RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLDRallycross RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLDWORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS#100 june WORLD 2012 RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS100th & WORLDBIGGEST ISSUE RALLYCROSS – 100 RALLYCROSS WORLD STORIES RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSSBIGGEST WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSSEVER WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSSISSUE WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLDRALLYCROSS RALLYCROSSWORLD. WORLDCOM RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS Rallycross Briefing #100 june 2012 100 for the one-hundredth WORLD Rallycross World

Planning this 100th issue of Rallycross World writing 100 short Supercars, but it is the firmest indication yet that the tide is stories about what Rallycross is, was, means… The things that turning. pop into the mind when you think about Rallycross, seemed like a good idea. RallycrossWorld.com How to get Rallycross World Deciding what to keep in and what got left out was rather RallycrossWorld.com provides news from all major Rallycross Rallycross World is produced monthly and distributed as a pdf document more difficult and it’s inevitable that there will be things in the events as well as rounding up National championships. Click You can subscribe directly or receive it as a subscription benefit at RallycrossWorld.com list that you don’t think should be there, at the same time as here to go to RallycrossWorld.com We also now offer a method for you to buy a printed copy or iPad version via MagCloud wondering how we could possibly have left out ‘X’, ‘Y’ or ‘Z’. Like anything else in life, Rallycross means different things to World wide print service and iPad magazine different people, so no apologies for what is here. The MagCloud print-on-demand service now delivers Away from our own little landmark, this month has anywhere in the world. You can order a printed magazine to be produced the first win for a ‘new breed’ transverse Supercar. delivered to your door simply by clicking the link on the left or Get it free! Printed magazine iPad We’ve written about these cars previously, and predicted that from the back page. MagCloud also makes Rallycross World RallycrossWorld. MagCloud is a print You can download they represented the future as far as the technical development available for iPad. Just look for the free MagCloud app in the com is the essential on demand service Rallycross World to of Supercars is concerned. The first win may not open the iPad App Store and then select Rallycross World from the Rallycross news that means you can your iPad through the floodgates, nor spell the instant demise of the longitudinal MagCloud magazine store. website. As well order a printed copy free MagCloud app. as enjoying all the of the magazine that This gives you the feature of the site will be delivered Mag Cloud magazine you can download anywhere in the store, from where your own copy of the world. you can search for magazine for free Rallycross World within the app.

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Copyright Click it! Rallycross World is published monthly by Myriorama Advertisements in the pdf Ltd. This publication may not be redistributed, copied or version of Rallycross reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the written World are interactive – click consent of the copyright holder. on them to be taken to the Unless otherwise stated, all text and photographs are © copyright Contents advertiser’s website. Tim Whittington 2012. Check the whole advert as [email protected] 5 Top Story some have multiple links – and you wouldn’t want to miss Contributors: 6 100 stories about Rallycross anything, would you? Eddi Laumanns, Hal Ridge, Henk de Winter, Johan Dingenen, Kerry There are also links from Dunlop, Bill Mantovani, CTP 46 Diary gallery some editorial items and we will This issue published : June 1 50 Diary April always try to offer a live link Next issue published: July 1 wherever we quote a website www.myriorama.com 54 Shoestring stories address in editorial. [email protected] myriorama 2 | #100 – June 2012 ©RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 3 Top story JRX car revealed New Junior Cup series to start in

The JRX car broke cover in Austria where it was demonstrated and used to give VIP rides during the third round of the ERC.

SVERRE ISACHSEN YB – 543bhp, 920Nm torque European Rallycross Champion 2009 European Rallycross Champion 2010 European Rallycross Champion 2011 JULIAN GODFREY Duratec 1.6 – 225bhp, 181Nm torque Winner, 2011 Super1600 ERC Belgium The new ‘JRX’ car was officially launched during the third and Set Promotion are the first two +44 (0)1435 865999 round of the European Rallycross Championship at the PS teams to run cars, and will also act as distributors for the cars Racing Center in Austria in late May. and spare parts in Sweden and Finland respectively. Set up to provide a new opportunity for 14 to 18-year- Testing of the car has been carried out by Laboulle. “It’s RACETUNERS.COM old drivers, the Junior Rallycross Cup will use controlled- exactly what I wanted. A good driver will be quick and make specification racecars that are built on a spaceframe chassis. car work with them, and a driver who is learning will feel The cars are powered by a two-cylinder, 140bhp, 600cc engine confident and be able work with the car and develop their and have four-wheel drive transmission featuring a sequential skills. The car wants you to push it. We have designed it so that gearbox. Built in France by Mtechnologies, the cars use a drivers can learn, and also so that mechanics and engineers can composite body that can, by use of graphics, be styled to learn about setting-up a car and how to get the make it work look like any one of a number of current small production well in Rallycross,” said Laboulle. hatchbacks. The series is promoted by Maks events, a company n This month we’ve given over almost the entire magazine

JULIAN GODFREY JOS KUYPERS KOEN PAUWELS established for the purpose and which includes Mtechnologies to mark the 100th issue of Rallycross World. A couple of the Cosworth YB – 543bhp, 810Nm torque Cosworth YB – 543bhp, 920Nm torque Duratec 2.0 – 304.7bhp, 256.8Nm torque boss Marc Laboulle and Kenneth Hansen among its four regular features remain, but we’ve moved to the Diary to the British Rallycross Champion 2011 Dutch Rallycross Champion 2011 Belgian Rallycross Champion, TouringCar 2011 partners. Maks events says the first ten cars will be delivered in back, where you will also find the latest from Hal Ridge in the last week of May. Shoestring Stories. RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 5 100 Rallycross stories Rallycross is… For the 100th issue, 100 things that come to mind when we think about Rallycross

Martin Schanche There was never any question of the man not being in the list, but where do you begin, or end, what to include and what to leave out? There are so many achievements, stories, events, tales and legends that you could easily write a book about . One that always pops up in my memory is a story Schanche told me of his 1984 trip to Pikes Peak Hillclimb. In the middle of a stunning year in the European Rallycross Championship with the Xtrac Escort, Schanche decided to go to America and tackle Pikes Peak. Opting to run in the Open Rally class, the Xtrac was fitted with lights and licence plates before being sent to the States. This was at a time when Schanche still tackled the ERC almost single-handed, towing the Xtrac on a trailer behind a Granada estate car. To economise on transport costs, the car was sent to America with all the spares and tools packed inside it, when he retrieved the car from customs and transport agents in the states, Schanche figured he’d simply drive it to Pikes Peak. Which is where the story really begins. Passing through town on his way, Schanche found himself sitting at traffic lights when Camaro pulled up alongside. “That guy sat there revving his engine and looking across at my funny little European car with all its stickers and advertising. When the lights changed he went racing off and at the next set of lights he was sitting there revving up again and laughing,” explained Schanche. “The Xtrac was full of tools and spare parts but I thought ‘what the hell, if he wants a race…’ So I gave it a proper start and as I changed up gears I looked in the mirror. I don’t think he had even moved! I’d love to know what he was thinking or what he told his mates.” Of all the great things Schanche achieved in Rallycross, he will never be able to escape the 1992 incident in Finland in which he stopped the A final of the event at Suonenjoki. Feeling that he’d been pushed off in the first corner, Schanche stood in the track as the rest of the field came round for the second lap. The stunt earned him a licence suspension and, 20-years later, lives on as a part of the Schanche legend. The stuff he did in the car is just half of the Schanche story, Semantics is rallycross – one word. Round here we always write it with a marketing or advertising people is that rallycross is a long a gifted and inventive engineer, Schanche also led the way in Does it really matter whether someone, a person, an capital ‘R’, but that’s just a style thing and probably makes us as word; ten letters with ascenders and descenders. That makes it car development for much of his career, whether it be turning organisation, agency, club, track, promoter, etc. decides to ‘wrong’ as those who insist on rally-cross, etc. a bit of a bugger to incorporate into nice a design. Break it in to Zakspeed for a turbo motor to extend the competitive life write Rallycross as rally cross? Or rally-cross, rallyecross, The history is recapped elsewhere in this issue, but the half and you’ve got two five-letter words and things get easier. of the MkII Escort, recognising Mike Endean’s genius and rallicross, rallye cross, or any other variant spelling and important thing to note is that rallycross was always written as That may explain some of the ‘abuses’. working with him to conceive and create the Xtrac Escort or grammatical form of the name. What is important to know single word. Got to the Oxford English Dictionary and there Does it matter? Who knows? the sheer bloody-minded refusal to be beaten that saw him and keep in the back of the mind, no matter what your role or too you will find rallycross, again as a single word. Just remember that, if you want to be precise, correct, turn the RS200 into a reliable winning machine, Schanche involvement, is that the true and original name for the sport One of the problems that most commonly confronts the Rallycross is one word. refused to be beaten in the workshop. Late in his career he 6 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 7 100 Rallycross stories

America got its first Rallycross-type events in the designed his own transmission system and taught himself how X Games, the first true Rallycross then taking to programme engine management systems. place at New Jersey Motorsport Park in late 2010. Below left and centre: Vic Elford won the first ever For all this technological pace setting, Schanche remained Rallycross. Right: Jurgen Klaenhardt. traditional in the way he went racing, a racer in the truest sense of the word, Schanche was always relaxed in the racecar, perhaps that’s what allowed the magic to flow. Young at heart Notably the oldest driver in the European Rallycross Championship over recent years, he drove in 2010 at 70, German veteran Jurgen Klaenhardt is an irresistible character who lives life to the full. Offering a 70-year-old a lift from the track to his hotel, it was a shock when, driving through town on Saturday evening he spied a group of girls out for the evening and promptly lowered the window, leaned out of the car and asked where the party was and could he join them! America For many years America was regarded as something of a holy grail for Rallycross, many within the sport feeling that if only Rallycross could cross the Atlantic and take place in America, that everything would be all right. That, of course, is a greatly simplified view and also, as we have seen, an unrealistic expectation. America is big and it already has more than enough motor sport so anything trying to get into that market has to be outstandingly good in order to stand out from the crowd. We now have two different strands of Rallycross in America, the Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) and the US Rallycross Series (USRS). Where the GRC is aiming high and, in partnership with broadcaster ESPN and track owner IMS, has constructed a 2012 event schedule that will see it appear alongside NASCAR and Indycar events. The USRS, meanwhile appears to be following a more traditional model and with an entry formed predominantly of two-wheel drive cars looks like playing the role of ‘clubmans’ or ‘regional’ series to the national role of the GRC within America. Vic Elford Britain’s great motor sport all-rounder won the first ever Rallycross in a Porsche 911. The car was the demonstrator owned by British Porsche concessionaire at the time, AFN and Elford also drove the car on the road to and from the event. Noise I grew up when racing cars were noisy. Silencers and racecars did not go together when I was a kid but by the time I’d started working in motor sport the noise police had arrived and things were getting quieter. So my first Rallycross in France was a revelation, just across the channel noise was not an issue, if you didn’t want a silencer on your Rallycross car that was fine. The 1987 French ERC round at Le Creusot was not good on many counts; the track was interesting enough and the racing was good, but it rained and the rural venue turned into an enormous mud pit. The noise though, that was good. Racing cars that sounded like racing cars, and best of the bunch were the French BMWs. Best of the best was the four- VicElford.com Lars Gange/Subaru. 8 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 9 100 Rallycross stories

The Porsche 911 has been in Rallycross since day one, among its most extreme forms being Matti Alamäki’s 1000bhp, four- wheel drive 1985 ERC title winning version. Top right: John Taylor (left of group with Jonathan Palmer and then Lydden boss Tom Bissett) tells it as it is. Below right: Best Supercar ever? Schanche’s 1997 Escort.

