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#97 march 2012

BAD TO THE BONE: WHY GROUP B CARS WERE SO GOOD

25 years since the Group B boom, we pose some questions about the new Rallycross season and wonder if this car is going to change the world?

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CopyrightRallycross World is published monthly by Myriorama Ltd. This publication may not be redistributed, copied or reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the written consent of the copyright holder. Unless otherwise stated, all text and photographs are © copyright Tim Whittington 2011. [email protected]

Contributors: Eddi Laumanns, Hal Ridge, Henk de Winter, Johan DingenenThis issue published : March 1Next issue published: April [email protected] myriorama

BriefingA brief look back as we enter the new seasonHere we are then, as the master of going faster for less, Hal Ridge points out this month, the season is upon us.

Ireland, the only place where they are brave enough to race through the winter concludes its national series at the start of March, the same day that the Belgian championship pushes open the door on a new year of racing.

We take a look forward to next month’s first round of the European Rallycross Championship as well as a glance back at the Group B invasion that, a quarter of a century ago, set in motion what has come to be regarded as the ERC’s finest period. The attraction of Group B cars has not faded, if anything they are more popular now than ever: at Autosport International in January Liam Doran displayed his Citroën C4 and also the RS200 in which he’ll compete at Pikes Peak International Hillclimb. The Citroën had its admirers, but around the RS200 there was a perma-crowd.

Charismatic, aggressive, fast, spectacular – dangerous. Group B cars were mad and bad. That’s their enduring appeal.

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#97 march 2012

RallycrossWorld.COM #97 – March 2012 | 32 | #97 – March 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM

Contents5 Top Story 7 Diary Gallery 12 Diary December February 16 Group B boom of ’87 22 2012 preview26 David Binks30 Shoestring stories


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The British round of the European Rallycross Championship will have live TV coverage for the first time since the mid-1980s. Since securing the return of an ERC round in Britain in 2009, Lydden Hill and its associated organising club LHMC has progressively developed the event. In addition to the live TV coverage, the 2012 event will be the first to have a title sponsor, something that has seen it branded as the Monster Energy International Rallycross Festival.

Along with the commercial partnership with a major international brand, the live coverage has been introduced as LHMC aims to make the British event the best of the year. With broadcast slots on Motors TV planned on both days of the event, the Monster Energy International Rallycross Festival will set the bar for television coverage high at the start of the 2012 season.

“We are pushing to make this the best event in the

championship,” said LHMC Clerk of the Course Willie Woods, “The involvement of a major multi national brand like Monster Energy is a vote of confidence in what we are doing but we cannot relax and securing live TV broadcasts with high production values is a crucial element of making the event successful for us and for all the competing teams who will benefit from top quality broadcasts.”

LHMC has also made the generous offer to provide TV coverage, either as a live feed or as unedited footage of the event, to other broadcasters or producers.

The British round of the 2011 championship led the way in the provision of an organised autograph session with drivers and there are plans for other elements to be added to the programme this year to further enhance the spectator experience. The British ERC round will be run on Sunday and Monday of Easter weekend, April 8-9.

Lydden goes liveExtended live shows planned as Britain bids to be best

RallycrossWorld.COM #97 – March 2012 | 5

JULIAN GODFREYCosworth YB – 543bhp, 810Nm torqueBritish Rallycross Champion 2011

JOS KUYPERSCosworth YB – 543bhp, 920Nm torqueDutch Rallycross Champion 2011

KOEN PAUWELSDuratec 2.0 – 304.7bhp, 256.8Nm torqueBelgian Rallycross Champion, TouringCar 2011

+44 (0)1435 865999RACETUNERS.COM

JULIAN GODFREYDuratec 1.6 – 225bhp, 181Nm torqueWinner, 2011 Super1600 ERC Belgium

SVERRE ISACHSENCosworth YB – 543bhp, 920Nm torqueEuropean Rallycross Champion 2009European Rallycross Champion 2010European Rallycross Champion 2011

Top story

Easter weekend at Lydden is the big event of the year, this year it gets live television broadcasts too.

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Diary galleryWhite wins ‘Over the Fence’ competitionThis picture, by Steve White, of Marcus Grönholm balancing on two wheels at Lydden has been selected as the winning entry in RallycrossWorld.com’s ‘Over the Fence’ photo competition. The runners-up were Johan Hendrickx and Wojciech Sobiecki, whose pictures can be seen with White’s on RallycrossWorld.com


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Diary galleryNew colours for Block’s Rallycross moveHoonigan Ken Block confirmed that he would take part in Rallycross events for the first time (outside of X Games) when he launched his 2012 season recently. Block revealed new colour schemes for his pair of Fiesta Supercars, the HFHV that he will use for Rallycross and the OMSE Gymkhana version.


MW

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Diary galleryB boys at BuxtehudeIt hardly seems possible that it’s 25 years since Group B cars flooded into Ralycross. Elsewhere we take a look back at the period. This group shot is from the final event of the ’87 season, champion Niittymäki leading the RS200s of Rennison, Schanche, Nilsson and the Lancia Delta S4 of Alamäki.


