Diff’rent strokes

There are two Rallycross events in America over the next couple of weekends, and they are going to be very different. On May 19 the Rally America organisation will run the first of its new national championship series at New Jersey Motorsports Park, a week later the Global Rallycross Championship will begin at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Ken Block visited last year, but will now go head-to-head with Tanner Foust in the GRC. © Jan Tore Brustad/RallycrossWorld.com

Rally America introduced Rallycross to the US at the end of 2010 when it ran a series of events at NJMP. Following a parting of the ways with the GRC during last year, it has spent time refocusing on the rallies that form its core business, but with Rallycross close to the heart of manager JB Niday, there was never much doubt that the organisation would seek to run further Rallycross events.

It has now scheduled four events in the US Rallycross Series (USRS), subsequent rounds running in July, October and November at NJMP. There remains the possibility of the series being expanded to take in additional venues, and while there is no official line on this, it seems fairly certain that the way in which the first event is received will have a bearing on the possibility of expanding the championship.

With a week to run before the first NJMP event, there are 21 names on the entry list, 19 of those drivers planning to run two-wheel drive cars. This, it seems, is likely to be the USP of the championship.

To put the American scene into context, the GRC and USRS might be seen in a similar way to national and clubmans/regional series exist in Europe. There is, or should be, space for both within the market place and each would appear to have something to gain by the presence of the other. Someone watching the GRC and wanting to try it for themselves is going find that the USRS will present the ‘entry point’ level that will allow that to happen. GRC is light on numbers and while it may take sometime for USRS drivers to progress to that level by their own means, the presence in the Rally America events of experienced competitors like Dillon Van Way, Josh Wimpey, Arkadiusz Gruszka, etc. means that there are potential star drivers waiting in the wings. If the GRC flies, those guys could find themselves in pole position to make the step up.

With no entry list published, and with Liam Doran choosing to prioritise the European championship event in Austria over the GRC opener, there are 14 known starters for Charlotte on May 26, with perhaps more yet to show their hand. The GRC has a new tie-in with track owner IMS and a race schedule that means it will appear alongside NASCAR and Indycar events, as well as a double-header at the X Games in July.