wheel drive BMW driven by Alain Coppier. Here we had a Best looking? Martin Schanche’s 1997 Escort, his second crack Porsche 911 components to create an all-wheel drive 911. three-series BMW into which had been shoehorned a 3.5-litre, at the post regulations, was not the most beautiful car The first Rallycross event was won by a Porsche 911 and, where With the potential for enormous power outputs, 24v straight-six engine from a BMW M1. Rated at 550bhp, you have ever seen and certainly would not be classed among they remain eligible, the 911 is still a competitive proposition turbocharged 911s were exciting, but hard work for those who this naturally aspirated brute announced itself to the world the most successful. What it was, however, is perhaps the most in Rallycross today. The 911, of course, has been continuously tried to tame them, specially as engine the kind of infinite via stubby exhaust pipes that exited somewhere behind the technically complete expression of the prevailing regulations. evolved and while Vic Elford won in 1967 with a two-litre tuning afforded by todays engine management systems was a passenger door and which certainly did not include a silencer. Treaded tyres and turbo restrictors were already with us in 911, those running the car today are mostly into the 996 ‘GT3’ long way off; the turbo gave lots of power, but there were few This was the kind of noise that actually hurt your ears, a 1997, so it’s not a car totally unfettered by restriction, but in variant. ways in which to control how that power was delivered. The wailing howl that echoed and barked around the countryside. design and structure, Schanche threw everything he had at this Down the years the 911 has been used in many guises and 911 is inextricably linked with Rallycross and with the Retro Outside of F1 and drag racing there are few places you will find car – his last Ford. Low, light and packed with beautiful details, variations in Rallycross, perhaps the ultimate expression of Rallycross initiative beginning to gain ground in the UK the unsilenced racecars. Those who lived while they were around the Escort featured Schanche’s own transmission design and the innovation and interpretation that kept the car at the way is open for some of those old cars to re-emerge and live should be thankful, those who didn’t be thankful that your was light, under 900kg ready to go. But that meant more than front coming in the mid-1980s when engines from Group 5 again. hearing has not been messed with. 135kg of lead to meet the minimum weight. Today it would 935 variants were claimed to make 1000bhp and when four- need 400kg, almost half its weight! Engineering freedom has wheel drive was effected with some rudimentary engineering; John Taylor Best car 1 gradually been eroded ever since, the cars becoming more and the 911’s rear engine layout making it fairly simple to devise The first European Rallycross Champion, John Taylor was Choosing the best Rallycross car is something that will cause more alike, and that is part of the appeal of Schanche’s ’97 car, a transfer box to send drive forward where there was plenty one of the original Rallycross stars. Moving into motor sport arguments. How do you judge best? Fastest? Most successful? perhaps the last pure Rallycross ‘special’. of space to install a differential and the necessary associated management with Ford at the end of his driving career, Taylor 10 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 11 100 Rallycross stories

Fans at Lousada in Portugal used an incomplete building as a grandstand. Top right: Harry Doran works with brother Liam. Below right: technology makes this stuff redundant.

returned to Rallycross in the late 1980s when Ford Motorsport his skills and views called upon as a driver coach. the trip. But late on Sunday night Pat Doran wanted to know arriving at track these days is to establish what kind of internet used an RS200 to test and develop turbocharger systems that if I could give him a lift to the airport. By 0430 on Monday connection is provided, and the same routine is followed at the could be transferred to the Sierra rally car. Lousada morning giving Pat a lift had turned into providing transport hotel; sometimes it’s better to retreat there and work at the end One of the best things about Taylor is that he not shy of There was a bit of a culture shock when Rallycross first went for Pat, Lindsay, baby Harry and Julian Godfrey as well as their of the day. telling it as it is, or at least how he thinks it is. If he thinks to Lousada in Portugal in 1991. Situated just behind the main luggage and the assorted spare parts Julian was taking home. When I started this game in the second half of the 1980s, it driver X is slow/clueless/out of control, he’ll say so. Alongside street in the small town, the track was overlooked by a building As Pat and Julian had been in the bar almost until we left, they was more often a case of sending type-written reports and rolls the work he did for Ford, Taylor also guested as a commentator site. The thousands of fans who flocked to see the race turned were suitably anaesthetised against the pain of being squeezed of undeveloped film by train to the publisher. Foreign events for TV broadcasts of both British and European championship the incomplete building into a grandstand. There were no into the tiny car which, suspension compressed by its load, were a breeze because there was no practical way to report in events, something that gave him the opportunity to voice those health and safety concerns and the huge crowd set the scene crashed, bumped and banged its way along the bumpy roads the same week, so reports could be done Monday or Tuesday… opinions. for some good years at Lousada. but got us to the airport on time. Harry started the journey Then came the fax machine, which put an end to restful A jockey who looked for alternative employment, and sleeping on the chest of his sleeping father but also had a spell Sunday nights after European events, and which was followed thrills, after suffering an injury, Taylor moved quickly through Harry Doran being cradled by Godfrey, an experience that may explain why quite quickly by electronic communication. In the early 1990s autocross and showed up in Rallycross just as the sport was Liam’s little brother. No, let’s just make that younger brother he gave Rallycross such a wide birth until he was big enough to I was delivering reports to a bulletin board, which meant ready to catapult a new group of drivers into the limelight. because there is not much small about Harry Doran. The look after himself. connection a laptop to the telephone network and dialling into The reputation earned in Rallycross allowed him to move into youngest of the Doran clan, Harry is now usually among the the publisher’s system. . personnel on his brother’s team but has not always been very Technology Checking the internet now is rarely more difficult than Taylor gets away with being as forthright as he is not just interested in Rallycross. I first met Harry in the summer of Rallycross cars have changed beyond recognition over the looking for a WiFi signal on the laptop of iPhone. Dialling because he is prepared to stand by every word he says, but 1993 when he was just a few months old and it’s a wonder that years, technology making them more sophisticated than ever up a bulletin board via the telephone system could be more because even at this distance the record of a brilliant career the chap isn’t mentally scarred by the event. To cut a long story in the last few years. But electronics have not just changed complex. If I was lucky, the hotel would be wired with phones gives him the right to opine; here is a man who has been there, short, I ended up with a Honda Civic CRX to drive from Höljes the cars and the lives of engineers, it has transformed how that used an RJ11 sockets and cables. These were easy to get done that, and can tell you how to do it. Taylor has also found to Oslo airport. This wasn’t a problem as I was by myself for those working in the media cover the sport. The first job when hold of and would mean the modem could be plugged-in. If 12 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 13 100 Rallycross stories

Hämeenlinna’s rallycross track was majestic. The luck was really in, getting an outside line would be easy too. As a circuit owner Chesson was often on the ‘other side’ as race track is truly scary. However, things were rarely easy. Getting an outside line far as drivers were concerned, but those who raced then often meant trying several different combinations in the dial universally recall him as a good man. string, and even getting that far could be a game. After a while I acquired a bag full of telephone adapter plugs for all the Hämeenlinna countries the ERC visited regularly, but these were of no good The Rallycross track at the Moottorirata Ahveniston on the if the phones were hard wired. This is where screwdrivers edge of Hämeenlinna in Finland was always quite good. A came in handy. Before 9/11 airport security rarely bothered rarity in the ERC as it was laid out within the confines of a race if you showed up carrying a bag full of telephone cables, circuit, it was the home of the Finnish ERC event for many screwdrivers, etc. Among the cables in my bag was one with years. If you ever get the chance to visit, you should do so, and baby crocodile clips attached to one end. Hardwired phones make sure you check out that race circuit because it’s one of meant taking the socket out of the wall and using the cable scariest bits of asphalt in the world. It has a bridge and lots of with the crocodile clips to try and make a connection. It corners. It does not have much run-off. Get a look at this lap, was trial and error, often taking a very long time, sometimes and then think that they raced F3 here until 2000 and that in unsuccessful no matter how long I tried. If you could get a 1984 Keke Rosberg lapped this place in a Williams FW08C F1 connection there was nothing quite as satisfying the sound of car in just 70seconds. Madness! the bulletin board responding to the call. Recently finding that bag full of cables, plugs and connectors Food in the back of the cupboard put me in mind of the hours spent Travelling to different countries, even parts of your own hacking into telephone systems, and the relative ease with country, to watch Rallycross can broaden your cultural which we can communicate today. horizons. The different food encountered in three decades of going out and watching this stuff is one element of that, Bill Chesson mayonnaise on your chips – must be Belgium, racing stopped It doesn’t really matter how you describe Bill Chesson’s role in for a two-hour lunch – has to be France, etc. Northern Ireland the creation of Rallycross, some have called him the ‘midwife’, was always a favourite and when Rallycross was at its best there can be little doubt that without his enthusiasm for and there, Larne Motor Club had a great organising team that also dedication to this branch of motor sport, it’s unlikely that knew how to have fun. The local delicacy at Nutts Corner was Rallycross would have gained such a strong foothold as it did a sausage soda; a triangular soda bread split in half and filled in the first few years. with as many sausages as possible. “Have this, you look like you Chesson was the entrepreneurial circuit owner/promoter need to top-up your cholesterol,” was how I was introduced to who threw open the gate of his nascent Lydden circuit when the sausage soda by the well-upholstered “Big” Robert Kelly. ABC TV was looking for somewhere to try out a loosely At the other end of the scale, you know that an event in formed idea of running a series of races over a short lap Austria will never present any problems on the sustenance combining asphalt and gravel surfaces. Maverick is the kind front; frittatensuppe and a schnitzel hits the spot every time – of term often applied to Chesson’s name but it doesn’t really and probably won’t kill you as fast as a sausage soda. fit. Visionary, opportunist, creative, would fit better. Sure, Chesson had his differences with authority down the years Excess baggage and even had the circuit licence for car racing at Lydden The pattern for this was set at the very first ERC event I went revoked in 1987 after disagreeing with the MSA over safety to outside of Britain, my luggage for the return journey from issues. But that should not be the defining mark on Chesson’s Austria swollen by the addition of an RS200 turbocharger career, as chairman of the committee charged with monitoring that I then had to take with me to Croft for Mark Rennison. Rallycross regulations at the MSA he was part of the Over the years there have been various parts of racing car establishment. added to my baggage, including an entire transmission system The lot of the little guy was never far from Chesson’s mind for Martin Schanche – recounted elsewhere. Last August I and when he introduced Standard Production Rallycross as agreed to meet Phil Chicken at Amsterdam Schiphol and give a low cost class at Lydden, he was years ahead of his time. him a lift to Valkenswaard where he was assisting Hal Ridge. Chesson also raced in the standard class and there was little I laughed when I found Phil sitting in the arrivals hall with that amused the regular racers more than lining up Chesson’s his luggage – and the front bumper for a Renault Clio. And Capri and nudging it into a spin. laughed even more when my hire car for the weekend turned More often to be found taking a hands-on role in the out to be a Aygo! running of events, Chesson an inspirational organiser. The Almost everyone who flies to events gets called upon at Lydden Winterseries was a popular part of the season for some time to deliver a much needed component, some more many competitors and with big entries and short days in the so than others. A few years ago I bumped into Julian Godfrey winter, there was no option but to keep things going. It was at Stansted and offered a lift to Greinbach. Godfrey needed not unusual to be at Lydden in depth of winter and witness a trolley to get his suitcase from the baggage reclaim and it Chesson run 50 or more races in little more than three hours. took both of us to lift it into the hire car. Among the engine 14 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 15 100 Rallycross stories