January 30At its prize-giving gala near Stockholm, the Swedish ASN, the SBF, awards Susann Hansen its ‘Motorsport Mum’ prize. A former European Rallycross champion in her own right, and wife to 14-time ERC title holder Kenneth, Hansen is mother to Timmy and Kevin who both also compete.

February 1Frenchman Davy Jeanney says that he will return to the ERC in 2012. Jeanney was one of the stars of the 2011 season, making a sensational debut at Lydden and starring in the Austrian and Polish events at the end of the year in which he and his team learned an enormous amount about the ERC. With his Citroën C4 rebuilt, Jeanney is planning a full season.

» The RCC Süd uses the DiTech Racingshow near Vienna to launch the 2012 Austrian round of the European Rallycross Championship. The Super1600 cars of Christian Petrakovits

and Werner Panhasuer are displayed at the show during which details of a newly expanded paddock and the construction of a grandstand at the PS Racing Center are revealed.

DiaryFebruary 3Multi-championship winning team SetPromotion reveals its plans for the 2012 European Rallycross Championship in which it will field three cars in the Super1600 class as well as two in the new JRX Cup. Super1600 champion Andreas Bakkerud will return to the Finnish team to defend his 2011 title, but will move to the team’s Renault Twingo II that was developed last year. Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme, who drove part of the year with SetPromotion in 2011, returns for a full season and will drive the Clio used by Bakkerud in 2011 (the same car used by Timur Timerzyanov to win the 2010 S1600 title) while the newcomer to the team is Russian Timur Shigabutdinov who will bring his own ex-Set Clio to the squad for his first taste of European competition. The JRX cars will be driven by Finn Teemu Suninen (17) and Russian Marat Knazev (15).

February 4Rallycross is 45-years-old. The first Rallycross event took place at Lydden on Saturday February 4 1967. Created for ABC TV’s World of Sport programme, the event was won by Porsche driver Vic Elford.

February 5Track owner Speedway Motorsports Inc. agrees terms with the Global Rallycross Championship to use five of its venues. The move brings some date changes to the GRC which will appear alongside three NASCAR Sprint Cup and one Indycar event at SMI-owned tracks. The first event of the year, at SMI’s Las Vegas Speedway will be the only standalone Rallycross event, the remaining two rounds of the seven-event championship to take place on the street course at X Games in Los Angeles.GRC schedule2012 Global Rallycross Championship April 20-21, GRC, Las Vegas May 25-26, NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, CharlotteJune 8-9, IndyCar Firestone 550, TexasJune 29-30, X Games 18, Staples Center, Los Angeles Sunday July 1, X Games 18, Staples Center, Los Angeles July 13-14, NASCAR Lenox Tools 301, New HampshireAugust 31-September 1, NASCAR AdvoCare 500, Atlanta

» Münnich Motorsport boss René Münnich says that he will return to the Super1600 class for the 2012 ERC. The German will drive a Skoda Fabia II in the class, the move prompted by the fact that his new Audi A3 Supercar will not be ready until later in the year and that he is planning to send his Fabia Supercar to America for GRC events. Münnich’s team will run a pair of the new S1600 Fabias for Münnich and Mandie August.

» Sverre Isachsen spends a week in America trying to secure


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full ERC programme in his Skoda Fabia Supercar. The ex-Larsson car has been completely rebuilt during the winter and Lindefjell has assembled a new team to run the car using former Swedish racer Marcus Nilsson and Norwegian Jan Tore Ulvaten who has left the Nomaco team to go with Lindefjell. The Skoda’s engine will be prepared by Julian Godfrey Engineering.

February 22David Binks is named as team mate to Marcus Grönholm in the Best Buy Racing team that will run in the Global Rallycross Championship. The two Ford Fiestas will be run by OMSE. Binks will become a professional racer and move to America to begin what is described as a ‘multi-year’ deal.

» Belgian racer Pedro Bonnet releases pictures of his new Zomer-powered, Ingvar Gunnarsson Motorsport-built Volvo C30 TouringCar. Bonnet plans a full ERC season with the new car which will be run by Michael De Keersmaecker’s team.

February 23Lydden Hill Motorsport Club announces that Monster Energy will be the title sponsor of its European championship event. The Easter weekend bonanza will be titled the Monster Energy International Rallycross Festival and will benefit from a package of live television coverage that is expected to include

slots on both days of the event.

February 24Toomas Heikkinen confirms that he will join OMSE and dive the Ford team’s fifth Fiesta in the Global Rallycross Championship. The 20-year-old Finn who has raced an Eklund Motorsport Saab 93 for the least two years says that he is aiming to win at least on of the GRC events. He will also drive in ‘a couple’ of ERC rounds, the Finnish event at Kuovola the only confirmed start at present.

» Former TouringCar champion Knut Ove Børseth launches plans for a mixed season of Rallycross and circuit racing. Børseth will drive Chevrolet Camaro in the new Norwegian ThunderCar Championship, forming half of a two-car team with Hårvard Gustad. The move to the new circuit based series has been made because Børseth cannot commit the necessary time to a full ERC programme while he continues to develop his Drive for Life charity. The Norwegian has had his Focus Supercar rebuilt over the winter and will drive it in selected ERC events, his home round in Norway the only definite start at this stage.

