French Junior Rallycross Championship

Châteauroux hosted round three of the French Junior Rallycross Championship with a grid composed entirely of Clio RXs. Already in the running for victory in the first two rounds, Marceau Launay took command on Saturday before perfectly controlling Sunday to become the third different winner in as many events contested this year. Andrea Benezet, who won the opening round of the season, moved up to second place ahead of Valentin Lumet, who snatched the final podium spot from Gautier Sarhy and Louka Bourd. Valentin Lumet and Marceau Launay are now level on points in the general classification, followed by Andrea Benezet heading into the next leg of the calendar at Pont-de-Ruan on 8 and 9 July.

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Belgian Rally Championship

2022 Clio Trophy Belgium winners Benoit Verlinde and Anton Dupan made their Clio Rally3 debut at the Ardeca Ypres Rally, the venue for round eight of the Belgian Rally Championship. With eight fastest times, the duo won the Rally3 category by a margin of 35.3 seconds whilst also taking victory in the Belgian Cup. In the same event, third place went to the Clio Rally4 of Jonas Dewilde and Jeffrey Vandenbussche, who are now comfortably atop the Junior BRC leaderboard thanks to this third success of their campaign. They were joined on the podium by Lander Dhaene and François Geerlandt, who won on home turf in RC5 with Clio Rally5.

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And elsewhere

In the French Cup, 12 Clio Rally4s and Clio Rally5s participated in the Rallye des Vins de Chinon et du Véron. Ninth at the finish, Thomas Bordagaray and Antoine Loiseau won the Rally4 category, as did Romain Harnois and Gaël Georges in the Rally5 class. Also in France, Clio Rally5 won with Julien Duhamel and Maxime Biegalke on the Rallye Suisse Normande, Romain and Guy Wallon on the Rallye des Centurions, Christophe Monnin and Marc-Émilien Choudey on the Rallye du Forez and Samuel and Nicolas Hoarau on the Rallye de Saint-Leu. The model also enjoyed success with Damien Vaissière and Sébastien Romero on the Rallye du Sidobre and Éric Sauteur and Cindy Millac on the Rallye de Sauveterre - Vallée de la Lémance.

There was also success in the Italian Rally Cup. Andrea Scalzotto and Sara Montavoci were the fastest of the 10 Clio Rally5 cars on the Rallye San Martino di Castrozza e Primiero. In Romania, Sebastian Scîrlet scored his third win of the season in the Clio Rally5 Trophy. Along with co-driver Alina Bianca Pop, the 18-year-old beat six other crews in the Raliul Maramureșului to claim his first podium result of 2022 in the Romanian Junior Rally Championship.

Other successes included the second consecutive victory for the Clio Rally4 of Jakub Jačišin and Peter Baran in the Slovakian Junior Rally Championship on Rally Prešov and the triumph for the Clio Rally5 of Kasper Nyman Andersen and that of Claus Kammersgaard on Ejby Rally Aalborg and Rallysprint Aalborg (Denmark).

Also of note was Clio Rally4’s overall fourth place with Błażej Gazda and Maciej Mikuliszyn at the ECU Master Rally (Poland), class wins for the Clio Rally5s of Valery Revillod - Jérôme Bodart at the Mémorial Jean-Jacques Gadisseur (Belgium) and Iván and Naira Cabrera at the Rallysprint Era del Cardón (Spain), as well as a category podium for Marek Lacika and David Erban with Clio Rally5 at the Radouňská Rally (Czech Republic).

In South America, Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5 claimed a double podium thanks to Uruguayans Luigi Contin - Martín Villete and Rodrigo Fialho - Rodrigo Arbiza in the RC4 category on Rally del Poncho, round five of the Argentine Rally Championship. Clio Rally5 also impressed in round three of the Uruguayan Rally Championship, with Alfonso López and Horacio Errazquin taking fourth overall and victory in RC4N.

Coming up

This week, the Clio Trophy Canarias wraps up the first half of its season with the Rally Villa de Adeje (30 June-1 July), where eight Clio Rally5s will battle. Manuel Hernández and Víctor Valido, both with two podium finishes, will target a first victory to take them through the summer break at the top of the general classification. But they must pay close attention to Noé Armas and Benjamín Avella, who have already won this year.