After the 2020 season was left without a Rallycross series or even a single Rallycross competition in the USA, next season Rallycross will return given the plans of Travis Pastrana’s Nitro Rallycross that were officially revealed today (December 2).
2019 was the last season with the Americas Rallycross Championship (won by Tanner Foust). That same year Rallycross formed part – for a second time – of Nitro World Games. In 2019 the Nitro Rallycross competition during Nitro World Games was won by Kevin Hansen. “Since day one, I have truly believed that Nitro Rallycross has the potential to be the most exciting motorsports series on the planet,” said Travis Pastrana, action sports star and one of the creators of Nitro World Games. “When we built the first Nitro Rallycross course in Utah we knew we had something special – from the drivers’ genuine smiles to the astonished fans as cars flew side-by-side over 100-foot jumps. Now, as we get ready for the next chapter of Nitro Rallycross, I’m more convinced than ever that this will bring top drivers from all disciplines to challenge themselves as their teams push the envelope in vehicle development. It’s going to be a hell of a ride and this is only the beginning.”
Building on the success of the 2018 and 2019 Nitro Rallycross single event editions the format will now be expanded in 2021 to a full standalone championship series of five events and a further expansion in 2022 to a global 10 event series across North America, Europe and the Middle East. In 2021 the series is set to go underway at the Utah Motorsports Campus at Tooele, UT – the home of Nitro Rallycross – in September followed by visits to four purpose build tracks at Washington state and Nevada in October, Arizona in November and the Canadian province of Quebec in January. The 2022 global series is supposed to start soon after the event in Canada and will run through the year.
Following the general tendency of ‘the future is electric’, the 2022 season will feature electric Supercar vehicles, branded as FC1-X, to run in parallel with its internal combustion competition. The FC1-X is an all-new vehicle developed in partnership with Andréas Eriksson’s First Corner, comprised of QEV Technologies and Olsbergs/MSE. “We have been working with many leading OEM’s for over 24 months on the FC1-X,” Andréas Eriksson said. “The end product is a testament to the collaborative approach to deliver the very best vehicle in electric motorsports that the OEM’s will be proud of. This vehicle will accelerate almost twice as fast as its nearest competitor and other proposed electric offerings currently on the drawing board.”
The FC1-X is developed on an electric SUV platform. It produces 1,000+ peak HP with all-wheel drive, is capable of three G’s of acceleration and can rocket from zero to 60 mph or 100 km/h in under 1.5 seconds. Andréas Eriksson continued: “With the electric SUV category the fastest growing category for auto manufacturers, FC1-X and Nitro Rallycross will provide the perfect platform for OEM’s to highlight their new models rolling off the production line across the globe and generate a global fervour for their new vehicles, which will translate to purchases.”
Nitro Rallycross will be made available on a number of different platforms. For now organizers are working on a TV deal (for the US and beyond) as well as on a deal for a global live streaming partner to make the Nitro Rallycross series available in over 130 countries. In the mean time, foundational partner Red Bull has extended their multi-year alliance with the series in a further endorsement of the ‘vision and direction of the property’. Yokohama Tires, another foundational partner, has been also committed to the series, as the official tire partner.