February 26RallycrossWorld.com names Steve White as the winner of its ‘Over the Fence’ photo competition (see Diary gallery).

a deal to drive in the Global Rallycross Championship, The three-time European champion speaks of the need to chase new goals and his desire to race in America but admits that he has no firm offers and that all options remain open for 2012. His self-imposed deadline of the beginning of February to have his plans in place and confirmed is stretched to ‘the end of February or early March’…

February 6Frode Holte says prepares to ship his Volvo C30 home from America after plans to drive in the Global Rallycross Championship fall apart. Holte and Michael Crawford Motorsport, with who the Norwegian was to have run his American season, have differing views of what had been agreed and what went wrong. While withdrawn from the GRC, Holte is uncertain about an immediate return to the ERC as he has no sponsorship in place for a European season.

» Roman Castoral confirms that he will continue with his Opel Astra G for another year in the TouringCar class of the European Rallycross Championship.

February 11Ahead of going head-to-head with Tommy Kristoffersson in a show event ahead of the WRC Rally Sweden, Peter Hedström confirms that former European champion Olle Arnesson is, as suspected, the financial partner in his new team. Hedström will drive his ex-Jernberg Skoda Fabia II in a full ERC programme, the team also set to field the ex-Coox/Larsson Fabia in selected events. Hedström beats Kristoffersson’s VW Scirocco Supercar in the demo race, the latter driving with his left leg in plaster!

February 13The ERA provides an online number generator that allows competitors to create a pdf file of their competition number for the 2012 season. The FIA has revised the rules for numbers this year, adopting a style similar to that used in the WRC.

February 16Ken Block’s Monster World Rally Team releases the first of two

videos to launch its 2012 season and confirms that Block will compete in the Global Rallycross Championship. The GRC will be the only championship campaign mounted by Block who will also drive in three WRC events and some Rally America rounds as well as filming Gymkhana Five and headlining his own Gymkhana World Tour events.

February 18The Clubmans Rallycross Championship issues a calendar detailing seven events. The series has been completely rethought after Blyton, the cornerstone of clubmans racing in recent years, chose not to renew the licence for its Rallycross track in 2011. The co-promoting BTRDA and MDA organisations have agreed terms with BRC organiser Lydden Hill Motorsport Club for the Clubmans series to appear at four BRC events. Additionally it will take in a standalone club event at Lydden in August and a new double-header at Nutts Corner in Northern Ireland over the Diamond Jubilee weekend in June. The championship has retained sponsorship from Autosport International and Edwardes Brothers as well as securing new backing from Lucas Oils who will support the Stock Hatch category.2012 Autosport International Clubmans Rallycross March 24 Lydden Hill, BRCMay 12 Knockhill, BRC Night RaceJune 2-3 Nutts Corner, Clubmans R3 & 4July 22 Mallory Park, BRCAugust 4 Lydden Hill, Clubmans R6October 7 Pembrey, BRC

February 19Ian O’Connell wins the fifth and penultimate round of the Motorsport Ireland Rallycross Championship at Mondello Park. The Supernational driver takes the Superfinal win with his Lotus Exige after Supercar A final winner George Tracey is forced to retire his Citroën Xsara with clutch problems. Despite going out of the main event, Tracey becomes champion elect, his qualification for the Superfinal, together with event wins in the first four rounds, giving him an unassailable points lead with one round remaining.

February 21Norwegian raconteur Guttorm Lindefjell will undertake a


Diary February

14 | #97 – March 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM

16 | #97 – March 2012 RallycrossWorld.COM

Group B’s golden days


A quarter of a century ago the European Rallycross Championship stood on the verge of what is now regarded as a golden period, perhaps the best ever. Exiled from international rallying, Group B cars had arrived in the sport the previous year and now they were everywhere. This pool of cars had become available, at relatively low cost, at a time of economic prosperity. The cars were attractive, but the real key to what became boom years in Rallycross is that the manufacturers wanted and needed to get rid of what had become redundant cars and that there was no shortage of drivers with the money to buy and run them. When the field assembled in Melk for the 1987 season opener, everyone who was anyone had a Group B car in the paddock. This really did look like the beginning of a new era.

Brits firstThe first true Group B car had been used in Rallycross by British driver Mark Rennison during 1986. Having climbed the ranks with the backing of steel company DSRM, Rennison had been provided with a Ford RS200. Little more than a stripped down road car when debuted at the start of the British championship season, Rennison’s car was developed during the year and was looking like a proper racecar by the time the British ERC round came along in September. This was the first time a genuine Group B car had appeared in the ERC, and it pointed the way forward.

Incidents and accidents had made the cars increasingly controversial in rallying and when the lives of Henri Toivonen and co-driver Sergio Cresto were lost in a terrible accident on the Tour de Corse, the FIA stepped in. Enough was enough, Group B cars would have no place in top level rallies from the end of the year, production-based Group A was the way forward.

