With the finals of the German ERC round at Buxtehude the 2012 season has been completed – and so has a 40 years old era of pan-European Rallycross.

Just a little bit after 15.00h the last finals of the 2012 European Rallycross Championship went on their way, but from next year on the motorsport of Rallycross will also show another face. May it be that the IMG promoted FIA Rallycross Championship is solely replacing the 40 years old ERC, or that there will come a second European series to be run alongside…

The first A final of the weekend was won by Swedish boy Kevin Hansen from Swedish girl Magda Andersson in the JRX Cup class, Russian Marat Knyazev being a non-finisher.

The following A final for the TouringCar drivers saw Swede Robin Larsson taking the chequered flag in front of Norwegian Ole Håbjørg and Czech Roman Častoral. 2012 ERC winner Swede Anton Marklund and Norwegian pole setter Lars Øivind Enerberg did not come far as they were forced into retirement with both their cars got stuck in the “kitty litter” after a first corner shoot-out.

The A final of the Super1600s was red flagged in the first lap after there had been another early crash. After the second start attempt, now with seven cars as Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme was missing here, had seen the next red flag, due to utter chaos in the first bend, only six cars were allowed to participate in the third try, Joni Wiman being excluded. At the end of the S1600s action it was Teemu Suninen who took the chequered flag ahead of his teammate Andreas Bakkerud and ERC rookie Sergey Zagumennov.

The SuperCars completed the day and the 40th ERC season, their A final was won by Briton Liam Doran, beating Frenchman Davy Jeanney and Swede “Stecka” Walfridsson to the places two and three. However, the first start attempt came to a hold already before the first corner after the leading Swede Peter Hedström was nudged into a spin by Jeanney, thereby forcing Pavel Koutný to hit the tyre wall at the outside of the so-called ‘Hohlweg’. The Czech’s Ford Fiesta then getting airborne before falling down on the roof of Hedström’s Škoda. The second start attempt, now without Koutný, was won by Doran who subsequently managed to claim a start-to-finish victory. Hedström came back from the first lap to retire with his heavily damaged Fabia.

Photo: Liam Doran won the last A final of 2012 – and an era… © QBA/ERC24