Global Rallycross Championship 2012

[chasing cars]

Ok fair enough maybe a little stronger than the Scottish premier! I still think the NASCAR crowd will take little interest in it unless you get someone like Earnhardt, Stewart or maybe Danica in a car. I guess even if just a few watch it and enjoy it then that cant be a bad thing.
I guess the real test as far as interest is concerned will be the stand alone event at Vegas. Im still not convinced the US public will take to it but I may be very wrong.

Will the first round at Texas not be on a Friday? Also any word on UK tv coverage yet?

[chasing cars]

I'll answer that 1st question myself! I see the texas event is the indycar weekend in june not the NASCAR weekend in April so I'm guessing the first round will be the stand alone round at Vegas on a sunday.

[rallyloverke]

According to Rallycrossworld : no Frode Holte in GRC.

[chasing cars]

Originally Posted by rallyloverke

According to Rallycrossworld : no Frode Holte in GRC.

Hopefully he has got a budget to do the erc though it doesn't sound too optimistic. I would much rather he raced in the GRC than to lose him from the sport altogether.

[rallyloverke]

Originally Posted by chasing cars

Hopefully he has got a budget to do the erc though it doesn't sound too optimistic. I would much rather he raced in the GRC than to lose him from the sport altogether.

I agree. it would be sad, especially for him of course, not seeing him in rallycross anymore. Only he knows the correct details, but i am afraid the money problem is "global".

And maybe not everyone is interested in Rallycross as a "supportrace"?

[USRallycross]

Nice to be a support race in front of 60k people......and likely a 1M+ on TV.

Contracts are tough things to negotiate and money is usually the issue.


Mark

[tbtstt]

A very surprising annoucement, especially at the 11th hour. Truly a contract related issue or something else? Time will tell I guess.

I hope the GRC loss is a gain for the ERC: on the assumption that there is enough time for Frode to get support/sponsorship arranged, the tone of the posts thus far doesn't seem positive at all.

I'm assuming the plans of Best Buy/OMSE/Foust etc are already set in stone at this stage, but I wonder if this will influence the decision of Isachsen at all?

[chasing cars]

Id be surprised if it had any influence on Sverre but then I'm surprised that Holte has done a bolt after being out there for well over 2 months.

What we mean as a support race/sideshow Mark is that these guys are use to being the top of the bill, yes there will be many people there maybe even more than the 60,000 you quote but how much will they be able to see and from such a distance will they really be able to appreciate what a rallycross car can do remembering they are use to watching big beasts doing 200mph and at a much closer distance.

I guess the real benefit is that all the US media will be there (and at the indycar event the world motorsport media)and if they like it then that should give the sport some good publicity, and by then they should have exhausted every possible Danica story!

[AndyS]

Supporting the NASCAR events can only be a good thing for the awareness of the sport. Be interesting to see how it looks at what I assume will be a bit of a distance. As to TV I notice that the Nationwide Series is on Motors this year and one or two ads on Motors seem to suggest they are more committed to US motorsport for this season. Hopefully the GRC will find its way onto Motors as a result.

[rallyloverke]

Indeed. "Chasing cars" understood what i meant with "just a support-race". In Europe , during the rallycross-weekend the Supercars are top of the bill. I didn't want to talk about it in a bad way. I think Rallycross in general deserves a lot of publicity.

[NaBUru38]

Wow! Speedway Motorsports has noticed the rise of rallycross. Great news!

I guess that the track layout in the cookie cutters will be on the front straight and stands.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

I believe the full GRC press release comes out tomorrow or Wednesday. Our release will follow shortly thereafter.

Any sign of this yet?...

Confirmation of the 2012 schedule and locations here:

http://www.rallycrossworld.com/2012/...r-and-indycar/

2012 Global Rallycross Championship:

Friday – Saturday April 20 – 21, GRC, Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Friday – Saturday May 25 – 26, NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, Charlotte Motor Speedway
Friday – Saturday June 8 – 9, INDYCAR Firestone 550, Texas Motor Speedway
Friday – Saturday June 29 – 30, X Games 18, Staples Center, Los Angeles
Sunday July 1, X Games 18, Staples Center, Los Angeles
Friday – Saturday July 13 – 14, NASCAR Lenox Industrial Tools 301, New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Friday – Saturday August 31 – September 1, NASCAR AdvoCare 500, Atlanta Motor Speedway

[NaBUru38]

That's cool! I hope that I can watch the races on ESPN here in Uruguay. I'd love Agulla and Pombo to narrate them!