At the end of 1986, and on the back of a class win in the British championship, Will Gollop knocked on the door of Austin Rover Motorsport and asked if they wouldn’t mind letting him have a Metro 6R4 for Rallycross. Boss of the department at the time John Davenport knew enough of Rallycross to realise an opportunity and duly finished Gollop with a car.

That, of course, is a potted version of the story, but, Gollop had the first 6R4 in Rallycross and put it on the track for the first time in November. A month later many of the Vikings who sailed across the north sea to go raiding in the British Rallycross Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, did so with empty trucks. Before going to Brands Hatch they had appointments at Ford Motorsport’s Boreham base. In something of a stock

Bad to the boneToo fast to rally, Group B cars helped create a golden era in Rallycross

Melk 1987, the first ERC event of the Group B era and defending champion Olle Arnesson’s new Sport Quattro S1 challenges the Peugeot 205 T16E2 of Seppo Niittymäki.

clearance sale, Ford was selling off its fleet of rally RS200s, and most of them were in there paddock at Brands Hatch a few days later.

Gollop was still the only driver with a 6R4, but that changed as the winter progressed. In Finland, a couple of drivers had eyes on more exotic machinery. Having said that manufacturers wanted and needed to get rid of their Group B cars, that was not universally the case. While Ford and Austin Rover took the pragmatic view that the cars were no longer of any use and had to go, Peugeot and Lancia did not rush to clear the decks and the number of top class cars from those manufacturers that made their way into Rallycross was very limited.

Audi, whose Quattro was the car that had started the development spiral that led to Group B, appeared to hold a kind of middle ground. The last of its cars, the charismatic Sport Quattro S1, was available if you could afford one.

Best carRight from the very start there was little doubt that the Peugeot 205 T16E2 was going to carry on in Rallycross where it had left off in rallying. Although there may be some argument that the Lancia Delta S4 was the fastest in raw terms, even if it was quite obviously a more difficult car to drive than its French counterpart, the 205 had been developed into the best of generation and arrived in Rallycross with a perfect blend of power, agility and reliability. That latter quality is what set it head and shoulders above the RS200, while power gave it legs over the 6R4.

ERC stalwart Seppo Niittymäki was the only driver in the championship to have persuaded Peugeot Talbot Sport to part with a fully developed car. The deal had actually been brokered by engineer Jokke Hannula who was ideally placed to extract not just a good rally car, but knowledge and assistance that would help make it into a proper Rallycross car.

In equal machinery Niittymäki had generally had to play second fiddle to compatriot Matti Alamäki but with his younger and more successful countryman sitting in a Lancia Delta S4, the equation had changed. The equipment was not equal. Niittymäki had stolen the march on everyone and went to the 1987 season equipped with the best car. Additionally, in Hannula, he had the best engineer of the period.

Niittymäki dashed off victories in the first three events but then added just one more win. At this distance it may not appear such a crushing defeat; Alamäki mustered three event wins and ended the year just seven points down in second place. But after a wobble in Spain and France, Niittymäki had got the message that he could lose this thing, and drove for the championship, finishing in the top four of all the remaining events. Back then the 11-round championship allowed four dropped scores, so Niittymäki got his longed for crown – and promptly retired.



The British were first to drive Group B cars. Mark Rennison (top) developed his RS200 during the 1986 season and was the first run a true Group B car in an ERC round. Will Gollop got the first 6R4 at the end of 1986, graduated to drive in the ERC in 1987 but had to wait until 1988 for his first win, at a very wet Valkenswaard.

The true form of the 205 T16E2 became apparent the following year. Hannula returned to old boss Alamäki and helped broker the release of another of the French cars. One of the best drivers ever, equipped with the best car of the period, Alamäki won as he pleased and lifted the title in each of the next three years. Had he not trashed the car while demonstrating it in a rally sprint, he may well have continued winning until the end of the Group B era.

Faster, fasterBy the time Alamäki smashed his car into a tree, private engineering ingenuity had dragged RS200 and 6R4 up to the level of the 205. The freedom to engineer the cars was one of the great attractions of the period and in the six years in which they were used in the ERC, Group B cars developed at a fantastic rate. There were no inlet restrictors on the turbochargers, relatively few controls over materials usage or changes to the original design of the cars either in their outward appearance of beneath the skin structure. Power outputs were high, aero devices radical.

What there was not, however, are the kind of suspension that now endow the cars with immense road holding and grip

levels, nor the sophisticated engine management systems that deliver power and torque where and when the driver wants it, that can offer many different ‘strategies’ and which make the modern cars so much easier to drive than those musclebound Group B cars. The fact that Group B cars were not easy to drive was a very large part of what made them so spectacular. It may have narrowed the number of drivers who could get the most from them, but did not appear to deter those who thought that they could run with the big dogs.

The six seasons in which Group B cars ruled European Rallycross entered into legend in part because the cars were so dramatic, because we had classic battles between drivers who figure as giants of the sport and because, even when one driver was dominant, the racing was good. Before the living memory for a large portion of today’s fans, Group B cars have acquired mythological status because they were so bad; here is a type of car so dangerous that they were banned. Too fast for rallies, they were bumped on the head at their prime. And yet, when Rallycross drivers got hold of them they made them lighter, more powerful, faster. It’s little wonder that they have a cult status or that the Group B period remain the ERC’s golden years.



