World Rallycross of USA 2018
Earlier this year we got a sample of what the new rallycross layout would be at Circuit of the Americas. When they had the Dirtfish Rallycross series visiting Austin, we only stayed for the practice runs since the event took place in July and the temperatures were climbing over 100 degrees. Now looking back at that we probably should've attended the event later in the day to get to experience the qualifying and the elimination races.
We attended on Sunday and luckily we didn't go Saturday as we saw a lighting storm delay on Facebook. Sunday had a better outlook as the skies covered the sun and kept the track fairly cool and damp.
The qualifying and racing runs we saw were among some of them most intense racing we've ever seen. Rubbing is racing should be the motto for rallycross. Each team probably has a whole trailer dedicated to carrying replacement body panels.
Scott Speed couldn't get in front of his teammate Tanner Foust but second place was all that he needed to claim the championship for this year.
Ken Block's Ford Focus had to retire early due to a mechanical issue which left Steve Arpin in his Focus, to settle for third overall in the weekend. The Subaru team of Heikkinen and Sandell finished fourth and fifth.
The World Rallycross series, contained cars that we could only see if we selected the European versions of manufacture's websites. We can only hope that some day we'll be able to see VW Polos, Audi S1, and Peugeot 208s be offered in the US. The VWs of Johan Kristoffersson and Petter Solberg end taking the points home for the weekend. Mattias Ekström wasn't too far behind in his Audi S1.
The ARX 2 class also saw a lot of intense fender to fender action with some lots of body panels needing replacement.
We enjoyed experiencing the intense racing during the World Rallycross visit to Circuit of the Americas. The fans came out from all over the world to cheer on their local hero. We hope this gets added to the calendar for next year. We'd like to see if they'd consider changing the layout of the track to compete with the ridiculous Nitro Rallycross layout that happened at Utah Motorsports. Hopefully Texas can show them we do things bigger here.
We hope you enjoy our photo coverage.
