After a difficult period, the hype returned to rallycross last weekend. Luke Barry couldn't help but watch it
I’d forgotten how much I loved it.
The noise, the action, the hype, the jeopardy.
I’m the staunchest rallying fan in the land, but it wasn’t the World Rally Championship I was most eager to watch last weekend. It was the European Rallycross Championship.
I’d spoken to the two biggest names on the grid (Johan Kristoffersson and Andreas Bakkerud) in the lead up to last week’s opening round in Latvia which helped build the fever, but I couldn’t fight the feeling.
And it’s rare for me. I don’t usually get especially excited for things, but the intrigue was too strong. The WRC is a known quantity (change of course looms in 2027), but this was a new era. I didn’t want to miss out.
Having said that, I never actually intended to watch too much of the action in Riga. After all, my responsibility for the weekend was to cover Rally Portugal remotely. Yet the livestream was regularly on my phone while Rally TV was loaded on the laptop. It just… happened.
The hype stemmed from one simple, but key, decision: no more electric cars.
New names took the spotlight, including Andor Trepák (foreground)
And so it proved, as Kristoffersson rarely got the holeshot into Turn 1, meaning we got to see the master at work as he banged in the laptimes and carved his way through the pack.
Then there were the breakthrough stars; 20-year-old Hungarian driver Andor Trepák and 17-year-old Finn Joni Turpeinen in particular. Both youngsters won a qualifying session (Q4 and Q2 respectively) and made big impressions on the contest.
Trepák unfortunately failed to advance from the semis after contact at the start in his Renault Mégane, but Turpeinen – admitting he grew up watching plenty of his rivals as a small boy – slotted his Ford Fiesta onto the podium, ahead of Bakkerud!
“You should never to underestimate anyone,” Kristoffersson told me. How prophetic.
“I think what creates this fuss around it is when the newcomers, the underdogs come and beat the established [drivers],” he added. “And that’s what’s creating all the interest. So I think that’s what we need.”
Kristoffersson, don’t forget, was once that driver sticking himself into the fight against motorsport megastars Petter Solberg, Mattias Ekström, Sébastien Loeb and co.
The on-track action was relentless, and felt like a heavyweight contest
If you didn’t watch the season opener, I urge you to watch the second round in Hungary (May 30/31). And if you’ve never been to a rallycross race weekend, make it happen because it has all the best elements of various other motorsports rolled into one flame-spitting package.
It’s now absolutely my intention to get to an event this year – for work or otherwise – because I no longer need to talk about my love for rallycross in the past tense. Those memories of the ‘glory years’ between 2016-18 still burn bright, but I sense we are about to witness a real growth period.
How tall will it grow? It’s too early to say. All I can say, with a great big grin on my face, is rallycross – is – back.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: European Rallycross Championship, European Rallycross Championship 2026, Rallycross, RX
Publish Date May 12, 2026 DirtFish
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2026/05/M33iHxrJ-2026_FIAEURO_RIGA_SATURDAY_9-30-780x520.jpg May 12, 2026
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