World Rallycross Championship 2016

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

I see the official World Rallycross FB page is making mention of Loeb again: is a full season from him looking more likely do we think?

Timmy and Sébastien in PH 208's?

IIRC Loeb is doing full season of rally raid.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by FIRE

IIRC Loeb is doing full season of rally raid.

I thought he was just doing the Dakar and that was it?

ERC24, RX Inside and the official World Rallycross Facebook pages have all made posts concerning Loeb now. Perhaps they are just teasing, but I wondered if there was more to it.

[tbtstt]

Forgive the double post, but a couple of snippets from Facebook. First up a post from RX Inside...

Originally Posted by RX-Inside Facebook

Finally Michaël De Keersmaecker can fit his engine in to his Ford Fiesta. It's looking good now for Portugal! MdK will drive a (almost) full WorldRX with exception of Hockenheim, Canada and Argentina.

...and secondly a post from Ken Blocks Facebook page:

Originally Posted by Ken Block Facebook

I’ve got a big announcement AND my 2016 schedule launching tomorrow. If you see your flag in this image (or live anywhere close), tag your friends. ‘Cause that means I’ll be in your country at some point this year!

They may not all be related to World Rallycross, but those flags correspond with a number of World Rallycross rounds.

[FIRE]

Took long for MDK to build his Fiesta.

Would be nice to see Block in WRX.

[crossfades]

I am guessing WRX in a team with M-Sport as rumored before. He seems to have dropped the plug on WRC and GRC has not been a success. Besides, he is a very good driver and WRX will offer more "clean" racing even if it tends to be folkrace some times

[J.U.]

Every round in the picture is represented, isn´t it? So Ken will do the full season...? Would be nice .

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by crossfades

I am guessing WRX in a team with M-Sport as rumored before. He seems to have dropped the plug on WRC and GRC has not been a success.

Block (by his own admission) was never going for any titles in WRC, he was just doing it because he could. I'm expecting him to at least do X-Games in the US, but it will be interesting to see if he has completely abandoned the GRC.

Originally Posted by crossfades

Besides, he is a very good driver and WRX will offer more "clean" racing even if it tends to be folkrace some times

Fully agree!

[BertMk2]

Block confirmed for a full season:

http://www.fiaworldrallycross.com/ar...-full-world-rx

That's good news - and it looks like there's some Ford backing too. Will there be a second car (for the teams championship)?

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

That's good news - and it looks like there's some Ford backing too. Will there be a second car (for the teams championship)?

I would certainly think so. The quote in the article "I'm excited to see what we'll be able to do next season with factory support"; no direct mention of M-Sport (yet), I assume further press releases will follow?

[chunder]

Let's be fair, he is a Monster man through and through so once his commitments in the US were done he was always coming over.

The interest is in the car, he has used a different spec car to Olsbergs from the start I think.

Not that great a driver in my eyes, but IMG wll love his social media profile more than anything he does on track.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by chunder

The interest is in the car, he has used a different spec car to Olsbergs from the start I think.

Yeah, I think that's right. His first Gymkhana Fiesta was an OMSE build, sure the subsequent rallycross cars were developed by his own team and then later by M-Sport.

I wonder how long we will have to wait to find out if the rest of the Block rumour was true: will he be using a Focus over a Fiesta?

Originally Posted by chunder

Not that great a driver in my eyes, but IMG wll love his social media profile more than anything he does on track.

I know the counter-argument will be "it was because of the car!", but he set the fastest lap time at Loheac last year (a circuit he had never driven on before) and no one in either 2014 or 2015 came close to that time. I know racing is more than just one single hot lap, but I daresay that's a pretty good indication he has some talent behind the wheel.

[crossfades]

The car he has been racing in the GRC is an M-Sport built car based on the WRC spec and then maintained by Hoonigan Racing, his team. When he raced in Norway and France however it was in a new built car (also WRC spec) especially for his WRX rounds, similar to his car in GRC but with a few developments.

Hoonigan probably don't have the knowhow to build a car and I think it would be odd if Ford Performance were to build a car since they have no experience from rallying or rallycross from what I know and also would need a base in Europe. That leaves M-Sport left to build and maintain the car but still a bit odd if Block is to have manufacture support.

Will it be like the "defunct" M-Sport driven Ford World Rally Team? Perhaps Ford World Rallycross Team?

[FIRE]

Great news. Now Foust cannot stay behind...

IIRC OMSE is still the official Ford team in WRX.

[ebby]

So this paves the way for Monster to ditch Liam as their preferred "athlete"?

[NaBUru38]

Big coup by IMG. Now they should move from BeIN Sports USA to a proper channel like ESPN or Fox Sports (they air nothing in the morning, unlike NBCSN).

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by ebby

So this paves the way for Monster to ditch Liam as their preferred "athlete"?

Possibly; I'd be surprised if Liam does get dropped though. I still wonder if there is some possibility he will crop up at a team mate for Block.

