FIA World Rallycross Championship 2018

[Madhun1967 51]

LOL  its a plot to get us ready for the electric RallyX coming soon 

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

I just found out that on Fantasy RX you can create a mini league. Does anyone play Fantasy RX? If so you can join. I thought it would be cool to have one from the forums.

Name: Codemastersrx

Pin: 4560

[RallyDriven 398]

tbtstt said:

RallyDriven said:

tbtstt said:

gfRally said:

@tbtstt Looks like Lydden Hill will be the debut of the Platinum class (demo).  So you guys will see it first.  So they say it will be one chassis/engine for all, BUT manufactures are welcome?  Sounds just as I partially feared that its turned into NASCAR with standardized engines/chassis with optional "plastic" body replicas of whatever car you may like.

Yeah, I wonder if the debut of this new class at Lydden this year is something to try and soften the blow for the loss of the Supercars @gfRally? I still don't think Lydden were aware of the drastic changes to the Championship when they signed up (or even when they announced the GRC was coming a couple of weeks ago).

gfRally said:

I hate to dog on GRC so much, I used to like the series, but it has gotten progressively worse with each track design.  I loved the rather unsafe X-Games gap jump, unfortunately Grunholm was a casualty of that.  However they have really screwed up with the new direction, its taken almost every element out that gave me reason to watch.

Yeah, Gronholm was the victim of **** poor track design. Placing an immovable concrete block on the inside of a corner was absolute lunacy on the part of the organizers. That was a lucky escape for Marcus and a real shame for spectators that it was his last time competitively driving a rallycross car. 

I have struggled to maintain interest in the series the last couple of years, but it seemed to have a renewed purpose for this year and a return to Lydden made it seem like it was trying to earn it's "Global" title. The last couple of news announcements make me wonder what is happening behind the scenes. 

I heard from a source in the know that Gronholm was pretty seriously injured from that, possibly life changing injuries. But there’s no word on it anywhere, so either it was covered up/not reported or that wasn’t true

It wouldn't surprise me if something more serious wasn't reported. Gronholm has tested cars since, but never engaged in competition again: at this point I am sure he would have been tempted back into racing unless there was some medical reason why he couldn't. 

They had to cut the car to shreds to get him out of it: you don't do that unless it's a pretty serious injury!

As for how the GRC is going to pan out, I don't know. It's pretty frustrating that the GRC had an international specification class that did, at least on paper, allow competitors to move between both US and European Championships. Now the GRC seems to be going off on a tangent - and bringing that tangent into Europe - which is going to force drives to pick a side. It seems like this is dividing the sport rather than strengthening it...

...but it's early days though, so hopefully I've got it wrong.

What I heard was it was something akin to Kubica, but on his lower body

[tbtstt 2,387]

Good news this morning:

https://www.facebook.com/fiaworldrallycross/posts/1927165713962580

Peugeot Sport confirm a third car World Championship entry for 2018. Loeb and Timmy Hansen in 2018 specification cars, Kevin Hansen in an updated 2017 car. 

Shame that Kevin is on a level playing field, but still a brilliant bit of news for him. I was afraid that he would be left without a seat in 2018.

[Janneman60 154]

Would not be surprised if Kenneth pays for Kevin's drive. 

[shadow118 18]

Nitišs moves to Euro RX for the 2018 season - http://reinisnitiss.com/en/jaunumi/reinis-nitiss-moves-european-championship/

[tbtstt 2,387]

Good news for Nitiss, glad to see him get a drive for 2018.

[KingOfCoins 286]

I dont really like the trend of everybody foing back to euro RX It really says something about the actual world rx and it’s reliance on manufacturers and money

[tbtstt 2,387]

KingOfCoins said:

I dont really like the trend of everybody foing back to euro RX It really says something about the actual world rx and it’s reliance on manufacturers and money

With the changes that we know are coming I personally see it as a good sign: if the manufacturers want the electric future of World Rallycross then the European Championship could return to a similar format of the late 00's (i.e. predominantly privateer entries in conventional petrol engine Supercars), but with much better promotion and marketing than before (and potentially a much stronger entry). 

For me the way that the future of the European Championship is handled in the next few years is going to be absolutely critical for a lot of drivers and a lot of existing fans.

[KingOfCoins 286]

tbtstt said:

KingOfCoins said:

I dont really like the trend of everybody foing back to euro RX It really says something about the actual world rx and it’s reliance on manufacturers and money

With the changes that we know are coming I personally see it as a good sign: if the manufacturers want the electric future of World Rallycross then the European Championship could return to a similar format of the late 00's (i.e. predominantly privateer entries in conventional petrol engine Supercars), but with much better promotion and marketing than before (and potentially a much stronger entry). 