components, turbos, gears and assorted minor parts, there track, Evans’ enterprise did a good job even if you only wanted must have been little space left for any clothes. a day out and is the kind of opportunity that is sadly missing from Rallycross these days. Hotels Finding somewhere to stay close to – hopefully – the track can Alan Franklin be a big task. I’ve been lucky enough to have very few horrors Sponsorship is the lifeblood of racing for many drivers. Those over the years, the first year there was an ERC event in the who provide it range from the officers of multi national Czech Republic (1995) the only time we have actually left an companies making cold business decisions to the philanthropic hotel and gone somewhere else – although we really should enthusiast supporting a favourite sport or driver. Alan Franklin have left the Victorianski in Grojec a few years ago after the falls in some kind of no-mans land between these two camps. management thought it acceptable to host a wedding on race There’s no doubt that he was enormously enthusiastic about weekend. Polish weddings go on a long time, the music and Rallycross, or that he had favourite drivers, but he was made singing did stop eventually, about an hour before the alarm good use of the publicity and coverage gained from the went off on Sunday morning. Never again! Some are so bad sponsorship he put into Rallycross. Franklin’s business was that it’s just funny, Fawlty Towers has nothing on some of the Car Colours, a specialist paint supplier, and for a decade or hotels around Sosnova where ‘service with a smile’ is an alien more spanning the 1970s and ’80s he was among the biggest, concept. generous, most prolific sponsors in Rallycross. Drivers, Thinking about it now, Austria and Germany stand out teams, events and championship all received money from Car in my mind as some of the better places to have stayed; the Colours, for a good number the support meant the difference Gasthof Kirchenwirt at Maria Dreiechen near Horn-Fuglau a between racing and not racing. perfect family-run retreat while Zur Mulle in Buxtehude was Franklin also had a keen eye for getting the most from his spectacularly good in the early 1990s, a little less so now that coin; banners were put out on the racetrack – after he’d seen the chef patron has closed the restaurant. where the TV cameras were going to be. Car Colours logo was The best, or at least my favourite, is staying a secret on stickers, postcards, posters, sew-on patches, jackets and because it’s in a place that we still visit and not big enough to T-shirts, anything that could be branded was branded. accommodate all of you. Sorry! Through all of this Franklin, who you could not describe as ‘shy and retiring’, became one of the great characters of the Sponsorship 1 sport. His enthusiasm knew no bounds. Here’s a strange twist on sponsorship. Many, many years ago, Years later his one regular trip to Rallycross would be the a British racer and his team set out to investigate Hamburg’s Belgian ERC round at Maasmechelen where he caught up with Anything from Tony Bardy Motorsport can be Reeperbahn after an event at the Estering. One of the old friends and never failed to have a good time. Franklin died classed as ‘best car’. Below left: Xtrac Escort was entourage, a mechanic, decided that he needed to avail himself in 2007 aged just 66. revolutionary. Below: Alan Franklin of the services on offer, but did not have enough money. The driver of the team offered to ‘sponsor’ the mechanic – as long Xtrac Escort as he displayed his sponsor’s logo while ‘in action’. And so, The introduction of the Quattro to Rallycross in 1982 sticker on arse, the mechanic got what he wanted, and another changed the direction of the sport, but the Audi was not chapter in Rallycross legend was written. unbeatable. The car that revolutionised Rallycross, that made it abundantly clear even to those most resistant, that four- Best car 2 wheel drive was here to stay and that it was the way forward, It was hot in Finland in 2010, high 30s outside and close on 50c was the Xtrac Escort. Mike Endean was the English engineer inside a racing car. Many competitors removed side windows who realised Martin Schanche’s idea for a four-wheel drive from their cars in a quest to get some fresh air inside. Tony system and it was Endean’s genius that made variable power Bardy kept all the windows in place on the Opel Astra he was split a reality and delivered a car that made the Quattro look racing. Some Norwegian engineers asked why he did not take like a tractor. From the first day it hit the track at the end of out a window and, informed that it would allow dust in and 1983 it was apparent that this was a special car, “It’s faster than make the inside of the car too dirty, they told Bardy that he the driver,” said Schanche on its debut. Passing on to John was “a very strange man”. Strange, maybe, but almost anything Smith and then Barry Squibb, the original Xtrac remained a emerging from his workshops will qualify for the ‘best car’ tag competitive proposition until the end of 1992 and was also the if by best we mean best prepared. Nothing in the paddock, any car that gave birth to Xtrac as a company that is a key player paddock, comes close to a Bardy car. in Britain’s motor sport industry. Endean bought the car from Squibb and owns to this day, now restored to original trim. School In the early 1990s British driver Ian Evans ran a Rallycross Best car 3 School that offered tuition to drivers wanting to improve their There can be little doubt that the 205 T16 E2 was the game as well as introductory sessions for those who wanted best car of the Group B era. Even if you want to qualify that by to get started. Based at the now defunct Swindon Rallycross saying that it was best of the bunch as they were introduced to 16 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 17 100 Rallycross stories

the sport and that others were better as they were developed and refined for the demands of the sport, it remains that the Peugeot was best. Consider also that, in comparison to the T16, the best car? most highly developed of the others – Schanche’s RS200, Top right: Robert Reed invented Rallycross. Below right: Holden Gollop Metro 6R4 – there was relatively little development Commodore used V8 grunt. done to the 205 in which Matti Alamäki won pretty much as he pleased until the end of his time in the car in 1990. The Daddy The man we should thank for all of this is Robert Reed. At the end of the 1960s Reed was a producer with ABC TV, part of the ITV network in Britain, and worked on its Saturday afternoon show World of Sport. He had the loose idea for a form of motor sport that took place on a short track, combined the thrills of rallying with the compact nature of circuit racing and which could take place in all weathers, the last point important when a series of hard winters often led to other sports being abandoned because of poor weather or frozen ground. Reed relied on others (most notably Bud Smith and Bill Chesson) to bring his idea to life but was the man who had the original vision and turned Rallycross into an instant TV sensation. V8s Power is everything, but at the same time as that Rallycross has always put a premium on agility. Over the years a number of drivers have tried to find success in V8-engined cars, which is great for the spectator even if the those drivers rarely reaped significant reward for their efforts. Anglicised Dane Erling Jensen was one of many to try his hand with the Triumph TR8 and later moved the V8 engine to a Rover SD1. In the days when the ERC had a two-wheel drive Group A class, the Belgian Car Glass team made the slightly eccentric decision to run a Holden Commodore. Brilliant but nuts. And, of course, V8s have been tried in Scandinavia, memorably by Supernational driver Eivind Rosnæs who got around his own physical disability by fitting his five-litre Chevrolet Monza with a Powerglide automatic transmission. The King The most successful driver Rallycross has ever seen, Kenneth Hansen’s influence on the sport is not just measured by his success on the track. For years he set the standard in terms of presentation in the paddock and is now leading the trend for drivers to move into team ownership and management. With youngest son Kevin on the verge of his own Rallycross career, Hansen appears set to be around for some time yet, so his work in Rallycross is far from done. Benevolent entrepreneurs Rallycross in Britain has developed along different lines from most other countries. In Europe the norm is that the venue is a bespoke Rallycross track while in Britain most Rallycross tracks exist within the confines of a race circuit. There have been dedicated Rallycross tracks from time to time, and these places Kenneth Hansen in action, 1995, share something with the race circuits at which Rallycross is and pictured in 1989 and 2006 able to flourish; their owners can be described as benevolent 18 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 19 100 Rallycross stories

Far left top: Bud Smith. Bottom Murray Walker. Centre: Rob Gibson’s Porsche flies over the edge at Lydden. Close racing and big crowd at Lohéac. Will Gollop. This pic: European title success for Gollop in 1992. EcurieBretagne entrepreneurs. Bill Chesson (Lydden), George Shield (Croft), the edge of Chesson’s Drift at Lydden ended with his Porsche against them and rarely, if ever, having either the equipment Peter Bennett (Swindon) and others shared in common a lying upside down on the race track, and having narrowly Lohéac or the money with which to take on their rivals on even terms. determination to make Rallycross events happen. They were missed tractors and other machinery parked there. If Lydden is the ‘Home of Rallycross’ the Lohéac is something On the face of it you may think that including Will Gollop not running charities and did want to make money from their like Mecca, or perhaps Lourdes. Rallycross came a little later to in this group is a strange call, after all, he remains Britain’s enterprises, but in each case there was the acceptance that Mabbs’ Bank France than to much of the rest of Europe and when it did the most successful Rallycross driver. But Gollop was one of those some events would incur a loss and that it was necessary to On April 11 1968 Geoff Mabbs hit an earth banking at Lydden first event was run near the small Brittany village of Lohéac in who had no parental assistance to go racing and every penny carry these events for the greater good. and rolled his Janspeed-run Austin 1800 ‘Landcrab’ into a ball September 1976. In France the original is still the best and 36 he needed to go racing in the early 1970s had to be earned. of scrap. That banking was quickly dubbed Mabbs’ Bank and years later Lohéac in the first week of September is the place Building a business in order to fund the racing and to make Bud Smith remained a feature, tripping up many drivers and snaring the to be. The organising Ecurie Bretagne does not make grand his Mini go faster, Gollop slowly climbed the ranks, working The crucial link between Robert Reed and Bill Chesson in famous as well as the foolish, until the end of 2002 when it was claims for its event, but this is the biggest Rallycross event on hard to develop his Saab at the same time as building a Saab the creation of Rallycross, Smith was the accomplished event removed on safety grounds. the planet. With a spectator attendance that regularly exceeds dealership. After winning the ‘Supernational’ class of the organiser who took Reed’s idea and, on Chesson’s Lydden 30,000 – and which peaked at near 50,000 a couple of years British championship in 1986, Gollop asked Austin Rover circuit, created the winning formula that is Rallycross. Murray Walker ago – Lohéac is of such importance to French drivers that it Motorsport if he could have a Metro 6R4 for Rallycross; to Inspirational, visionary and a slick operator, Smith not Although it was ITV that first broadcast Rallycross, it is the is a ‘must do’ event, forcing French to miss European events his surprise they said yes. Developing the car to the point at only made the whole thing happen, but did so within the BBC that is most readily associated with the sport today. in order to stay at home and regularly drawing in the biggest which he won the European championship with a 2.3-litre demanding time pressures of live television broadcasts. There BBC screened Rallycross on its Saturday afternoon sport entry of the year as occasional drivers appear in order to be a twin-turbo version of the V6 engine in 1992 presented another were no trials, test or practises, the first Rallycross event was programme Grandstand long after ITV had moved on to part of the big one. Just as the Rallycross fan must set foot at mountain to climb and although he had sponsorship for much shown live on national TV and Smith was on-cue all day. A key other things which will account for much of this association, Lydden at least once in a lifetime, no list of events visited is of this period, it would rarely have covered all the bills and was figure in exporting Rallycross from the UK, Smith remained but so too will BBC’s use of Murray Walker to commentate complete until they have made the pilgrimage to Lohéac. certainly less than the leading Scandinavians were receiving involved for around a decade before moving on to other on its events. Walker later brought his great enthusiasm at the same time. Britain loves an underdog and Gollop’s giant interests. to the British Rallycross Grand Prix at Brands Hatch and, Will Gollop killing exploits in the Metro made him a star. An engineer by most recently, did a stint in the commentary box at Lydden’s Rallycross is full of drivers who have worked their way up training, Gollop built and developed an enormous amount of Air Gibson European championship event in 2009, proving that he’d lost from the very bottom of the sport, some of them manage to knowledge and experience and, for 1994, built probably his One of the most frightening accidents, Rob Gibson’s flight off none of his magic. make it wall the way to top despite having the odds stacked best car. That Peugeot 306 remains a competitive proposition 20 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 21 100 Rallycross stories