From top left: Matti Alamäki bagged three event wins in his 1987 Lancia Delta S4, and three titles with the Peugeot 205 T16E2. Left (black and white). Ford, Lancia, Peugeot and Audi Group B monsters squeeze into Mondello Park’s first corner. Above: Martin Scxhanche and Alamäki run off the track at Ingelmunster in 1989. Below: remember when cars looked brutal and were hard to drive – and when Maasmechelen had gravel?


Elsewhere in this issue we look back at the revolution that awaited the European Rallycross Championship on the eve of its 1987 season. A new breed of car was about to sweep in and change the face of the sport. On the verge of the 2012 ERC there may again be a seismic shift in the technical landscape, but the growing prominence of transverse cars is likely to be more subtle than the change that happened 25 years ago. Many fans may not even notice the change, others won’t care.

For many the more important thing will be where the biggest events in the sport happen and on that score too there are fundamental changes in store. The European championship’s system of grading and rotating events has been with us for a couple of seasons now and in 2012 three countries will return to the series having spent a year on the sidelines as the result of what were judged to be unsatisfactory events in 2010.

Across the Atlantic the fledgling Global Rallycross Championship is trying something new and has forged an alliance that will see it run at speedway venues in conjunction with NASCAR Sprint and Indycar events.

In Europe and in America the pressure is on for events to shape up and deliver; among the ERC organisers there’s the acknowledged requirement to meet and exceed the required standards as 13 (or more) countries bid for a place in the ten-event championship calendar. In America, with a formative first year under its belt, the GRC will be expected to deliver on its promises.

So, who’s under pressure? Where are the good events going to be? Are those transverse cars any good? And which drivers should we be watching in 2012?

We attempt to answer these points in our 2012 preview.

The year ahead

The Hungarian ERC round at Nyirad quickly won the hearts of racers and fans. It’s back on the ERC schedule this year, but like others, knows that it must deliver the goods to avoid getting the chop again.

Stand and deliverGermany, Finland and Hungary return to the European championship this year and, obviously, must improve on their previous offerings if they are avoid the relegation zone and get tipped out again. There appears to be a recognition of the situation in these countries, having been bounced once, the clubs and organisers involved have grasped that they have to up their game.

Since it first entered the championship in 2006 Hungary had been the great success story of 21st century Rallycross. The track at Nyirad was immediately popular with drivers, not least because, twisting and turning, rising and falling around a former quarry, it represents a great challenge. Facilities were not great on the first visit, but with each return there were improvements and developments at the circuit. Things were not perfect, organisationally there were always glitches and problems, but by and large this was an event striding forward. And then, in 2010, everything collapsed. After a winter of political and financial turmoil the event came within a whisker of being cancelled. Pulled together by a team that included some new faces, the event happened, but more or less stumbled from one problem to another and its failure to make the grade for 2011 was no great surprise. We saw enough in the five runnings of the Hungarian event to know that it could be one of the best. But we also saw how infighting and lack of cohesive planning can bring a good event to its knees.

The 2010 event in Finland was the first for many years. The track at Kuovola was fine; what you would expect in Finland and liked by the drivers. The paddock area and organisational planning around the event was where this one stumbled. The event promoter was also running the national championship at the time. That responsibility has been jettisoned and the ERC event is now the sole focus. There was, of course bitter disappointment at losing the event, but now also recognition of the task ahead and the absolute necessity to fix what did not work properly in 2010 and to make sure that the event is among the best of the year.

When Germany returns it will be in what was for many years its traditional season-closing slot in October. There is something about going to Buxtehude in October that just feels right. Oh, yes, we all know that there is a pretty good chance that it will rain in the north of Germany in the autumn, that when it’s wet the former quarry venue is a dark hole in the ground. But we also know that changeable weather and the old school nature of the track is part of what makes Rallycross at the Estering such a compelling prospect. And don’t forget that in 2010 we were there in August and it was neither warm nor dry… If you were measuring the right to have an ERC event by other means, perhaps some historic precedent, or on one of the great intangibles like atmosphere, the Estering would be close to the top of the pops. We’ve said before that the older venues, specially those with the paddock in the centre of the track, are in some ways disadvantaged compared to some of the newer tracks, but there appears to be an iron determination within the organising team at Buxtehude, a determination that extends beyond regaining the event to keeping it on a long term basis.

Entering its second season the only element of the GRC schedule that does not have to step up to the plate is the X Games which will again be run over a street course on Los Angeles. The remaining five events and venues are all unknown, the GRC promoter has tied up with Speedway Motorsports Inc and will construct bespoke courses on speedway infields. Take nothing away from all of those involved, starting from zero was ever going to be easy, but even those on the inside admitted to a sense of ‘having got away with it’ in 2011. As the profile of the events at which the series appears grows, and expectations of those involved is also increased, there is a very real pressure for the GRC to meet its promises this year. Glossy TV presentation will be able to paper over cracks, but if the basic structure is not sound, will not be able cover major shortcomings.

