The FIA European Championship for Autocross Drivers came to an end on the weekend at the Maggiora track in Northern Italy, after having been to Saint Igny de Vers in France, one week earlier. While the French event saw persistent rain, in Italy, the conditions were perfect for the yearly conclusion.

In SuperBuggy, German Bernd Stubbe was his own successor in the record of Championship winners, thus bringing his number of European Champion titles to four. Although his domination of the category remains clear, Stubbe had to wait until the final event to crack open the champagne. The engine problems he encountered earlier in the season in the Czech Republic, at Nova Paka, weighed down on him until the end of the championship, meaning that he could not afford to make the slightest error in the remaining rounds. Thanks to his near-perfect regularity, Czech Ladislav Hanak even held first position in the provisional classification for a long time.

Having reigned supreme in France and in Italy, Stubbe triumphed in the end to achieve a well-deserved victory, considering that he won five of the season’s eight events. With a strong performance at the end of the season (second in France, third in Italy), André Hinnenkamp secured the double for Germany in the final classification, managing to steal the Vice-Champion title away from Hanak in the eleventh hour.

The great revelations of the year 2013 have been young Latvian Janis Boks and the youngest driver in the category, Czech Jakub Kubicek, respectively fourth and fifth in the final championship classification. Moving up from JuniorBuggies, Kubicek did not shy away from the prospect of facing the giants of the discipline and progressing from a small 600 cc prototype to a SuperBuggy with a powerful Ford V6 of 3 litre cylinder capacity! He not only scored points in each of the events, but also caused a stir in Prerov, where he took an early victory.

Often the most highly subscribed, the Buggy1600 division revealed the name of its champion before the last event: that of young Hungarian Kristian Szabo, whose performance was regular throughout the season, marked by two victories and two other podiums, behind the wheel of a prototype of his own production. He outstripped Czech Ondrej Musil, German Michael Buddelmeyer and Kevin Peters of Luxembourg. The eight available victories were divided up between six drivers, demonstrating the competitiveness of the category. Szabo and Frenchman David Anacleto bagged two each, and the four others were shared out between Musil, Buddelmeyer, Czech Marek Sekanina and John Lagodny of Luxembourg.

In TouringAutocross, the title went to another Hungarian. Having already been Champion in 2011 and Vice-Champion in 2012, Tamás Karai triumphed in his usual duel with Czech Václav Fejfar, despite Otakar Vyborny putting his original Mitsubishi Colt Turbo 4X4 between the two favourites’ Skoda Fabias for some time. Karai rounded off his 2013 campaign with wins at Saint Igny and Maggiora, and in this final event, he got ahead of Italian-Dutchman Jos Kuypers, more experienced in rallycross events than in autocross.

Even though their class does not have Championship status, but that of an FIA Cup, the budding talents of JuniorBuggies (13-21 years) shone through at each event of the season. Winner of a single event, but more regular than his direct opponents, German Kevin Munkler secured the Cup against a strong contingent of Czech drivers.

The Czech Republic, having not gained a single individual title, did not go home empty-handed, winning the Nations Cup with a comfortable lead over Hungary, Germany, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The classification by country is made up of fifteen different nations.

To access the final classifications of the 2013 season, click here.

To view the photo album of the Italian round of the Championship, click here