GRC partners NASCAR and IndyCar

The Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) will appear alongside three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events and one round of the IZOD IndyCar Series this year. The five-weekend, seven-round championship will open with a standalone event at Las Vegas on April 20-21 and also embraces X Games 18 in Downtown Los Angeles where rounds four and five of the championship take place. All events, except the X Games where round five will be run on Sunday, take place on Friday and Saturday.

The move to appear alongside NASCAR and IndyCar events follows GRC’s partnership with Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) which owns the venues at which the series will appear. It is expected that the Rallycross track will be setup within the oval race track, a dedicated paddock area being provided outside the track. GRC says that details of track layouts will be published ‘in the coming weeks’. All events are to be broadcast by ESPN with webcasts scheduled to appear on ESPN3.com

While GRC had previously expected to run a two-wheel drive ‘Supernational’ category, and perhaps even a ‘standard’ class, the latest information details a series that is exclusively for Supercars and which will award two titles, one for drivers and one for manufacturers.

The top 13 points scorers after the first three rounds of the GRC will be invited to take part in X Games, in addition to which each recognised manufacturer will receive an invitation for one non-qualified driver to take part. A drop score rule is also in place, and will be used after round three with the lowest score by each driver being removed before the top 13 is calculated.

Registration/entry for the GRC has been pitched at $4750 (€3600) per car, in addition to which drivers must also purchase a competitors licence that is priced at $250 (€190).

The GRC is to add Winter X Games events and one standalone international Rallycross event in 2013, locations and details of these events have not yet been decided.