in national British event even today and had Gollop had a Rallycross driver, but even Tohill himself is likely to defer to Jaak Scheepers and Arthur Debenham This column top to bottom: Pat better budget when he built it, would have been a much better at Lydden 1986. Below: Dermot Doran, Dermot Carnegie, Barry Lee Dermot Carnegie. Coming to Rallycross relatively late and car then; for all that it was a good car, there were cost-based Carnegie. Bottom: Rallycross GP and had already enjoyed a long and successful career in rallying. compromises in the equipment it used. Nigel Allen. Making up for lost time, Carnegie won the Irish Rallycross championship eight times, the MSA British title four times (as Commentators well as two BRDA National titles during the period when there The link between what happens on the track and the spectator, was no British championship) and twice won the Northern the commentator fills an important role at any motor sport Irish championship. On the track he was never anything other event. Being a specialised form of sport that draws a large than a scrupulously fair competitor, off it he was and remains a number of keen and dedicated fans, Rallycross has also true gentleman. produced a number of highly knowledgeable specialist commentators over the years. The fans feel that they build Pat Doran a relationship with these commentators and when they After bursting into Rallycross in 1990 and quickly becoming either stop or are removed from what is often the best seat a leading competitor, Pat Doran took a break from racing, in the house, their loss is keenly felt. Pre-eminent among returning again with his beloved RS200 in the new century Rallycross commentators, Arthur Debenham is now rarely since when he has again become hugely successful and has heard behind the microphone but for close to 30 years was won the MSA British championship three times. Still an the voice of Rallycross in Britain. The distinctive voice of a active competitor who, in national terms at least, is at or close familiar commentator is the hallmark of many events: can you to the top of his game, Doran’s contribution to Rallycross imagine a French event without Jean Jacques Guibal or Höljes is far greater than that of ‘just’ a driver. His involvement at without Gunnar Fridlund? No-one goes on forever, of course, Lydden is the most overt way in which he has influenced the Holland’s great Jaak Scheepers has long since passed on. In continued development and growth of Rallycross in Britain Austria and Germany there’s a new generation established but there has been and continues to be a huge amount of work and gaining a growing respect, Chris “The Voice” Wurzer and behind the scenes whether that is connected with events, Martin Kummerow are respectively top of their game in those championship and circuits, sponsors, television companies or countries and perform a great double act at the Austrian ERC cajoling drivers into taking part in Rallycross, he dedicates a event. vast amount of time to Rallycross. There are some who find that level of involvement a problem, but without this kind of Rallycross Grand Prix time and effort there is no way that Rallycross in Britain would The British Rallycross Grand Prix has come and gone in be as healthy as it currently is, and there does not appear to recent years, but none of the modern incarnations have come be anyone else with Doran’s drive, determination and ability close to the ‘real’ Grand Prix, the versions of the event run at prepared to make an equal commitment, so it’s difficult to Brands Hatch between 1982 and 1994, and perhaps even the see how any criticism can be justified. There’s more to come last couple of those had drifted from the original vision that from Doran both on and off the track and everyone in British created a truly great event. The Rallycross Grand Prix was, Rallycross should appreciate what the man does for them. in essence, an open-house, end-of-season, free for all. If you had a Rallycross car and fancied racing in the Grand Prix, Nigel Allen you could make your entry and have a go. This led to some One of the large number of Northern Irish racers who enjoyed wonderful events and the chance to see unusual cars and star Rallycross enormously in the late 1980s, Nigel Allen entered drivers; Denis Marcel’s beautiful Matra Murena, unlikely and the sport with a MkII Escort but got a shot at a Supercar before surprisingly fast NSUs from Norway, wheeling ending his career to focus on business. Cancer took the man out his privately owned Quattro, sportscar ace Cor Euser doing away far too early but the abiding memory is of a decent bloke a great job in a Metro 6R4, etc. The Grand Prix was different, it who loved to race and had a great sense of humour. Feeling stood out from the crowd and appealed to competitors because things were getting a little serious around 1990, Allen printed it wasn’t just another Rallycross event. Being at Brands Hatch thousands of stickers proclaiming “I remember when racing helped, geographically it was good and the circuit put all of its was dangerous and sex was safe!” marketing and PR effort into making something of the Grand Prix. Maybe it just ran out of steam after a decade, perhaps Barry Lee the fiddling with regulations and the event format made it less These days associated with Rallycross as an occasional attractive. Recent versions have not recaptured the magic of commentator for Motors TV, Lee was as outspoken as he was the original Grand Prix, but those events remain some of the successful when a driver. In 1993 when Martin Schanche was best ever. getting ready to give his new Escort its first shakedown test at Ford’s Boreham base, Lee strode into the workshop, walked Dermot Carnegie around the new car and then hit it hard twice on the front There is a reasonable argument that Derek Tohill, European wing. “Good, nice and strong, you could do some damage with champion in 2010, could claim to be Ireland’s most successful that!” he said. Mantovani Bill 22 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 23 100 Rallycross stories

A Supercar ride should never Supercars No-one would want all of the tracks to be small any more than be passed up. Below: Group B Everyone associated with Rallycross, and many who have no it would be good to have ten high-speed autodromes in the provided golden days. Bottom more than a passing interest, know that Supercars are very championship. It’s the variety that makes it interesting, but left: Small tracks (like Dreux) provide great racing but some felt fast racing cars. For those us lucky enough to get the chance the continued ability of Rallycross to get in and use events of Ingelmunster was ‘Mickey Mouse’. to ride in them, the opportunity of a couple of laps is never around 900 metres is a great feature of the sport. to be passed over. No matter how many times you experience that visceral acceleration, it never fails to impress and the Arendonk and Ingelmunster way in which the cars handle and behave on asphalt and Thinking about small circuits brought Belgium’s two other gravel is, frankly, beyond the comprehension of those who Rallycross tracks to mind. The Glosso Circuit at Arendonk have not experienced this. Over the years I’ve been in quite was small when it was used for national events and took its a few Supercars and the biggest difference is just how nice turn in the three-year cycle that moved Belgium’s ERC event the newer cars are, how much they have improved and how around. Arendonk then lost close to half its track length little the drivers now have to work compared to Group B or following various disputes but remains in use to this day for even the earliest of the Group A-based machines. All of this regional ‘VAS’ events. Maasmechelen is not big, and Arendonk is great, but the thing that really impresses, the single greatest was certainly on the small side, but the Mandes Circuit at aspect of Supercar performance is the braking. Rallycross cars Inglemunster was positively tiny. In length it was actually a do not have particularly huge brakes – there’s a fine balance touch longer than Arendonk but the area it occupied was to be struck between braking performance the rotational smaller, the track looping back on itself in a ‘U’ shape with mass that needs to be got moving at the start – but they stop almost nothing between the parallel sections of track. For quickly, in a very short distance, and with amazing force. You most of its length the barrier was on the edge of the track expect Supercars to be quick, to handle well, to go sideways and the spectators immediately behind that, jammed on the

and to accelerate very fast, but the braking performance is not raised bankings that made this a brilliant venue to watch to Todd Tony something you think about and it’s the biggest shock in these racing. When the ERC went there in 1992 things looked pretty amazing cars. borderline but it lived on to host the series again in 1995, by which time it had become clear that the ERC had outgrown Group B this tiniest of tiny venues, memorably depicted as being Perhaps the maddest, baddest cars ever to be used in motor ‘Mickey Mouse’ by a French magazine. sport, Group B cars found their niche when exiled from rallying and adopted with glee by Rallycross drivers all over Track records Europe and Scandinavia. Group B cars gave the European Some set a lot of store in track records, but if you give the Rallycross Championship six glorious years of top class action. subject any considered thought, it won’t take long to realise They arrived en masse at the start of 1987 and a change in that they are bunk in Rallycross. Because of the mixed surfaces, regulations meant that their times was up at the end of 1992. a Rallycross track changes so fast that times set during a single They lived on in various national championships for a while day can sometimes very enormously for no other reason than longer – in Britain they remain eligible to this day – but those those changes. So to compare the fastest time set at a track the few years in Europe formed a short but memorable era now previous year, or even to hang on to the fact that so-and-so regarded as one of the best periods in its history. It’s 25 years driver did a time 20-years ago that no-one has ever bettered, is since Group B cars came to Rallycross and we’ve covered of no more than academic interest. the subject in Rallycross World #97, March 2012 as well as currently running a series ‘The B boom’ recounting the 1997 Testing European championship season on RallycrossWorld.com. With For much the same sort of reasons as track records are of little the Retro Rallycross movement beginning to gain ground in relevance, testing in Rallycross is a different kind of exercise Britain, it’s possible that a new avenue for the use of Group B from testing in circuit racing. An asphalt race track will change cars is just opening… from day to day, surface temperature and the amount of rubber laid down are factors that change, but generally the range of Small tracks movement is less than on a Rallycross track which is subject The variety in the tracks that a championship visits is a great to those same parameters but has the added complication of part of the appeal of a race series both for those who drive in loose surfaces that change rapidly, and the carry-over of dirt it and the ones behind the fence watching. There is, however, from those sections to the asphalt. Getting a good baseline something compelling about the smaller tracks. Take the setup on the car, resolving any problems and proving changes current ERC season; Dreux produced magnificent racing, due remain valid reasons to test a Rallycross car, but perhaps the in part to the compact nature of the circuit. The PS Racing biggest gain for the driver is simply to have been in the car and Center at Greinbach has been a feature for a few years now be up to speed mentally and physically before the event. and has always been the scene of closely matched competition. Small tracks seem to keep the pack bunched up, to level the Getting younger odds and sometimes mix up the expected pattern of events. There have been ‘young’ drivers in Rallycross at every stage 24 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 25 100 Rallycross stories

Julian Godfrey is formidable in the workshop and on the track. Right: of the sport’s 45-year history, but the average age of leading George Warren raced into his 80s, and time to take part in motor sport with a child you are spoilt drivers has probably never been lower than it is currently. and had a strong following of fans! for choice. The stark reality is that, even if Rallycross is cheaper For many years it was considered an ‘old-mans’ game, partly than some of the alternatives, the amount of time a junior will because experience most usually overcame young speed and get in the car is relatively low. If Rallycross is you bag and the exuberance, but also because top class cars have always been long term plan is to build a career in Rallycross, then Junior fairly costly and in most cases the type of driver who could Rallycross is certainly the best place to start, for a specialist acquire them were those who had established a business that sport, the specialist training ground will be very hard to beat. allowed them access to the money, and time, to indulge their passion. And the time spent doing that meant that it was the Generation game 30- and 40-somethings who dominated. It’s difficult to pin There’s nothing to make you feel old like seeing the offspring of point when this changed, Englishman Mark Rennison was racers you met as young men forging their own careers on the perhaps the first to get to the top by the route of sponsorship track. Second generation racers are now far from unusual in and was in his late 20s at the peak of his Rallycross career. Rallycross but if anyone out there has an eye pushing forward The introduction of Junior classes in nationals series and the the third generation, they should be aware that the Squibb decision of Hansen Motorsport, OMSE, Eklund, etc. to run family put its name to that particular landmark a decade or so cars on a commercial basis for paying drivers has changed the ago. While Barry is the best known and most successful of the landscape in recent years so that Rallycross now looks like a Squibb clan, his father Jim also raced successfully for several viable option for the career racer. years and son Jamie then raced in the 1400 Cup class. Henk de Winter Henk Godfrey work and play Jos Sterkens There are many brilliant drivers in Rallycross, there are also The kids are alright, but we should celebrate the continued amazing engineers. There are few that fit both criteria. There existence in Rallycross of drivers like Jos Sterkens. The Belgian Left and below left: Junior Rallycross breeds are those who have been great drivers before turning their stars of the future. This pic: Jos Sterkens’ Brands veteran is part of the furniture and, while he may not be quite hand to work within the sport, most recently the likes of Tony Hatch crash was huge. Below: Ron Douglas was as quick these days as he was 20 or even 30-years ago, he Bardy, , Kenneth Hansen and Michael Jernberg. perhaps the first Rallycross Superstar. remains genuinely competitive and enthused enough about However, there is one who competes at a high level while the sport to keep building new cars. Sterkens has won races, also having more customers than anybody else in British and survived huge crashes – his Brands Hatch roll in 1995 is European Rallycross. Engine builder Julian Godfrey is rarely legendary – been there, done that and got the T-shirt. He was seen relaxing next to his own car in the Rallycross paddock. also first to realise that the idea for the TouringCar class was a When not in the driving seat of either his Super1600 or Good Thing, built a car, raced it everywhere and never stopped Supercar Fiestas, he is to be seen buried in an engine bay of telling people that this was the way to go. Without his efforts a customer car, or running around the paddock with a laptop the Touring class may never have become established. under each arm. Back when Godfrey was running Dermot Carnegie in the British Championship, his own Peugeot 205 George Warren Stock Hatch car would be seen sitting outside the awning, When Welshman George Warren discovered motor sport in apparently uncared for. It was understandable how Godfrey the late 1960s he was already in his 40s. This small fact did not and his team could run the Stock Hatch car and look after a stop him enjoying a long and successful career that lasted into high maintenance Supercar. Nowadays, Godfrey needs his the early years of this century. A thoroughly decent chap and own team that he can trust implicitly to run the car while he is a racer who was fast but fair whoever he faced on the track, off working when he’s not driving. Anybody would think that Warren enjoyed his motor sport for what it was, great fun and with so many things going on at an event, Godfrey’s driving diversion from his business life. He later encouraged nephew would suffer. Far from it. He is one of the calmest, most clear Mark Lloyd as he climbed the ranks to become a successful headed of drivers, delivering impeccable performances at every British championship racer. opportunity. And while his rivals are scratching their heads about how to beat him, the engine builder extraordinaire has Ron Douglas returned to his awning, briefed his team about the car and is Perhaps the original Rallycross star, Ron Douglas paved the off with his laptop to service customers. Hal Ridge way for the flamboyant, the eccentric, the engineers and the innovative. Having taken part in some of the earliest events, Junior Rallycross Douglas raced continuously until 1981, was among those The genuine Junior classes, those that are open to driver of British drivers who helped spread the word to Europe and less than 16-years, are playing a crucial role in the future of frequently led the way with new technical ideas: his most Rallycross. Any of the adult classes are open to those of 16 or radical car was a mid-engine Escort. Douglas also helped older, so it seems pretty futile to accommodate those racers in Martin Schanche in his formative days, introducing the Junior classes. There are not many takers for the Junior classes Norwegian to others who could help, and teaching him some wherever they exist, but the low participation levels should not tricks – and expanding his vocabulary! – along the way. His be seen as a weakness in the concept; if you have the money name does not appear very often in the list of winners of major Kerry Dunlop 26 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 27 100 Rallycross stories

