All you need to know as RallyX Americas kicks off at Crandon

Rallycross in the United States is about to enter a new dawn. And if you’re puzzled because you think you’ve heard this story before, don’t worry, you have.

While the discipline relaunching in North America this weekend as RallyX Americas can trace its roots back to a made-for-TV competition for British broadcaster ITV in 1967, it wasn't until 2010 that rallycross properly arrived in the U.S. Born from rally car racing – itself spawned from the more traditional stage rallies – at the X Games, Rally America held four rounds (including X Games) in the second half of that season. Tanner Foust took gold at the X Games, then won two of the three other events, with Toomas Heikkinen taking the final one, in what would prove to be a sign of things to come.

The 2010 teaser proved successful and a full series, Global Rallycross, was formed for 2011. Foust won the first two championships, with Heikkinen taking the 2013 title, fellow Finn Joni Wiman taking the 2014 crown (despite not managing a round win that year), and Scott Speed winning in 2015, ‘16, and ‘17 driving an Andretti Autosport-run Volkswagen Beetle developed specifically for the series.

But turmoil was brewing behind the scenes. Discontent with management and rising debts led to the series falling apart after 2017 and the remaining teams went to World Rallycross promoter IMG to piece together the short-lived Americas Rallycross series. It lasted two years with Speed winning the first for a fourth consecutive American title, and Foust claiming the last after Speed – by now with Subaru – broke his back in the standalone Nitro Rallycross event at the Nitro World Games in 2019.

Much like how rallycross found its footing in the U.S. at first, its next iteration would come from an action sports contest. After one-off rounds were held at the Nitro World Games in 2018 and ‘19, following a quiet 2020 for the reasons we all know about, the Travis Pastrana-fronted Nitro Rallycross arrived in 2021. For the following year, the season straddled two calendar years running from fall to autumn.

The 2022-23 campaign also brought about a new top class for electric cars, namely the FC1 which was developed specifically for it. Supercars – the premier class of combustion engined cars with 600 hp turbocharged engines and four-wheel-drive – were intended to keep racing, but with only the Subarus remaining in the U.S. and many of the other cars entered in the previous season returning to Europe, the category was canned.

After a tumultuous few years, with Nitrocross – as it became known – rallycross looked to have finally got a stable American home. Grid sizes were increasing compared to the latter GRC and ARX days, there were permanent tracks rather than street courses or makeshift oval or road course adaptions, and even the manufacturers were taking note: Dodge entered a partnership with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and JC Raceteknik, and at least three others were waiting in the wings.

But a re-evaluation of Nitrocross’ parent company’s businesses unexpectedly put U.S. rallycross out to pasture once again. Teams were left with cars and no place to play, but one owner stepped in to save the day: Andreas Eriksson.

Eriksson has been a mainstay of U.S. rallycross throughout almost all of its iterations. His Olsbergs MSE operation built and run the Ford Fiestas that won the first five rallycross championships stateside, built the Lites cars that made up the second-tier competitions that ran from 2013-24, then through his First Corner venture developed the FC1 and combustion but clean fuel-powered FC2 to replace Lites.

More importantly, he’s the man behind the successful and hugely popular RallyX series which started in the Nordic region before expanding across the rest of Europe and now to North America for a fifth bite of the cherry for rallycross in the U.S.

The RallyX Americas season will comprise six rounds at three events at Crandon, with the first this weekend, followed by Eldora Speedway and Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières in Canada. Invitational events will follow at Crandon and Montalegre in Portugal.

This weekend 10 drivers will take part in the top class, dubbed Hypercar, with the all-electric FC1, which develops 1,000 hp and is capable of 0-60 in less than 1.9s. Of the 10, four will hail from the U.S., the most in the FC1 era since the 2022 Nitrocross event at Wild Horse Motorsports Park in Arizona – a number helped by the wild card additions of Chase Elliott and Austin Cindric.

Sweden's Robin Larsson heads the entry list, and comes into the weekend as the de facto reigning champion, having won the last two seasons of Nitrocross, as well as leading that series at the time of its untimely cancellation. Alongside him at JC Raceteknik will be Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky.

Team OMSE will field Oliver and Kevin Eriksson as well as Americans Jimmy Henderson and Mitchell DeJong – the latter filling in for Foust, who will return later in the season.

A third Swedish team in the field, Hansen Motorsport, will enter Timmy Hansen and Brad Deberti, the latter running under the Affect Vodka banner. Finland’s SET Promotion will field Tommi Hallman and Lia Block, Block’s entry being under the Block House Racing name.

In Supercar, unlike the category’s past namesake, everyone will run the same FC2 cars – a 550 hp machine built off of recycled Lites entries and powered by sustainable fuel. There will be 10 entries, six of those being American drivers: DeJong (the only driver pulling double duty in both classes), Tyler Leach, Banks Hovey, Eric Gordon, Gray Leadbetter, Johnny Holtger and Patrick Gruszka. Romet Tsirna, Simon Olofsson and Lukas Andersson make up the rest of the grid.

Later in the season the bill will be expanded further to include an Open 2WD division open to modified rally, road racing, and drift cars and a pair of Cross Car classes (Cross Car and Cross Car Junior).

Coverage from RallyX Americas' season opener at Crandon airs both Saturday and Sunday from 6:30-8:00pm on the RACER+ App. RACER Network and RACER+ will have coverage of the rest of the season as well, along with 20 one-hour highlight shows from RallyX’s events around the world, as well as live coverage of the RallyX World Final at Montalegre Circuit in Portugal on Oct. 24-25. The full schedule is as follows:

June 20 - Crandon International Raceway, Crandon, WI

June 21 - Crandon International Raceway, Crandon, WI

June 27 - Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, OH

June 28 - Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, OH

August 22 - Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC

August 23 - Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC

September 5-6 - Crandon World Cup, Crandon International Raceway, Crandon, WI

October 24-25 - RallyX Global Final, Montalegre Circuit, Montalegre, Portugal