RX GIANTS RETURN TO LYDDEN
TITANS RX EUROPEAfter a hiatus of two years, international rallycross
returned to the venue where the discipline was
created – Lydden Hill – last weekend.
The newest event on the Kent circuit’s roster was a
two-day double-header for the third and fourth rounds
of the new Titans RX Europe series, a single-make
rallycross championship created by former World
Rallycross Championship team owner Max Pucher.
Conceived with the aim of providing competition
at a lower cost than the running of more traditional
top-level rallycross Supercars, Pucher’s MJP Racing
concern has created 15 identical Pantera RX6 spaceframe
chassis machines, running turbocharged 2.3-litre
Mustang-based engines, powering sequential
four-wheel-drive transmission systems.
With the 530 horsepower cars producing similar
performance to that of their steel-bodied Supercar
counterparts, round four winner Kevin Hansen set a
best lap in the final within half a second of European
Championship regular Rene Munnich’s best effort in
the Supercar support category class.
Titans events are run as double-headers over two
days, with three qualifying sessions, semi-finals and
a final on each day. While the basic structure isn’t
dissimilar to that used in World RX, with qualifying
points being awarded for overall position in each
session (based on time), points are also awarded
for position in each qualifying race on track.
That encourages overtaking – a situation increased
by the shelving of the extra-route joker lap that has
become the norm in modern rallycross, meaning drivers
have no choice but to get overtaking done on track. In
this series, the joker is only used as a penalty route.
That scenario led to some questionable overtakes
on the technical Essay circuit at the season-opener in
France, with a more relaxed approach to stewarding andpenalties also being employed in the series. But, with
the drivers and organisers having discussed what moves
are acceptable on the eve of the British event, and there
being an overtaking opportunity at almost every corner
of Lydden’s famous layout, while racing was hard and
contact was dished out, it was largely fair.
Having finished on the podium in each of the four
rounds so far, World Rallycross points leader Kevin
Hansen also heads the Titans standings – but only
by a single point ahead of double-winner Toomas
Heikkinen. Hansen’s brother Timmy is third, the trio
all part of some close racing in Kent, along with WSR’s
British Touring Car ace Andrew Jordan. The World RX
podium finisher (at Lydden in 2014) made his rallycross
return at the same circuit and finished on the podium
on Sunday with a last corner overtake on Heikkinen.
World Rally Championship stars Hayden Paddon and
Craig Breen both competed in the opening rounds, but
were absent from the British event due to Rally Finland
preparations. Meanwhile, former Renault Formula 1
driver Nelson Piquet Jr is sharing a car with Alex Wurz
in the series. The Brazilian’s raw pace has so far gone
unrewarded: he crashed out in the wet conditions of
round three in the semis, then retired with broken
suspension at the same stage in round four. For the
next event in Portugal, at Montalegre, Wurz will take
the seat, where he will compete against another former
F1 racer, 58-year-old Perry McCarthy, who made his
rallycross debut at Lydden.
The UK’s heatwave in the days prior to last weekend
gave way to rain on Saturday and gloomy skies on
Sunday, which no doubt impacted the spectator
turnout, but those present witnessed some
thoroughly entertaining action.
After Portugal, the series will visit Austria (Fuglau)
and Hungary (Nyirad), before completing its maiden
term in Germany (Estering).
HAL RIDGEWorld RX stars, the
Hansen brothers, are
early Titans adoptersIN
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