events, but Ron Douglas’ influence on Rallycross far exceeds Group B cars, at least not in Rallycross form, but it sounded anything he achieved on the racetrack. brilliant, the combination of supercharger and turbocharger giving it the most unique and distinctive exhaust note. Unique, First lady that is, until Norwegian Jan Arthur Iversen decided that the There have been female competitors in Rallycross almost since best way to improve the performance of his RS200 was to add the very beginning, there have been separate championships a supercharger to its turbocharged BDT’E’ motor. The project for them and they have often held their own against male did not achieve its aim, but was a great example of freedom of competitors: Judith Jesty and Viv Potter were often as engineering allowed in Rallycross. successful as their husbands (Nick and David, respectively) in the 1970s, Cathy Caly was genuinely competitive with a Tohill’s logistics Quattro in France in the ’80s. The most successful woman Anybody who competes in the European Rallycross Rallycross in Rallycross to date remains Susann Hansen (née Championship has a constant headache. For once we are not Bergvall). Graduating from national events in Sweden, Bergvall talking about money here. Well, not directly anyway. Logistics won the 1400 Cup in the European championship 1994. The are a big part of competing, how to get yourself, your car and opposition that year were no push over and Bergvall’s success your team to and from events all over the continent. There was genuine; achieved because she was best. It remains more are two ways for a driver to work. There are those who simply difficult for females to make their way in motor sport than look after themselves, and let their team of choice sort out the Top: Sussan Hansen is the most successful female racer. Below: Rod it is for men, but with young women taking part in many logistics of the truck, team and car, and those who arrange Chapman – a great natural talent. Right: Maruszi was first Hungarian championships we may have a challenger to Mrs Hansen’s themselves and everything else. For most this is a headache, in the ERC. Bottom: Few work harder to beat logistics of being in the ERC record in the pipeline but for Derek Tohill there have been more obstacles than for than Irishman Derek Tohill. most. The first issue is the extra sea that has to be crossed, Tom Airey into the UK before going further into Europe, unless his truck In the list of British drivers who have won European is to sail for hour upon hour from the Emerald Isle to France championship events, two are listed with a pair of wins or Spain. Having learned lessons in 20078 ERC season, Tohill against their name. is bagged his brace in 2010 planned his 2010 campaign meticulously. The new Fiesta had and shares his place in the record book with Tom Airey. Tom been built by Ingvar Gunnarsson Motorsport and the Swedish who? Sussex-based Airey was the builder and tuner of fast engineer’s base would be the logistical hub for the next couple Minis and one of those engineers who could also drive the of years. Before and after every trip for the Irish team, truck equipment effectively. In 1974 he went to Lydden and beat the driver Gordon Lynch would fly to Sweden and, via a series best to win the European championship event. As if to prove of bus rides and lifts, collect the truck before heading to the that the result was no fluke, Airey repeated the achievement event. Similarly, going home, Lynch would return to Dublin up the following year but didn’t hang around in Rallycross for long to five days after the rest of the team having first taken truck after this. and car to Sweden. Hal Ridge

Rod Chapman Laszlo Maruszi CTP How to sum-up Chapman? If John Taylor was Prost, Chapman Perhaps the first driver to emerge from the ‘Eastern-bloc’ was Senna. Chapman was in that group of drivers who lived countries and take part in Rallycross events, film stunt man life just over the edge, always averting disaster and achieving Maruszi used a Renault R5 Turbo in the mid-1980s and devastating pace as well as being ridiculously flamboyant. appeared regularly at International events using an Audi Everyone remembers that Taylor was the first European Quattro and then a Group A Sierra Cosworth for a decade or champion in 1973, almost no-one ever recalls that second- more. When the European championship first went the other Iversen RS200 had a supercharger (left) and a turbocharger (right). placed Chapman was just half-a-point behind at the end of the way and crossed into Hungary in 2006, Maruszi returned to year. the driver’s seat after several years away from competition and drove a Mitsubishi Lancer rally car just to be a part of the The best wurst event. This goes back to food. The best thing you can get to eat at a German racetrack is a wurst, a sausage. Served with a bread Mixed surfaces roll and a dollop of mustard, it’s just right whatever variety of No dirt, no Rallycross? And vice versa? The very definition sausage you choose. The same thing will be found in the Czech of Rallycross is that it takes place on mixed surfaces, sealed Republic and Hungary but it is in Austria that you will find the and unsealed. So is it really Rallycross if there’s no gravel, or best wurst. This we can state with confidence because it is the if there’s no asphalt? The German championship has, in the view of FIA Off-Road Commission President Andy Lasure, a past, been to all gravel venues and still features an event at connoisseur of these things. Grundau which has only asphalt. The question is in the air again because the Global championship has revealed plans to Ford thinks it’s a Lancia race on courses with little or no gravel, perhaps just watered- The S4 may not have been in the best of the asphalt. Rallycross cars are exciting to watch in almost any 28 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 29 100 Rallycross stories

environment, but the defining point of the sport is that it takes dead, many more injured after cars left the racetrack and place on mixed surfaces. entered the spectator area. The crash resulted in changes to safety standards at tracks and to the mandatory use of treaded tyres and turbo restrictors on cars in international events. At Richard Hutton the Circuit des Ducs at Essay there is a small but poignant Britain’s other European champion. Richard Hutton had come memorial to those who lost their lives that day to Rallycross at 16, racing in Minicross after injury had cut short a successful motorcycle career in schoolboy speedway. Bernd Ziskofen Hutton was immediately good and turned up in the sport at a Perhaps the most influential man in Rallycross for 20 years, good time, a period in which, with the unstinting support of Bernd Ziskofen was instrumental in the introduction and his father Terry, he was able to make rapid progress through growth of Rallycross in Germany, the first event being run at the classes. Racing a Metro 6R4 1989, Hutton won an event his Estering track at Buxtehude in 1972. The figurehead for the at just 19-years-old, remaining the youngest winner in Britain sport in his homeland, the German was the ever present vice- until Andrew Jordan (17) lowered the mark in 2006. On president of the European Rallycross Association, apparently New Year’s day 1993, the day the car’s homologation became content to guide, advise – some might say manipulate – effective, Hutton won at Lydden in his Escort Cosworth, behind the president of the day. Ziskofen was one of those to bagging the first victory for the Ford. That year he ran Ludvig propose the formation of the ERA and he also had a foot in Hunsbedt close in the European championship, but had to give the FIA camp as his ASN’s representative on the FIA Off-Road best to his more experience rival. The following year, however, Commission. He was at the height of his power and influence there was no stopping Hutton as he won the European title when he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1993, aged just 51. at just 24-years-old. The Supercar Escort he raced after this Britain’s other European champion, Richard was so poor that even his prodigious talents could not make Hutton. Below: Per Eklund came home in 1993. Eurocircuit up for its shortcomings and after a year or so of struggling he Right: First event at the Eurocircuit. Bottom: A venue that provokes strong reactions and which has at Essay memorial. John Welch set standards for stopped racing. sponsorship and marketing that few have bettered. times been at the centre of controversy, the Eurocircuit at Valkenswaard in Holland has a unique place in the story of Per Eklund Rallycross as the first bespoke track. Opened on April 17 1971, He never really left Rallycross, but when it became clear that a little less than two years after the first Holland had hosted his professional career on the world rally stage was at an end, the first Rallycross event outside of Britain, the Eurocircuit Per Eklund looked to Rallycross with a renewed enthusiasm provided a home and solid foundation on which the success and vigour. The veteran Swede has had, is still having, one of of Rallycross in Europe was based. Those who criticise the the fullest motor sport careers imaginable and at 66-years-old Eurocircuit rarely, if ever, take any time to understand the has just embarked on a new adventure in America. We could restrictions under which the circuit is operated. In lots of ways fill an issue with Eklund’s career, but what marks the man out the Eurocircuit has led the way in Rallycross; computerised from contemporaries is his undying enthusiasm for motor results and timing screens in the paddock 20 or more years sport, he behaves like a teenager who’s just discovered the hot ago, plumbed-in track watering system. For all that it is new thing and has the stamina to work harder, for longer, than regarded by many as old fashioned. Traditional would be a

men half, even one-third of his age. Eklund is not just a star of better term, and there’s little wrong with tradition, specially Laumanns Eddi Rallycross, he is a legend in motor sport. when it is combined with the best modern practice. Miroslav Sefr Sponsorship 2 Czech drivers have become a regular part of the European There are now and always have been, drivers in Rallycross championship over the last couple of decades, but in the who can take part in the sport without the need for financial late 1980s when they first started to cross the border to race support from commercial companies. For many, however, outside their own country, they did so with Skodas that just racing is only possible when money is available from outside were not competitive against their European rivals. Of those sources. Being able to drive the car quickly is rarely enough to drivers who first came out of the Czech Republic, Miroslav guarantee that they will be successful in gaining that financial Sefr was the most successful, perhaps because he had the best support, in fact those who are able to perform as well in the of the Skodas, perhaps because his handling of the 130R was board room as in the racecar are a rare breed. For many years artistry. the best of them in Rallycross was British racer John Welch. In a long and very successful career Welch was rarely without Darkest day sponsors, and often major brands such as Lois jeans, STP and The safety record of Rallycross is good, very good in insurance company Sphere Drake. Welch was obviously good comparison to almost any other form of motor sport you at getting the sponsors in, but perhaps his greatest skill was car to choose. It’s darkest day was July 14 1996 during the in keeping the backer interested in the sport and making sure Internations Cup event that was, that year, being run at Essay- that it got a great return. Welch achieved much on the track, Alençon in France. A terrible accident left five spectators but as time goes on it is his commercial nous, his PR skills 30 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 31 100 Rallycross stories

and exceptional presentation standards, that stand out as the line at Mondello Park in Ireland. Godfrey had a starter motor factors that characterise his career. Things have changed a lot fail, and without a spare was out of the event. However, Lynch since Welch stopped racing, but he could teach many of today’s was first to offer his spare. Armed with this, Godfrey beat racers a thing or two. Lynch to the crown. Hal Ridge

