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RX lites round-up: Dejong wins in Canada

The standalone Intercontinental RX Lites Cup supported the seventh round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Trois-Rivieres in Canada last weekend, where America's Mitchell DeJong claimed victory to maintain a 100% win rate in the series.

DeJong had raced in the World RX support category once before the Canadian event, and won on his debut at Lydden Hill in 2014. The OlsbergsMSE run driver finished second at the Intermediate Classification in Trois-Rivieres but hit a wall while leading semi-final two and would only qualify for the back row of the final. Finland's Miki Weckstrom topped the Intermediate Classification and won the first semi-final to start on pole position for the final, with Dirtfish Motorsports driver Conner Martell alongside. Local hero Andrew Ranger lined up on the second row with RX Lites Cup regular Saeed Bintouq, while DeJong was joined on the row three by Sweden's Oliver Eriksson.

Heavy rain fell just before the final, DeJong making a great start while Weckstrom had jumped the lights and had to take two joker laps as his penalty during the race. DeJong, Martell and Ranger took their jokers on lap one but Ranger ran into issues and would go no further, DeJong also running into problems by hitting a wall and bending is left-rear suspension. Eriksson passed DeJong, before also passing race leader Bintouq when the UAE driver took his joker on lap four. However, in the wet conditions, Eriksson slide into the wall on the outside of the first corner on lap five, handing the lead of DeJong and second place to Bintouq, the top two holding their positions to the finish while Eriksson recovered to finish third, making it three nationalities on the podium. Wecksom finished fourth with Martell in fifth.

The RX Lites Cup returns to the World RX schedule at the ninth round of the championship at Barcelona next month.

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com