Round 2 of the French Rallycross Championship at Châteauroux is due to launch the new one-make class ‘Coupe Twingo R1 Rallycross’ series the coming weekend.

The first ever Rallycross event of France was held on September 5 1976 at Lohéac near Rennes in Brittany, although on another track than the current Circuit de Lohéac that will host Round 7 of the 2013 RallycrossRX series by the end of August. The inaugural French Rallycross Championship was organised in 1977. Already one year later, in 1978, the FRC events saw their first races of two one-make classes, the Challenge Simca Racing Team (S.R.T.) Rallycross series for drivers of Simca Rallye 2 cars, and the Challenge Fiat 127 Rallycross for competitors with Fiat 127 Abarth machinery. Ever since the French Rallycross tracks used to be an open playground for one-make classes like the Coupe Talbot Samba, the Coupe Peugeot 205 GTi, the Challenge Citroën Saxo, the Challenge Citroën C2, and since 2008 for the past five years the Dacia Logan Cup.

The coming weekend Round 2 of the French Rallycross Championship at the Circuit des Tourneix in Châteauroux will see the launch of the new Renault Twingo R1 Cup. No less than 27 drivers have entered for the new one-make series, to be driven with equal cars that produce 133bhp from their 1600cc 16V engines. The weight limit for the Twingo’s is 1050kgs with the driver on board. Three of the entrants are females, ready to compete against the two dozen of men. The top favourites are claimed to be the first three finishers of last year’s Logan Cup, winner Fabien Grosset-Janin, his runner-up Ayrton Boris and third Jean-Mickael Guérin, but a new beginning can also bring up some surprises…