For me the way that the future of the European Championship is handled in the next few years is going to be absolutely critical for a lot of drivers and a lot of existing fans.

I actually agree with what you’re saying I just don’t believe they are going to do anything to euroRX they are treating it like a feeder series they don’t really want. The ideal would be to have euroRX on more events or perhaps treating it like a proper seperate series. But I have my doubts.


another problem with drivers stepping down also means there will be most likely domination by said driver. Like marklund did last year

[Janneman60 154]

It is also a bad thing that drivers who dominated ERX, like Marklund, Larsson and Kevin Hansen, don't get a real chance in WRX.

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

If that all does happen I think ERX would defiantly need to beef up its calander to support a full championship season.

[tbtstt 2,387]

DiRTKiNG808 said:

If that all does happen I think ERX would defiantly need to beef up its calander to support a full championship season.

I wonder if that will be on the cards in the next year or so. The suggestion seems to be that the European Championship (i.e Supercars and Super 1600) will be at some circuits on it's own (it has already been hinted that the European Championship will come back to Lydden), if it moves to a standalone calendar then I suspect more rounds will be added to justify it as a standalone Championship. 

[tbtstt 2,387]

Double post, but Timur Timerzyanov and Niclas Gronholm confirmed at GRX:

https://mailchi.mp/9b77e36d876a/grx-taneco-team-launches-world-rx-campaign-with-timerzyanov-and-gronholm?e=8663567b75

[Janneman60 154]

I wonder if stard will drive this year? Maybe they spend the year developing the electric car?

[tbtstt 2,387]

Janneman60 said:

I wonder if stard will drive this year? Maybe they spend the year developing the electric car?

Possibly, be interested to know who is providing the fixed chassis for the electric cars. 

OMSE confirm a full World Championship campaign for 2018 with Kevin Eriksson and Robin Larsson. Absolutely fantastic news to see Larsson in a permanent World Championship seat.

[Ruben Correa Alves 28]

Too bad they’re going back to Ford, instead of building a new version of the Civic. Would have been nice to see those come to Europe.

[gfRally 449]

Areyouben said:

Too bad they’re going back to Ford, instead of building a new version of the Civic. Would have been nice to see those come to Europe.

Possibly Honda sells more cars in the US?  Or they thought the US would work better with the marketing?  IDK if either is true.  Chevrolet tried a season or 2 with their Sonic GRC car, either driver or car could not compete at all, so it was dropped and put in Transformers, lol (I hate that whole scene)

[KingOfCoins 286]

The 2018 entry list is out. And it's really scarce... Only 15 entries

http://www.fiaworldrallycross.com/article/9854/2018-world-rx-entry-list

[tbtstt 2,387]

KingOfCoins said:

The 2018 entry list is out. And it's really scarce... Only 15 entries

http://www.fiaworldrallycross.com/article/9854/2018-world-rx-entry-list

15 permanent entries is similar to what we have had the last few years. Apart from Demoustier pretty much every driver on the list could be a race winner. 

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

KingOfCoins said:

The 2018 entry list is out. And it's really scarce... Only 15 entries

http://www.fiaworldrallycross.com/article/9854/2018-world-rx-entry-list

I don't know why that is scary. They are only 5 short of the Formula 1 grid and it gives you a better opportunity to see your favorite driver in the final. As long as the racing is good, I'm good.

[tbtstt 2,387]

IMG just launched the ARX: Americas Rallycross Championship.

[KingOfCoins 286]

Where did you hear that?                    

[Ruben Correa Alves 28]

Yeeeees. Both Volkswagen and Subaru have signed up for that. Just 4 rounds, but yay so we won't lose those teams after all. :smiley:

The promoter of the World Rallycross Championship, IMG, has launched a new American rallycross series, the Americas Rallycross Championship (ARX), that will run over four rounds in 2018.

ARX’s first round will be run alongside the British round of the World RX series at Silverstone in May (25 – 25), before also joining the Canadian and American rounds of World RX in Trois-Rivieres (August 4-5) and Austin (September 29-30).

https://www.motorsport.com/world-rx/news/volkswagen-subaru-sign-up-for-new-american-rallycross-series-1014517/?s=1

[KingOfCoins 286]

Looks like an American version of ERX, Now I understand the massive shakeup GRC had