ERC Austria Round 1 20/21 April

[schanche]

May as well start this one, look forward to seeing updates of entry lists soon, also can the IMG Championship drivers compete in the Challenge or are they legally bound to the one series. Be interesting to see how many dormant SC, T.C and Super 1600 drivers they attract.

[schanche]

According to Erc24 78 entries receaved for this the first round, entry is limited to 80 so this is looking good for the first round. Look forward to seeing just who is taking part.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by schanche

According to Erc24 78 entries receaved for this the first round, entry is limited to 80 so this is looking good for the first round. Look forward to seeing just who is taking part.

Looks promising.

Is this SC, TC and S1600, or does it include support classes like Supernational?

[Hickey]

Is entry limited to 80 for all rounds? That would be a shame, as would imagine you could get about 120 for the French/Belgian/RCE round in Essay.

[chasing cars]

A French round alone would attract near on 80 entries alone. I know the Belgium championship is for the European catagories only so maybe its a limit of 80 for the challenge plus French div3 and 4. The new Twingo cup doesnt kick off until the 2nd round at Chateauroux.

Anyway it should be a great weekend of rallycross and really looking forward to it and hopefully 1 or 2 other rounds. At the moment its far more tempting than any rounds of the other championship unless numbers pick up.

[ClintonRX]

Anyone been to Melk? I would appreciate any information regarding the circuit and how best to enjoy a visit there. It looks as though it is less than a mile outside the town on Google Earth. If anyone is interested,BA are (were, now maybe) doing hand baggage only fares to Salzburg for £49 eachway from Gatwick. It's a 2.5hr train journey (with one change) to Melk and hopefully just a short walk to the circuit. Melk is closer to Vienna, but the airfares werte twice as expensive when I looked.

[rx-guru]

Circuit is just a 1.5 or 2 mile walk from town, via a tunnel under Autobahn A1. Not been to Melk since completely new track was established in 2001. View on track seems a bit less interesting nowadays, but facilities are much better now. Always went to Pension Wachau in the old days, now Hotel Wachau. Friendly family business, well worth. However, dunno how much they raised their prizes since being a Hotel instead of former Guest House... Food in Austria is very good and defo cheaper than in Germany.

BTW, the official name of the Challenge is Rallycross Challenge Europe now, as wanted by FIA, and its abbreviation RCE, Tony.

[ClintonRX]

Originally Posted by rx-guru

Always went to Pension Wachau in the old days, now Hotel Wachau. Friendly family business, well worth. However, dunno how much they raised their prizes since being a Hotel instead of former Guest House... Food in Austria is very good and defo cheaper than in Germany.

Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately others have beat me to it. They are already full for that weekend.

[WJM]

Last time I visted was for the European Championship so it's been a while. The track is surrounded by a viewing mount like in Greinbach or Kerlabo. This allows you to see 90% of the track at all time. At the time there wasn't such a huge chainlink fence installed like you see on some tracks nowadays.
The track is extremely fast. The best positions to look are on both ends of the track at the gravel corners. The downside is that the dust was particulary nasty at Melk. It created a dense smog with fine particules, really disgusting. Hopefully they fixed that since. For the rest the track is really well-maintained and worth a visit.

If you are going don't forget to visit the Melk Abbey. It is one of the "Wonders of Austria". Although in my opinion it is a bit overrated, it is one of these must-see things.

[ClintonRX]

Originally Posted by WJM

Last time I visted was for the European Championship so it's been a while. The track is surrounded by a viewing mount like in Greinbach or Kerlabo. This allows you to see 90% of the track at all time. At the time there wasn't such a huge chainlink fence installed like you see on some tracks nowadays.
The track is extremely fast. The best positions to look are on both ends of the track at the gravel corners. The downside is that the dust was particulary nasty at Melk. It created a dense smog with fine particules, really disgusting. Hopefully they fixed that since. For the rest the track is really well-maintained and worth a visit.

If you are going don't forget to visit the Melk Abbey. It is one of the "Wonders of Austria". Although in my opinion it is a bit overrated, it is one of these must-see things.

Thanks for that WJM. Not sure I will have too much time for sightseeing. But hopefully get a look at the Abbey on Saturday evening.