[USRallycross]

I think that is pretty much all of it. There is more to come this week but as you have found out you wouldn't want to rely too much on when GRC say they will release something vs when they do.

I know there are a lot of Ford related press releases all waiting to flow once the trigger is pushed. We are scheduled for Thursday but I thought that last week as well!

Hope you agree it is a cool schedule?! The round in Vegas will be lower key and allow us all to figure everything out. The round in Texas should be huge as that should be a great crowd and venue. Likewise Charlotte will be awesome and I am already planning my visit to Roush Fenway to see our sister NASCAR team. That weekend we will have a car in the GRC, Indy 500 and Coke 600 - what odds would I get on a clean sweep?

New Hampshire still worries but I am sure SMI will figure it out plus as it is a week before my wedding and only 4 hours drive from home I am not complaining!

Somewhere over the Atlantic are a few prized possessions right now.....

Mark

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

I know there are a lot of Ford related press releases all waiting to flow once the trigger is pushed. We are scheduled for Thursday but I thought that last week as well!

Ha! Fair enough, I shall continue to sit and wait for the Ford news then!

Originally Posted by USRallycross

Somewhere over the Atlantic are a few prized possessions right now.....

Intersting, heading in which direction I wonder?...

[tbtstt]

Apologies for the double post - and I don't know if anyone has done this before - but with both schedules now definate, I just wondered how much of the ERC it would be possible for a GRC competitor to do in 2012? (Budget constraints aside of course! )

I know both schedules are up, just thought I'd cross reference them for clarity. GRC events in red, ERC events in blue:

April 8 - 9 - Lydden Hill Race Circuit - England
April 20 – 21 - Las Vegas Motor Speedway - US
April 28 - 29 - Dreux - France
May 25 – 26 - Charlotte Motor Speedway - US
May 26 - 27 - PS Racing Center - Austria
June 2 - 3 - Nyirádi Motorsport Centrum - Hungary
June 8 – 9 - Texas Motor Speedway - US
June 23 - 24 - Lånkebanen - Norway
June 29 - 30 - July 1 - X Games 18, Los Angeles - US
June 30 - July 1 - Höljesbanan - Sweden
July 13 – 14 - New Hampshire Motor Speedway - US
August 4 - 5 - Duivelsbergcircuit - Belgium
August 11 - 12 - Eurocircuit - Netherlands
August 31 - September 1 - Atlanta Motor Speedway - US
September 22 - 23 - Tykkimäen Moottorirata - Finland
September 29 - 30 - Estering - Germany

So with the exception of Charlotte/Austria and Holjes/X-Games, there are no other clashes? So its not completely unfeasible to hope that those drivers who have commited to a full time season in the GRC might still be able to appear in an ERC round or two? (Even feasible that a driver doing the GRC would be able to mount a fairly competitive campaign in the ERC as missing Austria and Holjes could be counted as a dropped score from the first and second half of the season respectively?).

With the fortnight gap I'm keeping everything crossed that the European GRC teams use Lydden for testing!

[chasing cars]

The schedule certainly looks good on paper and having a couple of rounds after the X-games makes sense as last year this event actually made the US sit up and take notice but then there was nothing to follow it up.
Having the first round as a stand alone event also makes sense though I wonder how many will turn up to watch.
At the other events will any of the oval get used as NASCAR and Indycar very much depend on a clean track. Also what of the other classes that were going to be part of the GRC?

[USRallycross]

There are only SuperCars in the GRC this year.

The ovals at Charlotte, Atlanta and Texas have enough infield to avoid using the oval because you are right they are sacred to NASCAR! This is one of the reasons why Loudon still confuses me. It does have a road circuit that goes out of the oval and over the hill but then you lose all the spectator stands which rather defeats the purpose.

Loudon is also strange because it happens on the same weekend as the New England Forest Rally also in New Hampshire (and Maine) - which is Subaru's home rally (David Higgins) and will also impact the potential fan base. A sneaky suspiscion that this venue may change.

Not too worried about Vegas attendance. Will allow everyone to check things out and as we have to run to a tv schedule allows the teams to practice very short breaks.

