subscribe Copyright 9 Advertisements in Rallycross Rallycross World is published Rallycross World is a Myriorama Edditorial – Audi didn’t World are interactive – click on monthly and distributed production published by Tim them to jump straight to the exclusively by e-mail Whittington. invent four-wheel drive advertiser’s website. Subscriptions cost £12 per This publication may not And make sure you check year (12 issues) and can be be reproduced in whole or the whole advert as some made online or by post, click in part in any form without have multiple links – and the link below for details. the written consent of the you wouldn’t want to miss copyright holder. Unless anything, would you. subscriptions • abonnement otherwise stated, all text and There are also links from subskription • abonnera photographs are © copyright some editorial items and we Tim Whittington 2005. will always try to offer a live Contributors: Eddi Laumanns, 11 12 link wherever we quote a Click Johnny & Frieda Loix, Jacques website address in editorial Privat, Jan Kåre Rafoss European Rallycross Championship, how the The Rallycross World content. – Rallycross Team Norway. Rallycross World is also here This issue published Dec 9 best was won poster – Stein Svardal in a featured at the recently Next issue published Jan 13 launched website subskription • abonnera [email protected] Porsche, hooray! www.myriorama.com subscriptions • abonnement www.myriorama.com Briefing Supercar for Jordan Junior Rallycross Champion Andrew Winteseries. In the 2006 season he will significant step in performance to deal Jordan’s G-Tech deal is Jordan will compete for overall honours drive the Focus RS Supercar run by Will with but I don’t think it will be a problem, in the 2006 MSA British Rallycross Gollop’s G-Tech team. in some ways the Focus will be easier to important on many levels Championship in which he will drive a “It’s my ultimate drive,” said Jordan, “If drive than his Mini was,” said Gollop. Ford Focus Supercar. I could have chosen anything to do next Jordan will test the Focus in February The idea that Junior Rallycrosser Andrew Jordan might take the Jordan will become the youngest ever year then staying in rallycross, driving and March before tackling the BRC. step straight to the Supercar category was first floated at the end Supercar racer when he starts the first round the Focus and working with Will Gollop For Gollop (55) the transition to of 2004 so perhaps no-one should be too surprised that, a year of the BRC at Lydden on Easter Monday the would have been my choice, it doesn’t running his car and team on a commercial later, the deal is finally done. month before his 17th birthday. get any better than that.” basis does not automatically spell the What everyone who has any interest in the development The move to the Supercar category Gollop has often spoken of his interest end of his own racing career. The former and growth of the Rallycross should be celebrating is that a comes after a faultless season in which in running his car for a young driver: European champion is not interested in driver with a budget to race for a year has chosen to spend that Jordan won the British Rallycross “When I built the Focus it was partly contesting a full season, but may start in money in Rallycross and that someone in Rallycross has had the Championship’s Junior title as well as with the aim of running it for someone one or two ERC events in 2006. foresight to step out of the car and into a team ownership role. the concurrent BTRDA Junior crown else, but I’d never envisaged it would Jordan will officially launch his 2006 The fact that the driver is a 16-year-old graduate of the Junior and the ADR Motorsport Junior series. be anyone quite so young! I’ve watched season at Autopsort International where Rallycross category is even better; conceivably this could be the Additionally Jordan took part in a handful Andrew race a few times this year and the Focus will be displayed by Track & start of a young driver forging a professional career in Rallycross, of circuit events and won the Ginetta he’s very good, obviously he’s got a Race Cars magazine. something that has happened all to rarely, and never before in Great Britain. It is vital to the development of Rallycross that there is a facility for racers to ‘arrive-and-drive’. There are plenty of people out there with the budgets to take part in motor sport and every year these people pay lots of money to go racing or rallying. But they cannot spend that money in British Rallycross because no-one runs a car on a commercial basis. You have to hope that G-Tech and Jordan have a good year in 2006 and that the arrangement is successful enough that it will continue. Where one leads, others will surely follow. It would be a bold move for any of those racers or rally men hovering on the fringes of the sport to buy a car and jump into Rallycross without having sampled a few events. If top notch cars are available to rent, entry to the sport is eased. And if some of the teams currently operating in Rallycross can add a second car to their stable, so much the better. MDV won the BRC with Pat Doran and would love to run a second car. Dermot Carnegie is talking about cutting back his racing programme in 2006, perhaps there is a chance there for him to make his car available for a paying driver when he is not using it, there is certainly little difference for Julian Godfrey Engineering (which runs the car) whether it is Carnegie or another customer in the driving seat. Rallycross World #24 – DECEMBER 2005 | 3 ‘Crown Prince’ Tommy returns Tommy Rustad will make a full time return to Rustad, however, decided to pursue a professional In 2006 Rustad will drive a Ford Focus run by Rallycross in 2006 when he will drive alongside career in circuit racing, moving through Formula Isachsen Motorsport. The chance is available to him Sverre Isachsen in all 11 rounds of the European Opel the European Renault Spyder championship as Guttorm Lindefjell will not race in 2006. Both Rallycross Championship. before settling in the Swedish Touring Car cars are being totally rebuilt over the winter and Rustad was dubbed the “Crown Prince” of Championship which he won in 2000 and where he with a car that has proven winning pace (Isachsen Rallycross after he jumped out of Norway’s remained employed by Opel in the 2005 season. His won three events in 2005) Rustad should be a force Supernational scene and enjoyed a handful of successful touring car career also brought Rustad to to contend with in the ERC. Already tipped as the successful outings driving one of Martin Schanche’s Great Britain where he won the Independents Cup man most likely to topple Kenneth Hansen, Rustad’s Ford RS200s. The clear inference was that Rustad in 1998 when he drove a Renault Laguna for the DC last Rallycross was Lyngås in 2004 where he finished was the natural successor to Schanche’s throne. Cook outfit. second on the road in one of Isachsen’s cars. Rallycross World #24 – DECEMBER 2005 | 4 Hansen beater Evans wants more On the back of beating Final, before being halted by three, or possibly even four Puma problem European champion Kenneth gearbox problems. championships,” he said. M Hansen to win the Rallycross With his Tony Bardy With the Irish championship Superprix at Croft in Motorsport-prepared Opel a key part of Evans’ plans, November, Christopher Astra now clearly his season will start early as Evans has laid plans good enough to take the Mondello Park based for a busy year in 2006 on the best cars in the championship commences on during which he intends sport, Evans (29) has February 5.