The first Russians Boyds Quarry In the last few years we have become used not just to having A deep, dark hole near Mallusk, Boyds Quarry was home to Russian drivers in Rallycross, but to them being successful. The Rallycross in Northern Ireland until it moved to Nutts Corner current group of Russians racing in the ERC was, however, pre- Motorsport Centre in 1987. Quarries have often been used to dated by a two-car team entered by Novoil in 1994. Based at form the basis of a Rallycross track, the Estering in Germany, Ufa in Bashkortostan, 800 miles (1300km) east of Moscow, the the Lyngås Motorbane in Norway and Nyirad in Hungary are Novoil team entered a pair of four-wheel drive, turbocharged all old quarry sites. The Rallycross track at Boyds changed Renault 21s for Alexander Yerofeyev and Vladimir Makarov, often in layout because it was laid out in a working quarry. It the pair having previously raced in autocross. Despite rolling was also the scariest Rallycross track ever; a large tree was on his car twice during the French event, Yerofeyev was generally the apex of one bend, there was no need for a kerb because the more successful of the two and ended the year placed if you were that tight to the edge of the track you would have 13th in the championship with a best result of eighth place hit the tree. There was a jump, and a turns that ran almost up in Portugal, an event that involved team in a round trip of to the rockface. These days Rallycross in Northern Ireland is 9000miles (14,500km). Makarov completed the year classified much like Rallycross anywhere else in the world, but back then 18th, his best score coming with 12th place that he achieved in it had a unique atmosphere and provided among the most Austria, Sweden and Holland. enjoyable events ever. The Peugeot 306 built by G-Tech is still going stong, perhaps the most successful Rallycross car? Below: Godfrey and Lynch battle in Roy Edwards G-Tech Peugeot 306 Stock Hatch. Right: Roy Edwards – living legend. Bottom: Russian In his ninth decade, Roy Edwards recently turned a few laps Just as Will Gollop managed to claim the European Rallycross Alexander Yerofeyev raced in the ERC in 1994. Boyd’s Quarry, great of the Lydden Rallycross track, 45 years after he took part in Championship in 1992, the Group B era was brought to a events in a deep, dark hole in Ulster. the first ever Rallycross. Edwards was already a well known close, meaning curtains for Gollop’s iconic BiTurbo MG Metro competitor when Rallycross arrived but fell in love with 6R4. He embarked on a title defence with a new manufacturer the new sport and took part regularly during its formative and new platform, a Peugeot 309. Compared to his previous years. Even in the years when he did not take part, Edwards creations, Gollop’s 309 was dismal and was replaced in 1994 maintained his interest in Rallycross, sponsoring drivers by the new Peugeot 306. Built to the latest ‘carbon floor’ through his TonTyres and TonHire companies. He took part regulations, this was the start of something special in British in both the 30th and 40th anniversary events for Rallycross, Rallycross. Although Gollop wasn’t to win another event in hosting a magnificent hospitality area at the latter in 2007. The Europe, the 306 brought success in the British Championship, hallmark of Edwards’ character is his infectious enthusiasm, Gollop winning the title in 1996 and 1997. As Gollop left on an open and warm personality he is the last of those who took a high at the end of ’97, he passed the 306 baton to Helmut part in the first Rallycross to maintain a connection with the Holfeld who upheld the car’s honour by claiming the title for sport. the third year in a row. The car’s next owner was Irishman John McCluskey who transferred from rallying and learned Lynch and Godfrey his new sport in the 306. When McCluskey updated to an ex- People seem to feel at home in Rallycross because of the Hansen Xsara the Peugeot passed to Irish property developer camaraderie within the sport, more so than in rallying or George Tracey. Tracey was use the car for a number of years, circuit racing. This is in part due to how willing competitors and won several events in Ireland in the car. In a late night pub and teams are to help each other out in times of need. deal on the eve of a BRC event at Pembrey in 2006, the car However, it is one thing to receive help from a team in a changed hands again to Ollie O’Donovan, who enlisted Tony different class or tier within the sport, but quite another to Bardy Motorsport to prepare the ageing and used it to great be assisted by your most fierce rival. Between 2006 and 2008, effect to win the British title in 2007. In the summer of 2009 Tony Lynch and Julian Godfrey dominated the British Stock the car moved on again, RX150 graduate Andy Scott proving Hatch championship, and for those three seasons the titles immediately competitive in the car and placing third in the went down to the wire. However, despite the fact that every 2010 BRC, winning one event on the way. Scott still owns the single result counted as much as the next, there were two car and was competitive with it in the 2012 BRC opener. Bardy stand out moments that typified the Rallycross ethic. The first and Per Eklund have also raced the car, and many years after instance was on a hot August Bank Holiday Lydden Hill event, he tested it for Motorsport News, Ian Flux rated it as the best where Lynch had blown a head gasket in an early heat and car he’d ever track tested. was ready to go home and concede the event. Godfrey was the You can’t help feeling there is life in the old Pug’ yet ... it is person who came to the rescue, giving his spare and allowing only 18-years-old after all! Hal Ridge Lynch to continue. Later that same season, the title was on the 32 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 33 100 Rallycross stories

Höljes – need we say more?

Cheating Julian Godfrey, who dominated Stock Hatch, claiming the title We don’t see too much cheating in Rallycross. At least, twice, won the 2010 Supernational championship and then we don’t get many controversies where drivers are caught claimed the Supercar crown at his first attempt in 2011. cheating. Down the years there have been cases of cheating Hal Ridge with fuel, engine size, underweight cars, tyres that don’t meet the regulations, etc. all the usual kind of tricks. In recent years Trevor Hopkins the talk has been of traction control. Electronic cheating is For the first three years in which there was a British Rallycross much harder to detect than mechanical ‘analog’ cheating. Championship, Trevor Hopkins was the man. Completing a There has been no proven use of traction control, but the hat trick of titles in 1976, ’77 and ’78, Hopkins was at the top suspicion that it is there and being used lingers on. of his game in the mid-1970s but was very far from done in Rallycross. In 1985 he added a fourth title, a tactically strong Ladder climbing season with a two-litre BDG-powered Fiesta making him the For the last decade or so there has been a basic class last man to win the championship in a two-wheel drive car. In structure within British Rallycross that has comprised of 1993 he came within an ace of a fifth crown, pipped to the post Juniors, Minicross, Stock Hatch/Hot Hatch, SuperModified/ in the season finale by Mike Turpin. Competitive to that level Supernational and Supercar. There are many who have in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, Hopkins is also notable for finding contested two of these classes, but far fewer that have done success in rear-wheel drive, front-wheel drive and four-wheel three or more. The first person to have done four of these drive cars. classes was Mark Williams, who during his later stages of competing was commuting from America for the events Smoking he did. He started in Minicross, before moving to Stock As we get more ‘athletes’ in Rallycross there seems to less Hatch with a Citroën AX, and onto SuperModified with a room than ever for those who smoke. You’d often find Martin two wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo 6. He then bought the ex- Schanche passing time in the dummy grid with a quick Michael Coyne Supercar . Strangely, he was also smoke, and a memory of John Smith without a cigar is not to play his part in another driver’s ladder climbing later on. really a memory at all. Ludvig Hunsbedt would shrug off any Liam Doran is the other driver of note to have contested controversy or upset by sitting back and rolling a smoke and four different classes, starting in Juniors, before moving to that most relaxed of all racers, Ko Kasse reckons there’s always Stock Hatch with a Citroën Saxo, SuperModified with a time to roll a fag. A year or two ago in the Belgian ERC round, Ford Fiesta and then Supercar with his father’s Ford RS200, Kasse had carelessly parked in the sand. At the end of the race before a Ford Fiesta ERC, Citroën C4 ERC and now DS3. the recovery crew were in a hurry to get his car out and off the However, Doran’s exploits in the sport brought little success track, the Dutchman couldn’t see what the rush was about and until his graduation to Supercars. Unlike him, David Binks while the Belgian tried to hook his car to a rope, watched on, has had success at every level he has sampled. He started off rolling a cigarette. in Minicross, where he shared a team with his father John. Binks (Jnr) claimed the Minicross title in 2001, and moved up Höljes to SuperModified, in a BMW Mini. After a number of years It’s 25,000 Swedes and Norwegians getting up to all kinds of his team purchased the ex-Jan Huybs Mitsubishi Evo VII mischief in the woods. It’s great racing. It’s the best organised Supercar from Belgium, which proved to be a great learning ERC round of the year. Höljes has become a monster. Mark Williams raced in every platform in the sport’s top class. When he started exceeding BRC class. Right: A quick Finnskoga Motor Klubb has created and nurtured the event the abilities of the car, he moved onto a Ford Fiesta ERC, and smoke before a race. Below: over many years, the club working towards the common goal won national events. Backing from Best Buy (of whom Mark Trevor Hopkins was a British of making its event successful and, when they’d done that, Williams is a senior executive) allowed Binks to make the next great, Ludvig Hunsbedt one of refusing to rest. The track has been developed and improved the best ever. step and he is now a professional racer, team mate to Marcus over the years. The facilities at the track expanding, updated, Grönholm, in Best Buy’s Global Rallycross team. Another improved. More space made for camping and partying as the professional racer to climb the ranks is Andrew Jordan, who spectator attendance grew. It’s not perfect and there remains learned in Juniors, dabbled in Stock Hatch and then spent room for improvement, but the club knows this and regularly time in Supercars – becoming the youngest Supercar racer sends its officials out to see what is being done at other venues. and youngest ever British event winner, before turning his The details are not important for the spectator, for those who attention to British Touring Cars. Gareth Wood has driven flock to the little village in the middle of nowhere on the first all sorts of cars in the sport, and has been on the podium weekend of July, the agenda is simple. Racing and fun. And on in Stock Hatch, SuperModified and Supercar. Ash Simpson those points, Höljes delivers every time. has won at every level he raced at; event wins in Junior Rallycross, championships in Stock Hatch and has won events Ludvig Hunsbedt in SuperModified/Supernational where, this year, he stands Throughout his first career in Rallycross, Ludvig Hunsbedt a good chance of winning the British championship. Most was regarded as a consistently good, successful and clever successful of the British ladder climbers currently racing is competitor. When he returned in 2007 he was the same old 34 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 35 100 Rallycross stories

Hunsbedt, but Rallycross had moved on a bit. The paddock had become more professional, more serious, squarer. Whatever Hunsbedt is, he is not square and the return of the Norwegian veteran was a breath of fresh air. ‘Old skool’ is a term easily applied to many, but it perfectly fits Hunsbedt. When Bergteamet’s Volvo S40 was at its best, Hunsbedt was, again, as fast as any driver, and faster than most. And on the days the car wasn’t quite there but when he had it in his mind to drive round any shortcomings, it was truly a sight to behold. Hunsbedt will go down as a true great of Rallycross and perhaps just how good he is can be judged by this remark from Kenneth Hansen who observed how Hunsbedt had brought order and success to the Bergteamet squad and said simply “Clever old Ludvig, he’s good.” Start here Rallycross may not seem like the most obvious place to start a career in motor sport, but among the relatively small number who started here and then pursued a professional career, there are some outstanding successes. John Brundle was a regular competitor in Rallycross events at his local Snetterton track and these were among the first experiences of motor sport for his son Martin who went all the way to F1 and world championship sportscar racing. Better known, began his career in Rallycross, the 2003 World Rally champion remaining one of the best in his game. Thomas Rådström had a career as a professional driver in the WRC and continues to work as a driver coach while switched to circuit racing and found success in Europe, Britain and now Scandinavia as a pro-racer. Jonny Milner racked up success in the British Rally championship while of those who have progressed from Junior Rallycross, Andrew Jordan’s success in the BTCC makes him the most notable. The bald facts are that

Rallycross can teach a broad range of skills that are transferable Laumanns Eddi to racing or rallying. Entry-point racing We all get hung up on the best and fastest cars in Rallycross but perhaps the most important cars in the sport are at the other end of the scale, the ones in which new drivers are most likely to get their first experience of racing. There will always be some who can get into the sport at quite a high level, but most will want to try it without having to spend too much money. Perhaps low cost, easy access classes give an unrealistic view of what it costs to compete, but the provision of a genuinely affordable level as the bottom rung of the ladder is probably essential to get new drivers into Rallycross. Lydden It doesn’t seem to matter how often the question is asked or how many other tracks you see, asked where the best place is to watch Rallycross, Lydden is always in the answer. The truth is that I genuinely do not know where the very best place to Left: Lydden is still one of the best places watch Rallycross is but those circuits that afford the possibility to watch Rallycross. Top: The young Petter to see all, or almost all, of the track from a single vantage point Solberg was a winner in rallycross. This pic: Entry point classes are essential. obviously have an advantage. Lydden ticks that box but offers 36 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 37 100 Rallycross stories

so much more: in this year’s wet ERC round many rediscovered between competitors, and between engine builders, has the pleasure of being able to sit in your car and still watch the claimed that power is up. 600, even 620bhp has been claimed Escort and Mini, where would we be without them? Right: racing. Lydden has fast stuff, slow corners, undulations and “Knapick” races under an assumed name. Below right: in the last year or two. Fuel can muddy these waters, FIA- enough space to allow drivers to race. It is, of course, where Kenny McKinstry never had enough power but Arild spec fuel is not as powerful as America-spec fuel. But it’s all Rallycross was invented, it remains the ‘Home of Rallycross’. Martinsen’s BMW was claimed to have the magic 1000bhp. child’s play compared to what drivers had before that restrictor It may not be the absolute best place to watch Rallycross, and was mandatory. To be competitive, the best were running best means different things to different people, but it would be 700bhp, 800 was not unusual and just a few times over the an extraordinary point of view to deny that it is among the best years, the magic 1000bhp was claimed. Matti Alamäki’s 1985 two or three place to see Rallycross. title-winning Porsche 911 was, famously, reckoned to be good for 1000bhp, as was Arild Martinsen’s 1987 BMW M3. Who Escort and Mini knows if they ever ran that much power, but the power they Of all the cars that have ever been used in Rallycross the Escort had was greater than today’s cars. Enough to leave four black and the Mini are probably the most prolific and successful. The lines of rubber on the exit of a corner. versions used in Rallycross were based on production models and as both cars had long production lives it meant that there Kenny McKinstry were plenty of them around. Good supply means that the price There are plenty of drivers who have spent all their time in