The year aheadThe winter is almost over, so the talking must stop


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The year ahead

The best eventsLets start in America. X Games stands out as the jewel in the crown of the GRC, and for those of catholic tastes will offer the opportunity to take in more than just Rallycross – there are those who believe it is not everything! – at an event packed with action sports. Picking from the rest of the GRC events is tough one but on the balance of probabilities the last round should be worth a look as, by that stage of the year, any bugs in the way in which tracks are setup or the events run, should have been worked out.

For European fans the big problems with X Games is that it clashes with Höljes. Consistently the best event in the ERC, Höljes is more than just a race and for those young enough, or with the stamina to party all weekend, is a must-do event. Elsewhere in the ERC, Lydden continues to offer perhaps the best viewing of any venue for the spectator, while Austria and the returning Hungarian event are also right up there. The compact nature of the PS Racing Center in Austria always seems to produce close racing and, as we said above, there is something magnetic about the Estering in Germany.

Of course, the biggest Rallycross event on the planet falls within neither championship. Lohéac should be on the ‘to do’ list of all Rallycross fans. An event big enough to pull in everyone who is anyone in the French Rallycross, even those who do not drive in all national events, Lohéac is the great event and, as its traditional first weekend in September date, does not clash with any ERC fixture this year, could be bigger than ever in 2012.

Sideways to victory?Last year we flagged up the arrival on the ERC stage of some new cars. Cars in which the engine is mounted transversely. There have been Supercars with transversely mounted engines in the past: way back in 1986 Ford’s response to the Xtrac Escort had such an arrangement, but the fact that few remember the car should tell you all you need to know about its performance. Transmission technology and materials have moved on so that now using a transverse engine in a Supercar is a viable possibility. Kenneth Hansen debuted his team’s new Citroën DS3 last summer and drove it into the A final in each of its two starts. Hansen said he preferred to spend time testing the car rather than racing it. Perhaps. But perhaps also the wily Swede recognised just what a strong technical package he’d got on his hands. By his own admission he was not able to push the car to its limits, but said a younger driver would be ‘much faster’ in it. So why would spend all summer racing it and, in so doing, alert every other team in the paddock to likelihood that they were going to be following the car in 2012? No, better keep the powder dry.

We were perhaps a little premature last year, although Hansen’s form and the good results of Davy Jeanney, underline the point made. This year there are likely to be more transverse cars, the tide is turning.

Who’s hot?Sitting on the outside in the cool of winter, the man with more to prove than anyone else this year would seem to be Ken Block. His WRC adventure was, without doubt, an adventure and while he will be back on the stages for three events in 2012, the focus of his season is the GRC – his first involvement in Rallycross outside of the X Games.

Block has garnered more publicity and media exposure than any driver in Rallycross, he’s probably got more than most of them combined. But since he stepped up from Rally America results have been a rare commodity and it’s a given that race drivers need to win once in a while. Rallycross would appear to suit Block’s style better than rallying but in the GRC he’s going to be up against it and the HFHV Fiesta run by his own team will be ranged against the highly developed versions from the official Ford squad at OMSE.

On the other hand, Block is starting with a clean sheet and you could argue that expectations are low. For Sverre Isachsen, however, the only way is down. The three-time European champion is in an odd situation; if he sticks in Europe and wins again there is likely to be a ‘so what’ reaction. If he loses the crown he’s going backwards. In these circumstances it’s easy to see the attraction of packing up and going to America; if he wins there then he can stake a claim to be the best in the world, if he goes but does not win, well, he has surrendered the ERC crown rather than losing it, and not winning in a new arena would be no great disgrace, specially as it’s unlikely that he will fall flat on his face. In straightened economic times and with sponsorship within Norway never harder to come by, Isachsen may actually be able tackle America on a smaller budget than he could defend the ERC title.

Whether Isachsen is in the ERC or not, anyone who dismisses the chance of Timur Timerzyanov becoming the first Russian champion needs their head examining. Installed in KHM’s Citroën DS3, Timerzyanov knows how to win events and championships and has developed into one of the very best under team boss Hansen’s guidance.

Timerzyanov lost second place in the 2011 series in the courtroom, American Tanner Foust taking the position. With a full ERC campaign, Foust would also be a good bet for the title but assuming that he stays home for the clashing GRC events, the American is going to be under great pressure in Europe because he will only be able to start in eight events. So what? Drivers can only count eight scores. Yes, but without the safety net of being able to discard an event, Foust will have to be perfect when he does show up, and amid what looks like being stiff competition, that’s a tall order.

Frenchman Davy Jeanney has that vital season of experience under his belt now. Perhaps more importantly, so does his team. If they have learned well and taken on board the lessons of a 2011 season in which they both shone (Britain, Austria, Poland) and were given a kicking (France, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Holland), Jeanney can be in the title fight.

And then, of course, there’s Liam Doran. It’s not for nothing that boy’s logo is in the shape of a bomb. The GRC schedule has been supplemented with an attack on Pikes Peak Hillclimb and off road truck racing, but wherever he goes and whatever he does, there are likely to be fireworks.