I think you will see a very few drivers take part in both ERC and GRC. If you have more than one car and sufficient sponsorship it all comes down to dealing with jet lag. Me seems to think Tanner coped well with his crazy schedule (ERC, GRC, Top Gear, filming, etc) last year.

Mark

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

Loudon is also strange because it happens on the same weekend as the New England Forest Rally also in New Hampshire (and Maine) - which is Subaru's home rally (David Higgins) and will also impact the potential fan base. A sneaky suspiscion that this venue may change.

Just a venue change you mean? Not a date change as well? Shame it can't be the latter as, from the handful of US forums I visit, I know the rally crowd are a bit put out but the clash of dates (as they know full well that the bigger teams are likely to favour the GRC over RA).

Originally Posted by USRallycross

I think you will see a very few drivers take part in both ERC and GRC. If you have more than one car and sufficient sponsorship it all comes down to dealing with jet lag. Me seems to think Tanner coped well with his crazy schedule (ERC, GRC, Top Gear, filming, etc) last year.

Yeah, I guess jetting back and forth is going to be hard on the drivers... hopefully Foust will try and cope again in 2012 though!

Originally Posted by chasing cars

The schedule certainly looks good on paper and having a couple of rounds after the X-games makes sense as last year this event actually made the US sit up and take notice but then there was nothing to follow it up.

Yeah, I agree. The GRC season last year seemed to come as a little burst prior to X-Games last year then, as you say, once X-Games was over there was nothing. Still, there had been those dirt track based events planned after X-Games, but they never happened.

[chasing cars]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

I think you will see a very few drivers take part in both ERC and GRC. If you have more than one car and sufficient sponsorship it all comes down to dealing with jet lag. Me seems to think Tanner coped well with his crazy schedule (ERC, GRC, Top Gear, filming, etc) last year.

Mark

So energy drinks do work!

[leonidas]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

I think you will see a very few drivers take part in both ERC and GRC. If you have more than one car and sufficient sponsorship it all comes down to dealing with jet lag. Me seems to think Tanner coped well with his crazy schedule (ERC, GRC, Top Gear, filming, etc) last year.

I think this is a very exciting opportunity for rallycross in the US. However I can't help thinking it it would be better for the sport as a whole if the GRC and ERC looked at maybe creating a real FIA World championship with, say, three rounds in the US, six in Europe.

There is a slight danger that the star drivers will be divided between two championships to the detriment of the sport as a whole. As we've seen in the UK that is not necessary a good thing...

[chasing cars]

Nice idea leonidas but I doubt many drivers would have the budget to ship cars etc backwards and forwards across the atlantic. Maybe still an ERC & GRC but also a world series which would be made up of 3 or 4 rounds from both championships. That way drivers still get a full european or US championship to go for while those with the big budgets can go for the ultimate prize.
The problem is though the GRC is very much a business and I doubt they would see any benefits for themselves in connecting with the fia run ERC unless of course they got to run and own the whole thing and I'm not sure id want that!

[Stephen H]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

The round in Texas should be huge as that should be a great crowd and venue.

Mark

Mark, do you have any idea where the rallycross track will be located on the texas oval. A slight chance I might be able to spectate at this event, but looking at the circuit website, I wouldnt know where to book tickets for, to have a view of the rallycross?

looks like there is a small oval on the front straight, is it likely it could be based around that?

[USRallycross]

Sorry I have no insights at all into where the track will be located within the oval. My personal opinon is that it will be on the back stretch and will be wholly contained inside the oval and will not use the oval at all.

GRC will run (usually) on the same day as Nationwide - haven't seen the IndyCar schedule for Texas - and I personally can't see NASCAR letting anyone showering/dropping dirt anywhere near an oval.

Sorry I cant be of more help.


Mark

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Just a venue change you mean? Not a date change as well? Shame it can't be the latter as, from the handful of US forums I visit, I know the rally crowd are a bit put out but the clash of dates (as they know full well that the bigger teams are likely to favour the GRC over RA).

From a teams perspective, it doesn't really matter as there isn't much crossover between the 2 series anymore. For Subaru it looks like Mirra is pretty much doing the GRC and Higgins is doing the RA championship.

I think it's more a pain in the butt for the fans that would be interested in both.