Clio Ice Trophy

2021 French Junior Rallycross Champion with Clio RX, David Bouet made his mark on another surface by winning the first round of the season in the Clio Ice Trophy. The Frenchman from WRM by Chanoine Motorsport / SRD Racing used his race craft to lead the way ahead of rally driver Enzo Lucotte and Dylan Dufas, another rallycross transfer. Clio Cup driver Joaquin Rodrigo, who won the B Final, is also in the hunt in a tremendously open general classification. The competitors will meet again in a fortnight for round two, on a different layout of Pas de la Casa Circuit.

More information here.

Clio Rally3

The Clio Ice Trophy kick-off also featured the first official public demo run of Clio Rally3. The first four-wheel drive Renault Clio to be designed jointly by the Viry-Châtillon teams, Manufacture Alpine Dieppe Jean Rédélé and BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Enstone factory, the model was displayed at the Pas de la Casa Circuit in front of a gathering of journalists. After completing its development programme with almost 5,000 kilometres of testing, the car is now continuing its homologation process with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) before its competition debut scheduled in the spring.

More information here.

Clio Cup Middle East

The penultimate round of the Clio Cup Middle East saw Jerzy Spinklewicz dominate the action once again and score a brace of victories at the Dubai Autodrome. With ten consecutive wins, the Pole has clinched the discipline’s first title ahead of the final round in Yas Marina. After battling throughout the first race, Lin Chen Han, Yashish Manohar and Stanislas Novikov will fight for the runner-up position in the general classification. The two first mentioned will also fight for the Challengers Cup crown while Ahmed Al Melaihi took a first step towards the Gentlemen Drivers Cup title with his success on Friday. Despite Alex Renner’s class win and overall podium on Saturday, only Rahil Taneja and Kévin Day can hope to deprive the Emirati of the crown on his home turf this week.

More information here.

And elsewhere…

The Clio Ice Trophy competitors were not the only ones to excel on the snow this weekend. Three Clio Rally4s took part in the Arctic Lapland Rally, all in the hands of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Japanese hopefuls. Among them, Nao Otake and Yuki Yamamoto won a stage each. Co-driven by Marko Salminen, Nao Otake finished second in the SM3 category in this opening round of the Finnish Rally Championship in Rovaniemi.

Coming up

The Clio Cup Middle East will conclude at the Yas Marina Circuit (20-22 January) as the rally season ramps up at Rallye Monte-Carlo. Six crews will participate ; in a bid to give Clio Rally5 its 13th victory in 15 world championship appearances and its third consecutive RC5 success in the Principality.