Racing lines: Why we can bank on rallycross for quick-fire racing

Its short races, run over courses that mix asphalt and rough off-road with added joker laps through a slower detour, are perfect for the Instagram generation.

Crash, bang, wallop

The RX Supercar class tops the bill and is the Group B equivalent from the glory days. At Lydden, Irishman Derek Tohill’s Ford Fiesta WRX conquered a hard-fought final as Ollie O’Donovan’s Fiesta and Andy Scott’s Peugeot 206 scrapped over second in a manner that on occasion appeared to cross the line of ‘hard but fair’. It’s serious and at times scary stuff at this level, especially with so much power under the drivers’ right feet.

In the Supernational class, one step down from the RX Supercars, Poland’s Slawomir Woloch slung his lairy BMW M3 (painted in cheeky works colours) around Lydden with admirable gusto. He appeared to lose out on the penultimate lap to Jason Bleasdale’s Vauxhall VX220, which made a late dive down the inside at the North Bend hairpin, only for the pretty little two-seater to lose time on the grass as its driver put the power down on the way out. Woloch then chased down the leader over the last time around, now well clear of Bleasdale, but could do nothing about Paige Bellerby’s beautifully driven Lotus Exige in what was the best race of the day.

Retro motors steal the show

Although the ‘moderns’ claim top billing, by far the most numerically dominant class is the crowd-pleasing Retro category, which is split into three. As you would expect, there are all sorts racing herein, but the prime cut in Super Retro is the surprisingly pristine black, white and gold Lancia Stratos of John Cross, who found better traction out of the slow corners to best Barry Stewart’s Porsche 911, sporting colours that echoed the classic Rothmans tobacco livery from the days when such things weren’t only allowed but accepted in racing without much question. It almost seems unreal now, given how much attitudes have changed.