Kerry Dunlop was never too high and as both cars enjoyed widespread use motor sport getting improbably good results from relatively in many different forms of motor sport there was also a great poor equipment, some stand out from the crowd and one them supply of tuning equipment for them. Of course, had the cars is Ulsterman Kenny McKinstry. Now well known and revered been no good, then it would not have mattered how available for his success in rallying and in preparing and running rally they were. The happy fact is that both the Escort and the cars, McKinstry was one of the happy-go-lucky band from Mini were great for Rallycross, and that they could be put on Northern Ireland who would add colour and character to an the track for a price that was affordable by many. It’s unlikely event. In a MkII Escort McKinstry was great, when he built that we will ever see the same kind of thing again. The MkI a four-wheel drive he had to work extra hard because he was Escort introduced in 1968, the MkII in 1975 and remained in never able to stretch to a turbo motor and had to rely upon a production until 1980. With major mechanical components BDA. The car just didn’t have enough power to win, but often readily carried over from one to the other, there was an McKinstry would challenge far better machinery. effective 12 year production run. The Mini, in its various forms, was produced from 1959 until 2000, so there was never Unlikely cars a shortage of base models. For all the successful cars that have been used in Rallycross, there were those who chose the unlikely. Will Gollop struggled Pseudonyms with a Triumph Toledo, Barry Squibb tried his hand with an French veteran “Knapick” took his pseudonym as method of Austin Allegro… Unlikely did not always mean unsuccessful, taking part in motor sport against the wishes of his parents. no-one ever looked at the Citroën Xantia and thought There are others who race under a name other than their own, ‘wow, great racecar’, but Jean-Luc Pailler won plenty in his British racer “Mad Mark” uses his ‘professional’ name on his Supercar version. Plenty of drivers have built poor cars and racing licence. Having always used his motor sport activities as struggled on with them or quietly moved on to something part of his personal publicity, the DJ and now hotelier is really else, few have resorted to the extreme measure employed by Mark Watson, but known throughout motor sport as “Mad Guttorm Lindefjell to rid himself of an unlikely, unsuccessful Mark”. Italian Valerio Gmeller, meanwhile, has “Duck Dodgers” and unloved racecar. Lindefjell’s Daewoo Nexia was pants written on his racing licence and does this for not better and having been unable to sell it, he decided that he would reason than it gets a laugh and “racing is supposed to be fun”. welcome the new century by blowing the car up! Finnish racer Martti Kangas was successful in late 1970s-early ’80s with a Porsche 911 and had rather more complex reasons Unpredictability for adopting the moniker “Jorma Kovanen” when he returned As recently as the French round of this year’s European in the ’90s with an MG Metro 6R4. Rallycross Championship we have seen just how unpredictable Rallycross. There are days when things progress without a Power ruffle or flurry and when the outcome appears to be apparent For years, almost since the 45mm turbo restrictor was early in the event. Perhaps more than any other form of racing, imposed, the power of a Supercar has been quoted at 550bhp – however, Rallycross has the knack of allowing the unexpected give or take a little. Torque figures have gone up, the very best to happen. The number of variables contribute to this, so to engines can deliver 1000nM, and the way in which the power does the nature of short races; there’s no time to plan and is delivered, managed, and is used by the driver has become develop a strategy or play a long game, drivers just have to get much more friendly thanks to the way in which the electronic in and go for it. Unpredictability makes Rallycross interesting systems that are used to control it, have developed. Recently for everyone who is involved, it captivates fans and challenges power outputs have gone up, or at least the verbal jousting drivers and engineers. Above all it makes Rallycross exciting. 38 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM38 RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 39 100 Rallycross stories

Fans Without fans, be they the ones who go out to racetracks and Here be giants. Schanche (left) formed long watch the event live or the armchair fan at home in front of the running rivalries with Olle Arnesson and television, there would be no Rallycross. A great strength of Matti Alamäki. The three together in 1986 Rallycross is that it appeals to a wide variety of people, young and (below) Schanche and Alamäki in 1989. Right column: The Rallycross fan is out in all and old, family groups, die-hard racing fans, they are all to be weather, comes prepared for the day and is found at an event. There are those who attach their support not afraid to show who the support. to a specific driver, those who just want to see a good race. At the racetrack everyone rubs shoulders with everyone else and there’s no less enjoyment among the casual viewer than there is for the hard-core ‘expert’ fan. Bad history All those monkeys out there who continue to repeat the often told but factually incorrect story that Rallycross was invented when the 1967 RAC Rally was cancelled in the wake of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Britain. Enough already! The RAC Rally took place in November 1967, by which time there had been a handful of Rallycross events run on the back of the enormous success of the first one that had taken place in February of that year. John Sprinzel Of the small group involved in the formation of Rallycross, racer, rally driver, raconteur and 1960s motor sport ‘personality’, John Sprinzel played an important role. He drove his MG Midget in the first event but having been critical of the commentator, then transferred to the commentary box. It was Sprinzel, however, who coined the term Rallycross, mashing up rally and autocross to give the new sport its name. Rivalries Not those little tiffs and falling outs that occur in almost every event, here we’re talking about those fuming, boiling, running battles. The kind of things that fester between events and break out into open warfare on the racetrack. Martin Schanche seemed to specialise in such all-out, no-holds-barred rivalry Andy Bentza, Matti Alamäki, Olle Arnesson, Will Gollop were just some of the more high profile rivals to lock horns with Schanche. British Rallycross has also had its great rivalries, Rob Gibson and, well, Rob Gibson and just about anyone. Always his own man, Gibson was once dubbed the ‘Mick McManus of Rallycross’, McManus being the bad-boy of televised wrestling in Britain at the time. John Welch and Tony Drummond came from different schools of thought on racing, engineering, everything. Their great rivalry came to a head in the 1980 British championship at Lydden, Welch suffering a huge crash in the televised event after hunting down Drummond. Colin McRae He never raced a Rallycross car, but Colin McRae once drove Dermot Carnegie’s Supercar, and was to have been given a shot in an RS200 by Ford. In 1989, at the stage of his career when he was regularly trashing Sierra , and when Ford Motorsport had an RS200 that it was using 40 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 41 100 Rallycross stories

in Rallycross, it was suggested that McRae’s temperament might be better suited to Rallycross and John Taylor had it in mind to put his young star in the Rallycross car. That never happened and much later, in 2002, McRae got his only run in a Rallycross when offered a turn at the wheel by Carnegie at the Punchestown Rallysprint event. McRae reckoned the car was the “fastest thing I’ve ever driven, including the time I tried an F1,” and Carnegie was surprised, and impressed, to find the Scot running a gear higher than he had been. McRae never racing in Rallycross remains a great ‘what if…’ Night racing The first deliberate attempt to run a Rallycross event at night was at Maasmechelen in Belgium in 1990. The event was a great success, but the idea was not repeated for many years. The Hungarian championship has an event that runs into darkness but the big, high profile push to re-establish a night race has come in the British championship. The first of these, run at Blyton in 2010 was broadcast live on Motors TV. Repeated in 2001, the event was moved to Knockhill this year and became entered the twilight zone, running into the dusk at 2100 at the Scottish venue. It did not quite recapture the atmosphere of the night events, the best periods of which come in the transition from day to night, that not-quite dark period a magical time. Restrictions on the hours of use make running a night race a difficult proposition, but where it’s possible it is a well worthwhile exercise. Mechanics For the most part they are the unsung heroes of motor sport. They get a nod of thanks here and there, but without the hard Night racing is great. Below: Mechanics working men and women who build and maintain Rallycross make it all possible, this lot were the cars things would be very different. These days they often get class of 1992. Right: Four-wheel drive Capri became a legend. promoted to ‘engineer’, but what we call them is of no great consequence, the people who lie in the mud and the rain, who toil in the heat, who work through the night, who do extraordinary things and create wonderful cars are essential. Scandinavia It is now widely accepted that the first real Rallycross event in Scandinavia took place at Hedemora Motorstadion in Sweden in October 1971. That event came six months after Bud Smith had overseen one at Korskro Motor Centrum near Esbjerg in Denmark. Featuring a host of the early stars of the sport and run to a Rallycross format, the Korskro event is not regarded as having been the first Scandinavian Rallycross because the track used had no asphalt… Four-wheel drive The question of who was first to race a four-wheel drive car in Rallycross is unlikely ever to be resolved. The reason for this is that at the beginning of 1969 British television networks ITV and BBC were both using Rallycross a flagship sport. ITV based its event at Croft while BBC had become resident at Lydden and on February 8 both circuits were in use for

Rallycross. In Kent BMC produced a four-wheel drive Triumph CTP 42 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 43 100 Rallycross stories

1300 that was driven by Brian Culcheth while at Croft Ford over Europe in front of huge crowds of excitable and noisy gave the four-wheel drive Capri its debut with Roger Clark at fans makes for an incredible atmosphere. The fans really make the wheel. At both venues the new cars were the fastest but at ERC events special, for the most part they are so enthusiastic Croft, while Clark was allowed to race it, the Capri was ruled and knowledgeable. At the events you can go from chatting to ineligible for the event victory. There were no such concerns winners of World rallies in the drivers’ briefing, to lining up at Lydden where Culcheth won. So although it’s not clear who next to multiple European and World champions in races. The was first to race one, the first driver to win in a four-wheel friends you make is a massive part of the ERC, and when you drive was Kentish policeman, racer and rally driver Culcheth. are stuck for a bolt or a welder and you are all many hundreds of miles from home there is an incredible camaraderie and Dumbed down, tech’d up almost everybody is willing to help out. Ever since the first real set of technical regulations for As far as I’m concerned the whole thing is an adventure. Rallycross cars, enforced in 1976, brought an end to the wildest From the moment you leave the front door until you return, and most extreme cars – saloons with engines in the passenger the experiences along the way are incredible, not necessarily compartment, autocross specials, buggies and open cars – always in a good way. Bizarrely, some of my fondest moments there has been a gradual process of restricting the freedom from doing the ERC as a whole have involved the travelling, the of engineering. Today’s cars are the most sophisticated ever, people you meet when you are waiting for ferries in the middle they are also the fastest. The technical rules may be ‘dumbed of the night, the incredible rural scenery when you are lost in down’ from the point of view that they are prescriptive and do the deepest Czech countryside, stumbling across familiar faces not allow much room to be radical with the way in which the at service stations in the middle of Germany, and blagging your car is built. On the other hand, the way in which permissible way though border controls when you are pretty sure you don’t technology is used, the advances in engine management and have the correct paperwork. But life is all about experiences suspension, has allowed the evolution of the best Rallycross and I am genuinely in love with the whole thing. Would I like cars yet. to fly out to the events to meet my team who had already set up the awning on the side of the truck and got the car ready for Why? the weekend? Yes, of course, and maybe someday in the future I am constantly asked one question surrounding my desire to that will be possible, but in doing what I do I have had some race in the European Rallycross Championship, and the way unforgettable experiences that I will cherish forever. in which I do it. ‘Why?’ And if you were to look at it from an Hal Ridge outsider’s point of view, with cold logic and common sense, the answer would probably be ‘I have no idea!’ Fun Even without all the work and heartache away from the Above all Rallycross is fun. Driving, watching, working, it racetrack to find the resources required to race in the first doesn’t matter how you take the sport, it is, and should always place, who in their right mind would possibly want to spend be fun. their weekend travelling over 2500 miles in a transit van at There is love for the old cars, but the current breed are the 60 miles an hour, the very same transit that once you arrive fastest, most sophisticated Rallycrossers ever. Below: Hal Ridge tries to explain why racers race. at the track turns into kitchen, living area and bedroom for myself and two other team members. We depart as late as possible from the UK to avoid time away from work, and drive constantly until we get to the circuit. On arrival, we have to empty the van to create a sleeping and cooking area, and sorting everything into the awning to work on the car. Post event, we load the car back onto the trailer as soon as we can after the final race, squeeze everything back into the van and head for the hills, usually involving no real sleep until your head hits the pillow in your own bed. By which time I usually feel fairly rough, full of caffeine and motorway service station crap, sorry, food. Sounds like something you may only do once and then never again, doesn’t it? There are cons, if you will, but the pros far outweigh these in my opinion, even if sometimes in the middle of the night on the side of a French motorway changing trailer punctures in the rain you momentarily forget there are any pros at all. However, you never feel that way for long. The experience of competing in the ERC is superb, even at the level I am at. The amazing buzz you get from driving the types of car in the championship, on some incredible and varied circuits all 44 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 45 #100 The covers Three different publishing methods have been used in the 11 years since Rallycross World launched. Here are the covers for all 100 issues. If you’d like to have the image for a wallpaper, click here.

RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 47 Diary gallery Transverse transition It was only a matter of time before transverse-engined cars, the so called ‘new breed’ of Supercar, started to win events. The first major victory for such a car was gained by Russian driver who won the third round of the European Rallycross Championship in Austria with his Citroën DS3.

RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 49 Diary May Diary

May 4 The British Rallycross Championship moves to Knockhill for Faleyras and is won by Gaetan Serazin who extends his points of America launches its three car team for the Global an event that starts in the afternoon and runs into the evening, lead over Jerome Grosset-Janin who could do no better than Rallycross Championship. Backed by Puma and run by finishing under the setting sun at 2100. Defending champion fourth place. Title hodler Samuel Peu kicked his defence into Vermont SportsCar, the team is led by established Subaru Juian Godfrey dominates the day, setting fastest time and life with second place and Philippe Tollemer had another good driver Dave Mirra who is joined by and winning the A final from pole position. Steve Hill has a good run to place third. Laurant Chartrain took the Super1600 win, multi X Games skateboard medalist Bucky Lasek. The team day to place second in his Mitsubishi Lancer E10 ahead of Marc Morize best of the Division Three pack in his Peugeot has worked hard on its WRX STi, creating round one winner Ollie O’Donovan and Pat Doran in his new 207-based car while Jean-Luc Durel emerges as the surprise purpose-built Rallycross cars for the new season. Citroën DS3. Ash Simpson wins the Supernational class, Andy winner of Division Four. The Logan Cup has its first event of Knowles got the Super1600 win and James Ross was best of the the year, Fabien Grosset-Janin beating the experienced Gaetan Super1600: 1.6L @ 240 bhp TouringCar: 2.0L @ 296 bhp May 5 Junior championship. Jan to take the win. Duratec HE Hedströms Motorsport confirms that rally driver PG Andersson will drive its second Skoda Fabia Supercar in the » Ari Perkiomäki wins the first round of the Finnish Rallycross » The second round of the Central European Zone Swedish round of the European Rallycross Championship at Championship at Veteli, the Fiesta driver leading home championship takes place at Nyirad and is used as a Höljes. The event will be the first Rallycross for Andersson, Atro Määttä (Focus) and Harri Arola (Mazda RX7). The shakedown event for the ERC round. Zoltan Harsanyi who drives for Proton in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship Supernational class is won by Joni-Pekka Rajala (Escort VII). (Mitsubishi Lancer) eventually takes the win from Austrian and selected other events. Alois Holler (Focus) and Autocross star Attila Mozer (Skoda May 13 Fabia). The event also counts for the Hungarian, Austrian, www.zomermotorsport.com May 12 The third round of the French championship takes place at Czech and Polish champiosnhips. Klaus Freudenthaler (Fabia) [email protected] wins Super1600 and Roman Castoral (Astra G) takes the tel. 0031 (0)548 - 361385 TouringCar win. a potential winner, from start to podium May 15 Serve, a pre-paid account from American Express, is revealed as the sponsor of David Binks’ Ford Fiesta for the 2012 Global Rallycross Championship. Champions

May 19 US-based Belgian David Sterckx (Mitsubishi Lancer) wins Sunoco and R racing fuels are renowned for their the first round of the US Rallycross Series at New Jersey consistency, quality and performance. We stock a wide Motorsports Park. Most of the entries are in the event’s two, range of unleaded and leaded racing fuels ranging from two-wheel drive classes. Eric Vlasic (Honda Civic) tops the 100 to 119 octane for immediate delivery to your door. ‘Super’ class ahead of Kyle Gagliardi’s Mustang. The ‘Limited’ Please call our technical hot line for any enquires. category is by Josh Wimpey (VW Golf II) who leads home Colin Wooding’s BMW E36. Anglo American Oil Company Ltd +44 (0)1929 551557 (T) +44 (0)1929 551567 (F) » The Norwegian Rallycross Championship starts at [email protected] www.aaoil.co.uk Momarken where the reintroduced Supercar class is won by RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 51

AAOC Rallycross ad 12.indd 1 9/3/10 13:59:06 Diary May

Håkon Gjesdal Nilsen in rthe ex-Frode Holte Volvo S40. The rain shower causes confusion. The Supernational classes are Supernational classes remain numerically strongest, Terje won by Kristof Bex (Volvo S40) andPedro Cokelaere, the latter Morstad (BMW E46) beginning the year with another victory winning the under 2000cc bracket in his Honda Civic. ahead of Herbjorn Haug (Mercedes). Class Two is topped by Henning Nyberg (Mazda RX7) who beats Lars Øiviund May 23 Enerberg in his TouringCar Fiesta VI. Super1600 champ Trond Super1600 racer Daniel Holten says that he will step up to the Marthinsen (Citrouen Saxo) starts his season with a win over Supercar class for his home ERC event at Hell in Norway, and Thommy Tesdal (Opel Corsa C). the following weekend’s Swedish round at Höljes. The 20-year- old is to drive Frode Holte’s Volvo C30 Supercar in the events. » The opening round of the NEZ championship takes place the following day at Momarken and presents Camila Antonsen (Fiesta VI), who had been second in the national event, with a victory. Thomas Andersson takes second in his BMW 1 and Lithuanian Kazimieras Gudziunas (Puma). Morstad repeated his Saturday form to beat Ola Froshaug (Volvo S40) and win the Open class. The 2000 class is won by Erik Svartås (BMW E30) and the only non-Norwegian win was taken by Reinis Nitiss (Peugeot 206) in the 1600 section.

» The Dutch and Belgian championships come together at the Eurocircuit where Jos Kuypers (Fiesta VII) wins what is the second round of the Dutch series. Ronny Scheveneels at long last appears to be making progress with his VW Scirocco May 26 » Kouvola hosts the second round of the Finnish Rallycross (below) and finishes the event in second place, in doing so The first round of the Global Rallycross Championship is won Championship where Ari Karttunen (Skoda Fabia) takes taking the points lead in the Belgian championship, of which May 25 by Marcus Grönholm, the Finn having a relatively easy passage the win ahead of Pertti Tapojärvi (Mitsubishi Lancer) and this is the third round. Pedro Bonnet’s strong season continues Scott-Eklund Racing strikes a late deal for Dodge drift refugee through the event to lead home fellow Ford driver Tanner Ari Perkiomäki (Fiesta). Mika Perttula (Fiesta VI) takes the as he takes the TouringCar win with his Volvo C30 and Peter Samuel Hubinette to drive its second Saab 93 in the GRC Foust and Hyundai’s Stephane Verdier. Run at Charlotte Supernational win. van de Wege (Toyota Yaris) grabs the Super1600 win after a opener at Charlotte. Motor Speedway the event takes place on an all-asphalt track, a section of which is watered. The jump used in practice is May 27 removed during the racing after the temporary structure was The European Rallycross Championship gets its third winner found to be damaging the surface of the racetrack. Water-filled in as many events, and the first event win by one of the ‘new plastic barriers define sections of the track, but also inflict breed’ transverse-engined Supercars as Timur Timerzyanov heavy damage to those that hit them; Ken Block going out of takes his Hansen Motorsport Citroën DS3 to victory at the the event after hitting the barriers in the first heat. PS Racing Center in Greinbach. and complete the podium. Super1600 and TouringCar get first-time winners, Ulrik Linnemann winning the former while Swedish ERC debutant (above) picks up the TouringCar win after race leader Derek Tohill spins.

» The second round of the German rallycross Championship takes place at Grundau’s all-asphalt track. Austrian Willy Salzgeber (Focus) wins the event ahead of the similar car of Bernd Wilhelm. Andreas Steffen (Fabia II) beats Sven Seeliger (Fiesta VI) to win the Super1600 class while Hans Kirchhof (Porsche 911 GT3) is best of trhe Supernational pack. May 31 The 100th issue of Rallycross World is published. Launched in the summer of 2001, 15 issues were published in the » Driving Patrick Ydrefalk’s TToyota Corolla, Urban Bergström magazine’s original format as a quarterly print title. In April takes victory in the first round of the Swedish Rallycross 2005 it was redesigned an began monthly publication as Championship at Höljes where he lewads home Daniel Wall an ‘e-zine’, distributed by email and internet as a pdf. There (Volvo V40) and Fredrik Toger (BMW E36). The 2400 class was another redesign in August 2009 to enable Rallycross is won by Per Berglund (Volvo S40) and Sebastien Eriksson World to add the option for readers to buy a printed copy of (BMW E36) wins the Junior championship. the magazine via an online print-on-demand service while

Johan Dingenen Johan continuing with online distribution as a pdf. 52 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 53 Shoestring stories – the life of a low budget racer in the European championship Hungary for more Problems finally solved, Ridge is going racing Eddi Laumanns Eddi

After overcoming engine problems, Hal Ridge is off for his first event of the year – in Hungary.

Firstly, I would like to personally congratulate all involved, on getting to the third round of the ERC in Austria two weeks back into the car. We also have a spare on the way, just in case We have made some improvements to the engine and obviously mainly Mr Whittington, for reaching one hundred later. Unfortunately when I received the flywheel in the week it should be required in Hungary, but obviously I hope it won’t gearbox, and although these are interim as I hope to have issues of Rallycross World. Most readers will probably never following Knockhill, it turned out that it was slightly different be needed. further changes and updates in time for the next British realise the effort that goes into a monthly publication such to the previous one in my Clio, so the clutch pre-load was I have always tried to carry a fairly comprehensive spares championship event at Mallory Park, we are still in a better as this. Rallycross World was a catalyst to getting me really way-off being right. This knocked the idea of Austria on the package, but this is a vastly expensive exercise and we cannot position than we have been before. These changes will, I interested in the sport before I started to compete myself in head as we had to have the flywheel machined again to make carry everything. Nevertheless, in Hungary we will have a hope, make significant differences to the Clio but we are now 2005, and people still find it as interesting now as I did then. it the same as the previous one. Once back, it was all fitted spare clutch to try and cover a worst case situation. making alterations to the car in areas where we need to learn Here’s to another one hundred issues. back together and, with five days to go before departure for the This will be the second furthest event I have raced at, the trip and improve in order to transfer that knowledge into the new I have had a turbulent Renault-based month, but it is about Hungarian ERC event, the car ran without a misfire for the first to Poland in 2010 being a little further for us. As ever we are Twingo. to end on a high. In two days from writing this we will be on time in 2012. It was a brilliant feeling to have finally solved the doing a dash for the boat and will drive between us constantly On the subject of the Twingo, work on that has been slow in the road to Hungary for round four of the ERC – finally. problem, we had worked out what was wrong and were able until we arrive in Hungary. This isn’t the most pleasurable way the last month, the Clio and misfire issues taking precedence We didn’t make it to Knockhill for the second round of the to take steps and make quite a drastic change to solve that, of travelling, naturally, but when there are three of you in a van as we needed to have the engine running properly no matter British championship. The new flywheel we needed in order despite a few hurdles along the way. full of stuff, it isn’t really possible to stop and for everyone to which car it was in. New parts have continued to be made to be able to use a Renault crank angle sensor didn’t arrive at While running the car and checking the misfire had gone, I sleep, so it ends up being the most practical way to do it. though, with more arriving too. There is a good gap between MB Motorsport who were doing the machining work until the was concerned there might be a small issue with the clutch, so We go into this weekend with a bit of unknown. The Hungary and Mallory Park, so hopefully in that time the day before the event, so there simply wasn’t time to make the the gearbox has been taken out again, not the fastest job on a track, which I have only ever seen in videos, looks like a real Twingo will make some good steps forward. Check back next changes needed for the trigger pattern, get the flywheel to me, Clio as the subframe has to be removed in order to do this. As challenge, and the people who are probably at a similar level to month to find out. get it in the car and then get to the event. We instead focused it stands we have checked the clutch over and it is ready to go us in Super1600 are locals with lots of home track knowledge. halridge.com 54 | #100 – June 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM RallycrossWorld.COM #100 – June 2012 | 55 - WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLDWebsite RALLYCROSS- WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD- RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS- WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS- WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSSJ WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD- RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSSMagazine WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS- WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS- WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLDJ RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD- RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLYCROSSYearbook WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS- WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD- RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS- WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLDJ RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD- RALLYCROSSWORLD.COM WORLDRallycross RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLY CROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD RALLYCROSS WORLD