X Games forms the centre piece of the GRC schedule but the jewel in the French championship, Lohéac, remains the biggest Rallycross event in the world.


David Binks

Fireman, train driver, policeman, racing driver…Young boys in the 21st century might have different ideas

about some of those jobs – specially train driver – but racecar driver will probably still feature in the list for many. For a young man growing up in north east England in the 1980s the idea of driving racing cars figured large. At 30-years-old, David Binks has now made that life changing career step, has left his job and is spending the days counting down to the start of his first professional season training intensively.

“I often dreamed about being professional, who doesn’t?” asks Binks “I was 16 when I started and then you think anything is possible but I’ve always had the ambition, hoped that one day it might be possible to make a job of racing.”

Besides becoming a regular in the gym Binks has spent time planning his move to California where he will be based while driving one Best Buy Racing’s entries in the Global Rallycross Championship, where he will be team mate to Marcus Grönholm. “Sometimes it still doesn’t seem quite real,” he says of the quantum change that has come over his life.

A fixture in British Rallycross for more than a decade, Binks revealed that his family-run, and largely self-funded team had secured backing from US-based electrical retailer for the 2011 British season. The aim at the time had been to try and win the British championship and then hopefully to step up to the European championship. Plans change and numerous factors have contributed to Binks’ move to America and the Global

Rallycross Championship, including Best Buys’ withdrawal from the UK market.

The BRC title did not go Binks’ way in 2011, but his performance in the domestic series, the last three rounds of which he undertook at the wheel of an OMSE Fiesta VII, were enough to convince Best Buy and OMSE boss Andreas Eriksson that the Englishman was good enough to join the Ford team in the GRC.

This is all a very long way from the 15-year-old kid who was helping his father build a car for a bit if weekend fun…

“We built a Mini at home and it was going to be my Dad’s car to do autocross or Rallycross, I’m not sure that he’d really decided. One day I saw a story in a magazine about Minicross

and it mentioned that you could start driving at 16. I was mad about racing, we used to go all over and watch all sorts but I didn’t know you could start so young,” says Binks. “There was a contact for Minicross in the magazine so I called up and found out about it and we decided to try Minicross – with me driving the car instead of Dad.”

Success was not long in coming, Binks won the Minicross championship in 2001 and then made the switch to Rallycross with a BMW Mini for the Supernational class. The Minicross trophy remains the only award of note in Binks’ trophy cabinet however, while his ability in a car was never doubted, results in championship terms were not forthcoming for a variety of reasons.

Boy’s ownDavid Binks dared to dream, now he’s a professional racer

Binks matched new team mate Marcus Grönholm at Lydden last year and will partner the Finn in this year’s GRC.


David Binks

“We made some drastic mistakes over the years. Now it’s easy to see that I should have moved up quicker and done things differently along the way. We’ve met some brilliant people, but also some, well, others!” he admits honestly. Among former group Binks’ places north east Mini specialist Ian Sandwith. “When we started to use Green and White Mini Spares to help us with the Minicross car I met Ian Sandwith and he taught me such a lot, not just about the car, but other areas too, he was a brilliant help to us.”

Binks eventually called time on the Supernational Mini when plans to redevelop the car using a turbocharged BMW engine led to endless problems and more time in the workshop than on the racetrack. At the end of 2005 he acquired a Group N-based Mitsubishi Lancer Evo from Belgian racer Bart Huybs and with it stepped up to the Supercar class. It did not take long for Binks to start extracting the maximum from the car, and while it was upgraded from time to time, it was never a full house Supercar. By 2009 it was plain to see that the driver was faster than the car would ever be but, despite pushing the Evo beyond its limits, Binks almost never crashed or damaged it.

“Everyone thinks that it’s been easy for me to go racing and that I’ve had it all handed to me on a plate. It might look like that because we’ve spent money on trying to look as professional as possible; we’ve always tried to have a smart truck and to make a good impression in the paddock, but I have always known that if I broke or crashed the car it would probably mean missing an event or more because we didn’t have the money to fix it and go back racing the next week,” says Binks. While the ability to bring the car home has helped Binks to championship positions it now lays at the root of the one criticism that Eriksson has of his new charge. “Every time I drove the OMSE car last year Andreas kept saying ’Don’t worry about the car, just push harder!’ That’s new for me, in the past I have always had to balance taking chances with the cost of repairing the car, we’ve always been cautious.

“It’s not a question of needing to be faster, the first time I tested the OMSE car I was 0.7s a lap slower than Marcus, and that was on a track I’d never seen and with just nine laps in a car I’d not driven. It’s just a mental things to not worry about the car and go for it all the time.”

The move to America will bring the opportunity to test before events as well as the freedom to focus on racing. “I’ve only got racing to think about now. Previously there’s always been the need to be back in a suit and at work on Monday morning. The way the American events are all going to be on tracks that get built for the race and then taken down means that no-one has any advantage of track knowledge but there are some things that I need to learn; I hope that I can have some practice at the gap jump because I don’t really want the first time I do that to be in public! I know that I’ve got to push harder, but I think that the tracks will also suit my style of being neat and tidy, where they use concrete walls to mark the course there’s no room for error and I’m used to that.”

