For the PlayStation videogame based on this autosport, see Rally Cross.
Rallycross is a form of sprint style automobile racing, held on a closed
mixed-surface racing circuit, with modified production or specially built
road cars, similar to the World Rally Cars, although usually with about 200
bhp stronger engines, due to e.g. their 45 mm turbo restrictor plates. It is
mainly popular in the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and
Great Britain. An inexpensive, entry level type of rallycross is the Swedish
folkrace or its Norwegian counterpart, the so-called bilcross. The folkrace is
most popular in Finland where it was founded back in late 60's. In Europe,
rallycross can also refer to racing 1:8 scale off-road radio-controlled buggies.
Rallycross history The sport started as a TV show, produced
by Robert Reed of ABC television for ITVs World of Sport programme, at Lydden
Circuit in Great Britain on Saturday, 4 February 1967. The first ever true
rallycross was organised by Bud Smith and the Tunbridge Wells Centre of the
750 MC, with the aid of Lydden Circuit owner Bill Chesson, and was won by later
Formula One driver as well as 1968 Rally Monte Carlo winner Vic Elford in a
showroom Porsche 911 of the British importer AFN, ahead of Brian Melia in
his Ford Lotus Cortina and Tony Fall in a BMC Mini Cooper S.
After that inaugural event there were another two test rallycrosses at Lydden,
on 11 March and 29 July, before the new World of Sport Rallycross Championship
for the ABC TV viewers started with round one on 23 September, to be
followed by round two on 7 October. The series was run over a total of six
rounds and was eventually won by Englishman Tony Chappell, who became the
first ever British Rallycross champion after winning the final round of the new
series on 6 April 1968 at Lydden. However, the true birth of rallycross is
often wrongly connected with the cancellation of the 1967 RAC Rally, due
to Foot and Mouth disease, in November 1967, about ten months after the maiden
event. Some foreign entrants for the RAC had also planned to take part in the 1st
international rallycross at Lydden Circuit, on Saturday, 25 November 1967,
but went home immediately after the rally had been cancelled at the eleventh
hour on the evening of 17 November, and was replaced by a single special stage
for the sake of the disappointed television companies. RAC rally stage
number one by then, Camberley, was on Ministry of Defence land and not
affected by movement restrictions caused by the disease in rural areas.
Subsequently only British drivers competed in the maiden international
rallycross event one week later, which was eventually won by Andrew Cowan and
his Hillman Imp. Thames Estuary Automobile Club's premier event, the
original Clubman's rallycross, was held the day after. It opened up the new
rally drivers' fun-sport to many amateur competitors, proved very successful and
thereby paved the way for the first generation of real rallycross
specialists, a lot of them coming from the ranges of autocross and autograss
racing. After one and a half years and several
rallycross events at Lydden as well as Croft Circuit the BBC adopted the young
sport for its Grandstand programme while ITV dropped it after the British
Rallycross Winter Series 1968/69. In 1969 Lydden Circuit and Croft Circuit
were joined by another RX venue, Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. However, while
both Lydden and Croft nowadays are still in use for rallycross Cadwell Park later
dropped this type of car racing from its schedule.
Rallycross crossed the Channel in 1969 Rob Herzet, a Dutch counterpart to
Robert Reed, discovered rallycross during a visit to Great Britain in 1968
and immediately understood its potential for the television viewers. By that time
there were nearly 10 Million Britons watching some of the events on TV. Back
home in the Netherlands Herzet contacted the race and rally driver as well as
motoring journalist Gerard van Lennep to discuss his find. Both agreed that this
form of sprint racing could be also appropriate for the Netherlands. Van
Lennep soon started his investigations and found a military testing ground near
the town of Venlo, close to the Dutch-German border. Actually there had
been two venues available, the one at Venlo in Limburg and one at Elst in
Gelderland, but the aid offered by the army turned the decision into the favour
of Venlo. On Saturday 17 May 1969 a group of
invited rally and racing drivers went to the spot for a test day. Everybody was
really satisfied and enthusiastic and only three weeks later, on Saturday 7
June the first ever rallycross event on the European continent was held. The
track consisted of a section of concrete runway, loose sections through heathland
and a hollow, about 40 metres long and 10 metres deep, usually used for tank
testing. Although the soft heath soil and the muddy hollow hampered most of
the two dozen or so competitors, or at least their mostly rather aged cars, the
event produced a lot of fun for all concerned as well as the TV audience.
