America’s First Rallycross To Make Motorsport History
Monday, August 9, 2010
 The American motorsport landscape will never be the same. The first ever U.S. Rallycross event takes place at the New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) on August 28-29th, 2010! This is the first event of a series of 3 Rallycrosses scheduled for NJMP this year and will be known as the “Rally America Rallycross Championship”.
Americans have seldom seen the speed, power, intensity and overall competition of a Rallycross event. For the uninitiated, imagine the marriage of drifting, sports car racing and closed-course off-road racing. That’s Rallycross!
Rallycross will redraw the motor racing landscape much the way drifting changed the landscape when it was introduced in 1996. Rallycross draws huge audiences and a very diverse fan base in Europe. It sits at the intersection of rally, drifting, and road racing disciplines and will feature stars from each respective autosport.
A race consists of five rally style cars jumping and sliding on a road course made up of pavement AND gravel. Five drivers line up to start at once, piloting high-horsepower compact cars through race traffic over a challenging short course that features jumps, unbanked turns, hills and transitions between pavement and gravel. Each car must also take a “Joker” lap at some point during their heat. A Joker Lap is a small detour – normally over a jump – that adds a level of unpredictability to the heat’s outcome by changing a driver’s strategy in an instant.
"It's an incredibly challenging and aggressive sport," said driver Tanner Foust, who has been competing in European championship events this season. "The action is non-stop and the fans can't get enough of it."
Fans get close to the action with trackside viewing of aggressive door-to-door action and the sliding and jumping that makes rally car events unique among motorsport.
A sample of what is to come can be viewed at vimeo.com/12295721 The video was created by www.rallycross.hu
The nation got a taste of what is to come during the X Games 16 inaugural “SuperRally” event on July 31st. After the huge success of “Rally Car Racing” in the X Games, ESPN added another rally event that pitted cars against each other on the same course. A thrilled national audience witnessed the tight four car “SuperRally” battles as they sped across the L.A. Memorial Coliseum floor and jumped a 70 foot gap as part of their “Joker” lap.
At the end of the day it was Rockstar Energy Drink’s Tanner Foust holding off Brian Deegan, Sam Hubinette and Stephan Verdier in the final heat to win the “SuperRally” gold medal.
Rallycross at NJMP will be the ultimate display of rally and drifting talent with a slew of high profile personalities scheduled to attend!
At the top of the list, Subaru Rally Team’s Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra are scheduled to arrive with newly built rallycross cars. Both are perennial X Games megastars having just competed at X Games 16, however, both look to redeem themselves after dismal results.
Monster World Rally Team’s Ken Block is expected to arrive in his 2010 Ford Fiesta. Block built a name for himself as the co-founder of DC Shoes before entering rally racing. He popularized himself even further with a series of “Gymkhana” videos that has garnered over 22 million views!
Newly crowned X Games 16 gold medal winner, Tanner Foust, will also make an appearance at the first Rallycross event. Foust has been gaining valuable seat time competing in the European Rallycross Series and looks to use his experience against his U.S. rivals.
Rallycross will be the symbolic event for drift drivers with rally DNA. Rhys Millen and Stephan Verdier both come from a rally racing background before moving into Formula Drift. Now both men are expected to appear and will no doubt be favorites to compete for top honors. Millen will be bringing Hyundai back to rally racing, though it remains to be seen what model he will bring.
Formula Drift driver, Sam Hubinette, will team up with drifting teammate, Andrew Comrie-Picard (ACP). Both competed at X Games 16 and both won a bronze medal in their respective races. ACP has participated in some European Rallycross events alongside Tanner Foust in anticipation of the U.S. Rallycross debut.
There will be two classes of cars in this initial year of Rallycross competition. The faster, all-wheel-drive cars will resemble those used in current Rally America competition. The second category of Rallycross cars will be two-wheel-drive and include various body styles from manufacturers such as Dodge and Honda boasting 450+ horsepower, highly modified engines and rally-style suspension.
More information, including competition format, can be found at rally-america.com/rallycross.php
The three Rally America Rallycross Championship events at NJMP will be televised on ESPN2. Details about format and broadcast dates to follow.
Rallycross tickets are on sale at store.njmp.com/store/category/9/157/
Rally America, Inc. will sanction the three Rallycross events at NJMP August 27-29, October 1-3, and November 5-7 as a Series. At X Games 16, Rally America, Inc. announced a new 2011 Rallycross Championship with three events on the West Coast and three events on the East Coast. Details to follow.
2011 Rallycross Championship Press Release: rally-america.com/news/latest/732/
About Rally America, Inc.
Based in Golden Valley, Minn., Rally America sanctions the premier performance rally series in the United States, the Rally America National Championship Series. In 2010, Rally America is conducting six National Championship events at venues across the country, from Olympia, Washington to Newry, Maine. Rally America competitors reach speeds of well over 100 mph in modified street cars on natural-terrain courses consisting of gravel, dirt or snow. Additionally, through a partnership with ESPN, qualifying Rally America drivers are invited to compete in ESPN’s Summer X Games 16, the annual leading action-sports event that’s broadcast live on ESPN.
RallyCar is proudly supported by Subaru of America, Inc., BFGoodrich Tires, the Team O’Neil Rally School, Able Planet, Hawk Performance Brakes, Rally-Tire.com, RaceWatches.com, Exedy Racing Clutches, RECARO, Mazda and the Danza del Sol Winery.
About New Jersey Motorsports Park
Sitting on more than 500 acres in Millville, N.J., New Jersey Motorsports Park is nestled snugly in a beautifully forested region surrounded by scenic rivers and nearby Delaware Bay. Directly adjacent to Millville Municipal Airport, NJMP is conveniently located close to Philadelphia, the Jersey Shore, New York and Baltimore, offering diverse and dynamic motorsports attractions.
The well landscaped park includes two world-class road courses (Thunderbolt and Lightning), a motorsports country club known as the Drivers Club with the Finish Line Pub and Breighton Room Restaurant, which are open to the general public, and F1 New Jersey, one of the top karting facilities in America. Entering its third race season, NJMP hosts a number of professional motorsports events and countless club events and track and facility rentals.
The 2010 spectator schedule includes return visits by the AMA Superbike Championship, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX, SCCA Pro Racing with the return of the Trans-Am series, and the Ferrari Challenge. Two vintage race weekends dot the 2010 schedule, plus the inaugural 12 hour SCCA “Devil in the Dark” endurance race, and the inaugural RoadMods “Dirt Modifieds Fast 50” racing series, the first ever racing on a road course for high-powered dirt modified stock cars and three weekends of RallyCar’s presentation of European style Rallycross high horsepower fender rubbing racing on a combined paved and dirt-grass-jumps circuit.
Photo: Tim Whittington/www.ERC24.com
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