Round two of the FIA World Rallycross Championship will take place at Lydden Hill this weekend as a record entry of 38 Supercars descend on the Kent-based race circuit. Lydden Hill also marks the opening round of the five-round FIA European Rallycross Championship (Euro RX), of which there are 23 drivers eligible to score points.

Lydden Hill is steeped in rallycross history: the sport’s inaugural race was staged at the track back in 1967. This week a new race tower will be revealed at Lydden Hill named after Arthur Debenham, known as the ‘voice of rallycross’. Both Debenham and Reed will be present at Lydden Hill as VIP guests over the weekend.

After winning the World RX season-opener in Portugal earlier this month, Petter “Hollywood” Solberg will be eager to continue his run of good form but will face stiff competition from the likes of wildcard entry Tanner Foust – a two-time Formula Drift Champion and multiple X Games medallist – who has a strong track record in Britain.

“I have two wins at the Lydden Hill Race Circuit, and there’s something special about going for a hat-trick,” explained Foust, who is also a presenter on the US-based version of Top Gear.  “I’ve raced rally, sports cars, off-road … and rallycross has it all: I love the combination of dirt, asphalt, jumps and door-to-door racing. It's like a real-life video game and there’s nothing else like it. The cars are insanely fast, and getting more fun to drive every year as the technology steps up.”

Reigning BTCC Champion Andrew Jordan will join Foust as a wildcard entry at Lydden. The British ace will drive for the Championship leading Ford Olsbergs MSE Team and will be looking to celebrate his 25^th birthday weekend in style.  “My aim is to reach the final, but I’m under no illusion that it’s going to be a big ask just to reach the semis,” admitted Jordan, who also won the British Rallycross Supercar Championship back in 2007.

One driver who knows the track better than most is World RX Team’s Liam Doran, son of former British Rallycross Champion and Lydden Hill circuit owner Pat Doran. "I’m really looking forward to getting on the track this weekend, and I feel like the whole team and I have a point to prove after the issues we experienced in Portugal,” explained Doran who will be joined in the two-car team by Poland’s Krzysztof Skorupski. “We’ve been working non-stop to get the cars ready, and it’s looking good now. Racing at Lydden has been a big part of my career, so naturally I want to win and put on a great show for the home crowds."

Davy Jeanney – who finished second in last year’s European series - will replace Albatec Racing’s Jacques Villeneuve who has elected to skip the British World RX round due to a commitment to race in Indy 500.  “Lydden Hill is a track that I know very well where I have always had great results so hopefully we can get a good result, being in the top five or even a podium,” said Frenchman Jeanney, who will test the Peugeot 208 Supercar this week alongside Albatec’s team principle, Andy Scott.

In the Teams’ Championship, Ford Olsbergs MSE and team drivers Andreas Bakkerud/Reinis Nitiss will be eager to maintain their placing at the top of the standings but will face strong competition from VW Marklund’s Topi Heikkinen/Anton Marklund and Peugeot-Hansen’s Timur Timerzyanov/Timmy Hansen.

Lydden Hill also marks the opening round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship (Euro RX), which comprises of five events: Great Britain, Norway, Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Robin Larsson will join the stellar Euro RX line-up in his Audi A1 Supercar after making the transition from TouringCars up to Supercar in 2014.  His Audi A1 is the first of its kind in rallycross, having not yet been seen outside of Sweden. Frode Holte will bring another manufacturer to the grid as the Norwegian is set to drive a Hyundai i20 Supercar at Lydden.  Meanwhile, Volvo will also be represented as Swedish Touring Car Champion Tommy Rustad returns to rallycross this weekend to drive a Volvo C30 Supercar.

Representing France is reigning French Rallycross Champion Jerome Grosset-Janin in a Renault Clio Supercar with former European Rallycross Champion Jean-Luc Pailler and his son Fabien also joining Grosset-Janin in Euro RX this year.

Reigning Swedish Rallycross Champion Peter Hedstrom will also be present at Lydden and will be making a bid to win the European title this year in his Skoda Fabia Supercar as he builds toward running a world campaign in 2015.

Other notable entrants at Lydden Hill include uncle and nephew duo Mats and Emil Öhman; the former who has restricted mobility and uses custom-made hand and arm controls to drive his Citroen DS3 Supercar, and the latter who is a two-time World Champion in snowcross.  Current British Rallycross Champion Julian Godfrey will join five other British drivers who will all be eager to please the home crowds.

Elsewhere, Henning Solberg - older brother of Petter – makes his debut in World RX this weekend and is joined by leading lady driver Ramona Karlsson in two Per Eklund Motorsport run Saab 9-3 Supercars.