[tbtstt]

Provisional entry list for Melk now up:

http://www.rcchallenge.eu/First-Prov...ylist-Melk.pdf

14 Supercars
15 Super 1600
4 Touring Cars

[rallyloverke]

When was the final date to enter?

I expected at least one or two belgians more.

[rx-guru]

Originally Posted by rallyloverke

When was the final date to enter?

I expected at least one or two belgians more.

1st closing date 05.04.2013 (24.00h CEST) €300
2nd closing date 12.04.2013 (24.00h CEST) €450 (for the richer or the dumb?)

Tja, seen that the Challenge was thought up in the Benelux countries I also expected some more Belgians and Dutchmen too...

[Hickey]

The numbers for Supernational are very good, though.

Can someone let me know how it's going to work for the French round? We intend to go to Essay in May, and had thought that, with the French round, the Belgian Round (though just Supercar, S1600 and TouringCar) and the Challenge, that the numbers would be through the roof. However, is this entry limit of 80 a championship thing, or just a Melk thing?

[rx-guru]

Depending on organisers. So far I see it as a Melk thing only.

[schanche]

Originally Posted by Hickey

The numbers for Supernational are very good, though.

Can someone let me know how it's going to work for the French round? We intend to go to Essay in May, and had thought that, with the French round, the Belgian Round (though just Supercar, S1600 and TouringCar) and the Challenge, that the numbers would be through the roof. However, is this entry limit of 80 a championship thing, or just a Melk thing?

Essay is the round we are most looking forward too,kinda think once Austria has held there event many that are unsure will all being well fill the entries.Essay is an awesome track lets hope the classes will be brimming. After Essay Belg and Holl by then the Erc should be in full flow

[Hickey]

That's good news for me then

Can't help wondering why they wouldn't extend it. Currently 78 entries but probably 60-70% are supernational and not in the RCE. For an opening round, you wouldn't want to turn down potential RCE regulars in favour of a non-championship supernational driver, if it could be avoided. Might affect numbers later in the season

[rx-guru]

Understood that Melk would accept more Challenge entries on arrival.
So do not see the 80 entries limit affecting the "pure Challenge" drivers' interests.

[rallyloverke]

Originally Posted by rx-guru

Understood that Melk would accept more Challenge entries on arrival.
So do not see the 80 entries limit affecting the "pure Challenge" drivers' interests.

Do you expect a lot more Challenge Regulars? Maybe 4 or 5, over each class?

[rx-guru]

No idea! Austrian clocks ticking different from (h)ours in Germany...

[rallyloverke]

So ... supposing the definitive entry list will not differ a lot from this provisional one and also supposing most of the austrians/czech guys will NOT do the Challenge , not even 15 competitors spread over the three classes will do a full Challenge. Like guru has written previously, because it all started in Holland/Belgium i would have expected some more Belgians are Duth guys.

[rx-guru]

Do not suppose too quickly! Keep yourself updated on the Challenge website and their Facebook. They publish every day drivers with a star system that shows to how many RCE rounds those have commited. I expect Melk of having the smallest pure-Challenge entry. As they do not too much to promote the Challenge part of their multi-championship event anyway. Enough said!

[FIRE]

But who else could we expect from Belgium/Netherlands doing full RCE? Not many I think:

Supercars maybe Patrick van Mechelen. So far Jos Kuypers has only committed himself to round 1, but probably we will see him in more rounds. Wil Teurlings Volvo S40 Mk1 is no longer homologated.
Touringcars maybe Mandy Kasse, Nick Snoeys and Christ Moelands.
Super1600 maybe Marcel Snoeijers and Davy van den Branden.

And then there are the Super1600 drivers from Czech Republic. With Austria more to the east I am a bit surprised to see them not on the list:
Jaroslav Kalný
Ondřej Smetana
Stanislav Šusta
Michaela Kalná

Krzysztof Skorupski has quit RX?

[paul1982]

I tought Smetana will drive IMG with new fiesta.
Was on the list for lydden. But think the car wasn't ready...

[schanche]

For those of you interested updates and news as and when it happens click link
http://ercweb.us6.list-manage1.com/s...&id=f1f066668f