Though the destination of the titles have been decided, two rounds remain in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, the first of which comes from Germany and is LIVE on Motorsport.tv! A visit to Buxtehude’s Estering track has been on the calendar since the inaugural season and has become a popular fixture for fans and drivers. The race has traditional also thrown up a surprise in terms of the winner, Kevin Eriksson taking his first, and so far only win in the 2016 race following an outrageous around-the-outside fourth-to-first move in the final.
It’s now five wins on the bounce for Johan Kristofferson, allowing the Swede to wrap up his first World RX drivers title in Latvia last time out. Whilst his PSRX team also wrapped up the Teams’ Championship, it wasn’t the perfect weekend for them, with team owner Petter Solberg sustaining a broken collarbone in a semi-final shunt with Janis Baumanis. Though the Norwegian veteran hopes to race, he will be replaced in the teams second points scoring car by Dieter Depping, who was slated to drive a third PSRX car in Germany previously. With Solberg not scoring any points in Germany, it allows for Mattias Ekstorm and Sebastien Loeb to close the gap for second the standings, and could set up a close fight in South Africa for the runners up spot. Be sure to watch out for 2015 World RX of Germany winner Davy Jeanney, making his return to the championship for DA Racing after a year out.
With the MXGP championship concluding in September, the series’ riders have one last hurrah remaining in the 2017 season with the FIM Motocross of Nations coming from Matterley Basin, UK. Despite having won nine world motocross titles, Antonio Cairoli has yet to win an MX of Nations event along with his Italian team-mates, with the last three competitions going the way of the French trio, in which Gautier Paulin and Romain Febvre both feature. The most dominant nation in the events history is the USA; with 22 wins coming from their riders over the 70 years the MXoN has been held. With three classes, containing 42 riders from 39 nations, you won’t want to miss any of the action, so be sure to tune in to our delayed-as-live coverage from Winchester.
From two wheels to four, as the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup season wraps up with the finale coming from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. With two championships to be settled in Spain, the competition is sure to be fierce over the course of the three-hour endurance race. Two crews can take the Endurance Cup title home with them from Barcelona, the Bentley Team M-Sport trio of Vincent Abril, Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet leading Grasser Racing’s Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Christian Engelhart in their Lamborghini. A non-finish at the Spa 24 Hours could prove costly for the Austrian team, who will be looking to get back to the winning ways in which they began the season. The Grasser team also feature in the Blancpain GT Series title hunt, combining points gained in the Endurance Cup with the Sprint Cup. Their nearest rivals are last year’s champions, HTP Motorsport, who are closely followed by multiple GT3 championship winners Team WRT. With three hours of racing remaining and 52 entries representing 11 manufacturers, plenty could yet change in those championship battles. Don’t miss our delayed-as-live coverage to see who will be crowned champion.
The finale of the 25th British GT Championship saw the series head to its now traditional ending point at Donington Park. The 2017 season has played host to a titanic championship battle between Barwell Motorsport’s Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw, in their Lamborghini Huracan GT3, and Team Parker Racing’s Seb Morris and Rick Parfitt Jr in the Bentley Continental GT3. Courtesy of a win at the Silverstone 3-hour and Brands Hatch 2-hour races, Morris and Parfitt held the lead heading to the Leicestershire track, though their 10-point advantage kept Minshaw and Keen in with a chance. In the ever-growing GT4 class, it was HHC Motorsport Ginetta crew Stuart Middleton and Will Tregurtha leading the way heading in to the final round, a top three finish would guarantee the duo the title ahead of David Pittard and Alex Reed in their similar Ginetta, run by Lanan Racing. Join us for highlights, and see who came out victorious in the midlands.
Fancy something with a little more power? How about tuning into highlights of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship’s visit to Zolder. The Belgian track is a regular feature on the ETRC’s calendar, hosting a post-summer break race since 2011. It was Adam Lacko leading the way ahead of the eighth round, the Czech driver looking to take his first ETRC title. His 60-point lead over four-time champion Jochen Hahn comes after taking his tenth win of the season at his home race. Close behind the veteran Hahn, is Steffi Halm, the highest placed female driver, and 2014 and 2015 series champion Norbert Kiss. With the end of the season drawing closer, will anyone be able to stop Lacko from taking the title? See what happened in Belgium with our highlights of all four races.
The new-for-2017 Blancpain GT Series Asia has regularly pulled near 30-car fields to some of the finest tracks on the continent. The penultimate round saw the series head to the China, and to the Shanghai International Circuit. Ahead of the two races on the current Formula 1 track, Hunter Abbott led the field for GruppeM Racing Team, where he has being joined by a variety of Mercedes AMG works drivers. His nearest competition came from the Audi Hong Kong team pairing of Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong. In the all Porsche Cayman GT4 class, Frank Yu and Jean Marc Merlin held their place at the top of the standings heading to China for Craft Bamboo Racing. Find out if GruppeM and Craft Bamboo would remain on top of their respective classes after races nine and ten, with highlights from Shanghai.
To round off your weekend of motorsport, we’ve got highlights of the Ferrari Challenge Europe, which has gone from strength-to-strength since its launch in 1993, drawing huge grids of race-prepped supercars built by the Italian manufacturer. The 2017 season has seen the addition of the new, turbocharged Ferrari 488 Challenge car, which has proved to be a hit with the drivers as they take on some of Europe’s top circuits. The fifth round of the championship saw the series head to Silverstone, with none of the three titles decided. Daniele Di Amato has often been the class of the field in the Trofeo Pirelli class for drivers under 50, taking five consecutive wins before last time out, and building a points gap over Philipp Baron and Sam Smeeth.
Friday 29th September
18:55 - The Flying Lap, Episode 24
20:30 - FIA European Truck Racing Championship, Rd 8, Zolder
Saturday 30th September
18:55 - Ferrari Challenge Europe, Rd 5, Silverstone
20:00 - Blancpain GT Series Asia, Rd 5, Shanghai
21:00 - British GT Championship, Rd 7, Donington Park
Sunday 1st October
13:00 - LIVE FIA World Rallycross Championship, Rd 11, Germany
15:05 - Delayed-as-live FIM Motocross of Nations, Matterley Basin (Race 1)
16:05 - Delayed-as-live FIM Motocross of Nations, Matterley Basin (Race 2)
17:05 - Delayed-as-live FIM Motocross of Nations, Matterley Basin (Race 3)
18:10 - Delayed-as-live Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, Rd 5, Barcelona
22:05 - FIM Motocross of Nations replay, Matterley Basin
