World Rallycross Championship R5 2017 – Lydden Hill
 

I have been both looking forward to and dreading this event, as it had been announced several months ago that the World Rallycross Championship would be moving to Silverstone for it's UK round next year.

Took some pictures (of course), here are a few of my faves:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4247/3...83fbd78f_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4231/3...748a170e_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4289/3...d4df6c60_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4209/3...c8354d0b_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4226/3...60d0fb4b_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4207/3...c0d8b1ee_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4226/3...f4b72b0c_b.jpg

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of rallycross there were a number of classic rallycross cars on display. All were great to see, but it was the Group B cars that really drew the crowds.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4234/3...8d5245a7_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4244/3...21c5db24_b.jpg

Dan Rooke was hoping to improve on his second position in Mettet…

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4244/3...17a6c895_b.jpg

…but no one could touch defending RX2 Champion Cyril Raymond, who utterly dominated the class over the weekend.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4212/3...03696990_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4286/3...d77ef080_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4219/3...34d7388b_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4228/3...97a6469e_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4285/3...b1732014_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4200/3...50b935e5_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4287/3...01c8089b_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4244/3...f2e5c032_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4285/3...3029e775_b.jpg

Defending Touring Car champion Ben-Philip Gunderson has had a pretty poor start to the year and things looking more promising on the Saturday.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4201/3...480288a8_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4263/3...2cddf4ff_b.jpg

Gunderson was unable to match the day two pace though, and the Touring Car win went the way of Lars Oivind Enerberg.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4259/3...2418289d_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4200/3...861f78ed_b.jpg

Sadly Championship regular Guy Wilks was unable to progress beyond the semi-final stage, as was Andrew Jordan who was guest driving one of the Team Austria Fiestas for the weekend.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4272/3...46226442_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4200/3...1f86ff12_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4212/3...b4324856_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4213/3...230b708f_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4231/3...2f689f86_b.jpg

Petter Solberg won every race he competed in with the exception of one, which was won by his PSRXVW teammate Johan Kristoffersson. The Polos looked very fast at Lydden and only Bakkerud in the Focus seemed able to challenge them.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4286/3...901d49cc_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4273/3...6418c47d_b.jpg

Managing to save three new tyres for the semi-finals, Petter won his semi and went on to take the final as well. His team mate made it a PSRXVW 1-2 which was the perfect result for the team and consequently knocked Mattias Ekstrom off the top of the Championship standings.

Rather sad that this was the last time the World Championship will be at Lydden in the foreseeable future, but it was a brilliant send off and there wasn’t another driver I’d rather see win more than Solberg. I hope we see the World Championship return there one day!

Was there on the Sunday, 1st time for us at Lydden, brilliant racing imo and a great day out apart from trying to leave at the end :shock: :-D

Great pictures as always :ok:

Did you have a long wait to get out? We were parked about half way down the field and it took us about 25 minutes to get through the gate. I noticed they were emptying the top car park out through one of the side roads which was a good move. It was the biggest crowd I have ever seen at Lydden and, given the size of the circuit, I thought they did a good job of getting people out as quickly as possible.

Was a fantastic send off for the Championship from Lydden. Superb performance from Solberg as well, a pity Andrew Jordan didn't finish higher but I thought he still did incredibly well given that he had zero seat time in the car before the weekend. It was unfortunate that the Group B cars didn't come out again on Sunday, but they just ran out of track time.

Some truly astonishing photos as always :10:

[QUOTE=tbtstt;238584]Did you have a long wait to get out? We were parked about half way down the field and it took us about 25 minutes to get through the gate.

You could say an 1 hr 45 minutes! :-D

We were parked lower towards the track and we waited an hour even before getting in the car because it was grid locked on what seemed 3 main gravel routes out as everything above us was streaming into the main lanes and this was causing the hold - up imo.

The road to the pre - paid car park was open for a short while till the h - vis brigade noticed cars cutting across the main car park to exit and closed the gate.:fight:

The best place to be imo was either in the pre - paid car park because they left by a different route out of that car park or we should have parked nearer the entrance as in true British spirit
Most people seemed obliging to let cars out even though it meant they couldn't progress themselves.
I saw Ian 'Granby' in the queue ,he was well ahead of us in leaving so hopefully he didn't wait too long?
Anyway it didn't spoil what was a great day even the rain didn't come as predicted during the racing. :doubleup:

Bloody hell! I got trapped in the paddock car park a couple of years ago and had to wait a couple of hours to get out, but I didn't think anyone was stuck there that long this year!

Yeah, we were really lucky with the weather. A couple of big thunder storms straddled the circuit Saturday morning (and we got a bit of drizzle), but otherwise it was warm and dry for the whole weekend.

Cheers! :)