Rally America unveiled SuperRally to the world, or at least the U.S. at X Games 16. No they are changing their name and the name of the event. Rally America has rebranded and will now be known as RallyCar. They are also unveiling for 2011 that there will be a Rallycross Championship. Yes, that’s right Rallycross will be much the same as SuperRally was at X Games 16, with cars on the same course at the same time, wheel to wheel.
The RallyCar Rallycross events will kick off this fall with 3 preliminary events held at New Jersey Motorsports Park. For 2011, the RallyCross Championship will consist of 6 events held at yet to be named sites around the country. Scheduled to compete are Rally America regulars, Travis Pastrana, ACP (Andrew Comrie-Picard) and Dave Mirra. Also expected to compete is X Games 16 RallyCar and Super Rally gold medalist Tanner Foust.
The RallyCross championship will consist of 2 classes. The first being an AWD class, that will consist of the same cars seen in the X Games Super Rally; Ford Fiesta, Subaru Impreza STi, Mitsubishi EVOs, etc and a 2 wheel drive class.
History
The sport of Rallycross got its start in the late 1960s in Great Britain as a TV show. Rallycross has remained popular in Europe and also spread to Australia in the 1970s. Today the largest and most popular Rallycross competition can be found in the FIA European Championships for Rallycross Drivers (ERC). The ERC Championship currently consists of 10 events, with drivers being allowed to drop one event from each half of the season.
Each event consists of 3 qualifying heats. The top 20 drivers from those heats make the finals. The finals group the competitors by qualifying position, A, B, C & D. Qualifiers 1-5 are automatically awarded a position in Group A. The rest of the drivers must compete for the final spot in the Group A final. The winning driver from D qualifies for the C final, winner of C qualifies for B and the winner of B gets the last spot in the Group A final. The winner of Group A wins the event and receives maximum points for that event.
During each race, each competitor must complete a longer alternate course at least one time. This alternate course is called the Joker Lap (this is where the Joker Jump came from in X Games 16). The Joker Lap section must be at least 2 seconds slower then the other course.
I’m guessing that the RallyCar Rallycross events will be run in much the same fashion. It should be an exciting event for spectators.