Overall victory went eventually to Hans Kok and his valuable NSU 1200 TT.
The Dutch television company AVRO gave green light to Rob Herzet as well as
another three rounds counting towards the so-called AVRO-Trophy and on 16
August of the same year NSU campaigner Hans Kok claimed the first national
Dutch rallycross title. On 1 November the Dutch Rallycross Association was
founded and, during 1970, organised another five events at Venlo. For 1971
the Nederlandse Rallycross Vereniging moved the sport to its new continental
home at Valkenswaard near Eindhoven. The Eurocircuit opened on Saturday 17 April
with a race that was won by Jan de Rooy and his famous DAF 555 Coupé 4WD and
became the first ever track in the World that was especially designed and built
purely for rallycross purposes. Rallycross in Australia
Rallycross came to Australia in 1969 with a one off meeting at Leppington in
New South Wales. Events were held at Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne until
the mid 1970s and at the Catalina Park circuit in Katoomba in New South Wales
from 1972 until the early 1980s. Circuits at Towac near Orange in New
South Wales as well as Tailem Bend and Whyalla in South Australia were also
used, but after a dozen or so years the sport faded in Australia. Peter Brock
was especially successful driving for the Holden Dealer Team in a supercharged
Holden Torana GTR. The inaugural Australian Rallycross
Championship was held at the Tailem Bend circuit on 24 June 1979 and was won by
Larry Perkins, driving a 2.0-litre Volkswagen Beetle for Kruger Motors.
This was the only Australian Rallycross Championship to be contested.
A national rallycross championship was set to return to Australia in 2015 in
the form of the Extreme Rallycross Championship, originally scheduled to
consist of seven events held across 2015 and 2016. However, the series was
cancelled after just one event had been held due to a lack of entries. A
proposed Victorian championship, titled Rallycross Australia, was also cancelled
before a single event had been run. Rallycross in the United States
In October 2009 Rally America announced it would begin sanctioning European
style Rallycross events in the United States. The inaugural season of the
RallyCar Rallycross Championship, held in 2010, featured four events and
several rally, rallycross and drifting competitors have shown an interest in
contesting these races. All four events were organised at New Jersey Motorsports
Park. Rallycross was added to the X Games 16
in 2010 under the name SuperRally. The Global RallyCross Championship is a
championship that began in 2011 with five rounds in Irwindale, CA,
Snoqualmie, WA, Fountain, CO and X Games 17 in the streets of Downtown Los
Angeles, CA. The series has several popular drivers such as Tanner Foust,
Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Finn Marcus Grönholm, Kiwi Rhys Millen, Dave Mirra,
Frenchman Stéphane Verdier, Swede Michael Jernberg and Briton Liam Doran.
The events are televised on ESPN. In 2012, the series grew to seven events
run in conjunction with NASCAR Sprint Cup and IndyCar weekends as well as X
Games 18 in Los Angeles. Several marques are fielding factory- or
importer-supported efforts including Ford, Hyundai, Subaru and Dodge. In 2013
the series went to Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, and Munich, Germany, and a
rained-out event in Barcelona, Spain. GRC Lites made their debut in Loudon,
New Hampshire. The 2014 GRC season was won by Joni
Wiman. Rallycross in the United Kingdom
The Motor Sports Association British Rallycross Championship in association
with The Shannon Group is the current national series in the United Kingdom.
The calendar features iconic Rallycross circuits including Croft Circuit and
Lydden Hill Race Circuit. Recognised as an official championship by the MSA, the
governing body of motorsport in Great Britain. See rallycrossbrx.com for more
information. FIA European Rallycross Championship and
FIA World Rallycross Championship The first ever FIA World Rallycross
Championship took place from 4–5 May 2014, alongside the FIA European
Rallycross Championship, the latter formerly known as FIA European
Championships for Rallycross Drivers. Former World Rally Championship champion
Petter Solberg took first place to become the first ever FIA World
Rallycross Championship winner. The 2014 FIA World Rallycross
Championship consists of 12 events globally for the Supercar category..
FIA World and European Rallycross Championship cars are built based on
production car body shells of vehicles homologated for Group A and Group N, or
permitted by a special FIA list for non-homologated cars to be used in
Rallycross, but are extensively modified.
The race format Different rallycross championships and
events use different formats and scoring systems. For information on the scoring
system of the FIA World Rallycross Championship visit www.rallycrossrx.com.
References