On top of the 38 Supercars, there are also 10 entries in the highly competitive TouringCar category including 21-year-old Mandy Kasse, who joins Karlsson as the second female driver to compete in World RX.  A further 23 cars will also compete in the Super1600 category which includes British driver Phil Chicken in a Citroen C2. 

Ten drivers are entered in the supporting RX Lites Cup including aspiring American driver Mitchell DeJong.  At just 16-years-old, DeJong has raced competitively from the age of five and is a proven winner on asphalt and dirt, competing in off-road modified trucks, Legend cars, and now rallycross. “The fact that my first European race will be at the iconic track, Lydden Hill, where rallycross originated makes it even more exciting,” explained DeJong “I've always raced both road racing and off-road so what I love about rallycross is that it combines the best of both worlds. I'm really looking forward to the high level of competition at Lydden."

CIRCUIT INFORMATION

Name:                                                                          Lydden Hill Race Circuit 

Address:                                                                     Wooton, Canterbury, Kent CT4 6RX 

Length:                                                                        1,170 metres, 1,233 metres with joker 

Composition:                                                             40% gravel and 60% tarmac 

Direction of the track:                                             Clockwise 

Side of the pole position:                                        Right 

Number of laps in the Qualifying Heats:             4 laps 

Number of laps in Semi-Finals and Finals:         6 laps 

EVENT FORMAT

Each event will comprise of practice sessions, four qualifying heats, two semi-finals and one final. There will be four qualifying heats with a maximum of five cars starting abreast in each race over four laps.

HEAT 1:

Starting positions in the races will be determined by a draw that will be carried out beforehand.

HEAT 2:

Race starters determined according to classification of heat 1. This follows the same format until heat 4. All qualifying heats will be timed and the fastest driver in each heat will be rewarded 50 points, second: 45, third: 42, fourth: 40, fifth: 39, sixth: 38 and so on. After the qualifying heats, there will be an intermediate classification according to each driver’s total points scored in the four heats.

SEMI-FINALS:

There will be six starters arranged on a two-by-two grid and each semi-final will be run over six laps. The top 12 scoring drivers in the intermediate classification will qualify for the semi-finals. The winner, second and third placed drivers in each semi-final will qualify for the final.

FINALS:

Finals will also have six starters, arranged over three rows and will be run over six laps. The semi-final winner with the highest number of points in the event will start on the ‘pole’ side of the grid, followed by the other semi-final winner. The same procedure will be used between the two second-placed drivers and two third-placed drivers. The winner of the final will be the winner of the event. Positions one to six in the final classification will be according to the result of the final. The remaining drivers will be classified according to points scored in the event.

JOKER LAPS:

An alternative section of track that adds at least two seconds to the lap time, and through which every driver must pass once in each race, semi-final and final. Failure to take the Joker Lap is penalised by 30-seconds in the qualifying heats, and by being classified last and loss of points in a semi-final or final.

MEDIA INFORMATION/SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Friday 23 May

                             1200-1900.           Media sign-on.

1600.                      Drivers’ Draw plus World RX press conference. This will be held in the IMG truck.  Media are invited to attend this the draws are made for the race heats. After the draw, a pre-event press conference will be held with Petter Solberg, Liam Doran, Tanner Foust and Andrew Jordan. 

1630.                    Euro RX press conference. Official launch of the 2014 FIA European Rallycross Championship. Held in the IMG truck after the World RX press conference. Jerome Grosst-Janin, Frode Holte, Robin Larsson and Tommy Rustad will be in attendance.

1800.                Photographers’ briefing. All photographers arriving on Friday MUST attend this short photographers’ briefing which will be held in the press room in the race tower.  Photographers will be issued with a tabard after the briefing.

1830.                    Supercar static photoshoot.  Photocall for all 38 Supercars competing at Lydden will take place on the grid.    

Saturday 24 May

                            0800.                      Media sign-on opens.

0930.                 Photographers’ briefing. All photographers arriving on Saturday MUST attend this short photographers’ briefing which will be held in the press room in the race tower.  Photographers will be issued with a tabard after the briefing.

Sunday 25 May

0800.                     Media sign-on opens.

0930.              Photographers’ briefing. All photographers arriving on Sunday MUST attend this short photographers’ briefing which will be held in the press room in the race tower.  Photographers will be issued with a tabard after the briefing.

                            1700.                      Press conference.

FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP CLASSIFICATIONS

The provisional classifications for all the Championship can be found on the following link:

http://www.fia.com/sport/championships/news/world-rallycross-championship

FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP AT LYDDEN HILL

Shortly after the finish of the sessions, results of the event can be found on the following link:

http://www.fia.com/championship/events/world-rallycross-championship/201...