The French Rallycross organisers association AFOR has introduced a challenge open to foreign competitors that are interested to participate in FRC events.
As ERC24 mentioned already on February 4 in our HotchPotch News Ticker the Rallycross organisers in France have agreed to partly open their French Rallycross Championship to foreign competitors by establishing the so-called ‘Top 10 Open’ challenge. When the plans of IMG for a new European Rallycross Championship became confirmed by FIA and the new series promoter a lot of people started to fear that there would emerge a gap between the RallycrossRX tagged European top league and Rallycross on national level only. As a result the Rallycross Challenge Europe (RCE) came into being while some drivers started also to look out for another alternative to the former ERC. The FRC was claimed to be one of the series that would offer a great playground for foreigners too, but one of its problems is that the French Rallycross titles can only be claimed by native competitors or FFSA (the French ASN) licence holders.
The latter is still valid, he who wants to become the official French Rallycross Champion needs to drive with an FFSA licence, but with the ‘Top 10 Open’ the organisers association AFOR offers a challenge with benefits and prize money to foreign SuperCar competitors that are willing to participate in at least 4 of the 2013 FRC rounds. Super1600 and TouringCar drivers from other countries are also welcome, but they need to drive [rented/leant] SuperCars here.
The Rallycross rules in France have been amended to “European FIA standards” now, the 2013 French championship is going to have the same technical regulations and will use the same Cooper/Avon tyres as the ERX. The FRC will share 2 of its 10 rounds with the RCE, the Rallycross Challenge Europe. For a participation in any of the other 8 rounds the ‘Top 10 Open’ drivers are offered free entries, 2 Avon ACB11 tyres per event as well as prize money for each round according to the following system:
- 1st place: €1,000
- 2nd place: €750
- 3rd place: €500
- Note: This prize money will be shared among the foreign competitors only, as the French participants will have their own Top 10 prize money on offer, and to benefit from the prize money a driver must compete in at least 4 of the 10 rounds.
- Calendar of the 2013 FRC:
- 19.05. Circuit des Ducs/Essay (also RCE event)
- 02.06. Circuit des Tourneix/Châteauroux St. Maur
- 16.06. Circuit de Faleyras-Gironde/Faleyras
- 30.06. Circuit de Lavaré/Lavaré
- 14.07. Circuit de Lessay/Lessay
- 28.07. Circuit de Kerlabo/Cohiniac (also RCE event)
- 25.08. Circuit de Pont-de-Ruan/Pont-de-Ruan
- 08.09. Circuit Maurice Forget/Châtillon-sur-Colmont
- 22.09. Circuit des Ducs/Essay
- 13.10. Circuit de l’Ouest Parisien/Dreux
Further information will be available from Julien Ravineau (j.ravineau@gmail.com), who is the English speaking International Relations officer of the Association Française des Organisateurs de Rallycross (AFOR).
Photo: The ‘Top 10 Open’ challenge will be run within the usual French Rallycross Championship rounds. © Adecom/ERC24