Back when the 15-year-old Binks made that call to find out about Minicross the man he spoke to was Mark Williams. The chairman of the Minicross Drivers Association, Williams business career would take him to America where, after a couple of job changes, he arrived at Best Buy. “You never know who you’re going to meet or what will happen to the people you meet now as time goes on. Mark more or less introduced

me to Rallycross so all the time he was around at events we’d talk. When he went to America I lost touch with him really and it wasn’t until he came to the ERC event at Lydden a couple of years ago that we started to talk again. I met him there and he came to the truck and had a coffee and talked about everything. At the end of the year I did a deal to take the Fiesta to Autosport International in January 2011 so I got in touch with Mark and asked him if he’d be interested in doing something with us and that was really the start of things.”

Williams has opened the door for Binks, but this no old pals act of kindness, more the move of an astute businessman to recognise a good opportunity. Plans can change, but at the moment this is ‘multi-year’ effort from Best Buy and Binks knows that Grönholm is the team leader. “I don’t have a lot of pressure really, the team is expecting Marcus to win, that’s his job. I need to be fast and to learn, but there’s no expectation to go there and win every weekend,” says Binks who dared to dream that he might be one day be a racing driver and who has now joined the very small group who ply their trade in Rallycross.

Binks joins the professional elite in Rallycross. After making the move from his own team to an OMSE-run car late last year, he will drive with the Ford Best Buy Racing team in 2012.

most awkward of moments, but that is what makes the task all the more satisfying to complete. That’s why we do it, or that’s what I have to keep telling myself.

So, as you may have guessed, the Twingo certainly won’t be ready for the start of the season. Although we are still working as hard as we can on the Twingo, our attentions have switched slightly to try and get the Clio re-prepared for the season start. This requires the gearbox to be returned from Gripper, which should be returned next week, the engine to be finished and another trip to the rolling road.

We are still awaiting some components for the engine which is holding things up, but I have to keep my fingers crossed that it will all arrive in enough time to get everything in place. The last addition to making things work again will be a new fuel tank. To cut a long story short, instead of using the standard tank as planned, I am having to buy a new FIA fuel cell. Turns out that if you are changing the filler location of a standard tank by even a few inches, it works out hugely more expensive than having to buy a new fuel cell because, to use a modified standard tank, you must also use a homologated valve: yet another part that has its price inflated by several hundred pounds because it is approved by the FIA.

One advantage of running the Clio at the start of the season will be that we can try some of the new components for the Twingo on the car and get an idea of how they are going to perform – or how they need improving, and this should also help the Clio too.

This time last year I said I wouldn’t put myself in a position where everything was rushed at the last minute again. Unfortunately, despite trying to make this the case it just hasn’t happened. Maybe next year…

The Rallycross season is basically upon us. By the time the next issue of Rallycross World reaches your inbox most domestic championships will have had their first round, and it will be only a matter of days until the first event of the European championship. Now, for those who are totally ready to go, to load the car on the trailer and head to their first event having undergone some extensive testing it must be exciting to see that there’s only 41 days to go until the ERC at Lydden. For those who are not at all ready it does not make for pleasant viewing. I’m not going to lie, I certainly fall into the latter category!

The Twingo is taking shape. The rollcage is in place having made its trip from France, and the bodywork is also making good progress. One of the big things with the build of the Twingo is that I want to improve the aspects that on the Clio we always thought could be better. All the little parts of the bodyshell that we found a problem or thought could be improved are being with this new build, but all this takes a lot more time. Things have not been helped with a big set-back recently. Dave, my engineer, had his car stolen a couple of weeks ago. This would be inconvenient enough, but as the Clio engine mounts and suspension parts, etc. were in the boot,

along with the front subframe for the Twingo and material for parts of the rear suspension, it’s a been a nightmare. More money and time are required to recoup the parts, yet another unwanted hold up.

Another hold up with the build is the decision to make the car Left-Hand Drive. There are many reasons for this. Resale is one of them, it will make it far more desirable to sell should I ever want to, as all the cars in the ERC, barring a couple from the UK are LHD. The other is that the Renault Sport rollcage is homologated for LHD and although technically it could be used in RHD configuration, it would be far easier and more simple to use it in LHD form. There is always a conflict between whether it is better for the driver to be sitting on the opposite side of the bodyshell to the engine, behind the gearbox against the fact that 90% of our Rallycross circuits are clockwise, so the driver would be then sitting on the wrong side, the outside of the corners. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, as they say, and of course you set the car up to suit regardless.

I have said before that you always put the worst parts of building a racing car to the very far reaches of your mind when times are good. You are rudely reminded of these times at the


Shoestring stories – the life of a low budget racer in the European championship

One step forward…Theft slows Twingo build, so Clio will race again

Some of the big parts for Ridge’s new Twingo, such as the Renault Sport rollcage, have arrived and been fitted.Suspension parts (below right) have been made. But plans have been set back a bit by a tea leaf…

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