Is Petter definitely running a DS3 in 2016? Or is there any chance he could be teamed up with Block? (Thinking of the Monster connection there).

Little feature on Block on Autosport:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122464

I'm not sure how accurate their information is, but that article clearly states that he will be using the Fiesta and not a Focus as previous hypothesized.

[crossfades]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Possibly; I'd be surprised if Liam does get dropped though. I still wonder if there is some possibility he will crop up at a team mate for Block.

Is Petter definitely running a DS3 in 2016? Or is there any chance he could be teamed up with Block? (Thinking of the Monster connection there).

Solberg will be running his DS3 another season and will be looking at options for 2017. Apparently he was very close to a deal with Citroen in the WRC for 2016 ...

I read on twitter that Doran wanted to race in another team, not his own. Preferably he would like to be in Solbergs team.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by crossfades

Solberg will be running his DS3 another season and will be looking at options for 2017. Apparently he was very close to a deal with Citroen in the WRC for 2016 ...

Surely that would be 2017? Or Citroen wanted Solberg running in the satellite team for 2016 and to help develop the 2017 car?

Originally Posted by crossfades

I read on twitter that Doran wanted to race in another team, not his own. Preferably he would like to be in Solbergs team.

Makes sense based on the last couple of seasons and I do think Doran is one of the few drivers whose style would suit the PSRX DS3: whether Petter would want him as part of the team is another subject entirely though!

[tbtstt]

Forgive the double post, but Swedish article stating the Solberg will be in his DS3 in 2016:

http://www.vf.se/sport/bilsport/darf...solberg-rallyt

[USRallycross]

Apart from the first year's car Ken's cars have always been M-Sport. Hoonigan maintains them only. On his Facebook feed their wrench guy showed a picture of the fully stripped GRC shell going back to M-Sport after its shortening in Vegas.

Ken has the speed and the courage. I personally hope he doesn't try and do GRC as he needs to get out of the carnage and race. The challenge for Ken is can he be consistent throughout a two day meeting. The speed is there in him and the car but he will be on new circuits with no set-up sheets (OMSE won't share!) with the pressure to perform.

My guess is in more finals than most will think and when he is not it is because he has had big crashes.

He will bring huge name recognition to the sport. He also is an incredibly nice and real guy and truly cares about the people who pay money to watch him, very similar to Tanner. Remember Ken didn't grow up in racing but got into who through sponsoring Travis Pastrana and decided to give it a go. He is living the dream and good luck to him. Self made man and all that.

I hope Tanner comes over as well as that is a talent wasted but doubt his many commitments will allow.


Mark

[rx-guru]

Maybe Ken Block is no top Rally driver, but since he was the fastest challenger of Sébastien Loeb in the 2012 X Games Final, although having an early slow puncture, I know he can drive Rallycross.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jjZiv9gHOU

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Surely that would be 2017? Or Citroen wanted Solberg running in the satellite team for 2016 and to help develop the 2017 car?


Makes sense based on the last couple of seasons and I do think Doran is one of the few drivers whose style would suit the PSRX DS3: whether Petter would want him as part of the team is another subject entirely though!

Yep

[crossfades]

sorry for double post, dont know to remove

[crossfades]

Solberg has such weird setups. Remember the first year when he competed, not even the Swedish RWD Supernational cars went that low in the back and high in the front when taking off or that low in the front and high in the back when braking. Seriously, it looked like a trophy truck. The Hansen team tested Solbergs setup once in 2014 and thought it was just odd. It is fascinating though that the cars have such different setups and yet are so equal in pace. For example Ekström with the maybe stiffest setup and Solberg with the softest almost match each other.

But Solberg probably had the best engine in 2015. Having an engine built by a WRC engine builder and probably spending the most money on the engine too compared to others. Still the best driver in my opinion though even if he had some advantages in the engine.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by crossfades

Solberg has such weird setups. Remember the first year when he competed, not even the Swedish RWD Supernational cars went that low in the back and high in the front when taking off or that low in the front and high in the back when braking. Seriously, it looked like a trophy truck. The Hansen team tested Solbergs setup once in 2014 and thought it was just odd.

I didn't know that Hansen had actually tried Solberg's settings. The only Supercar that I can recall looking softer than Solberg's 2013 DS3 were the two Team Austria Fiestas at the start of last year. I guess they were just trying settings out, but the cars looked completely undriveable at Lydden. Stohl had to keep coming off the brakes on North Bend as the front of the car kept grazing the tarmac!

I was told (and I'm not sure how accurate the information is), that a dispute with regards to car setup was the reason that Hvaal left PSRX.

I'd like to know what Petter has done with his car setup now. When he ran in Argentina back in 2014 it was mentioned that they had already reworked the DS3 for 2015 and it certainly looked a little bit lower last year: it still seems to pitch around, though not as dramatically as it did in earlier seasons.

Originally Posted by crossfades

It is fascinating though that the cars have such different setups and yet are so equal in pace. For example Ekström with the maybe stiffest setup and Solberg with the softest almost match each other.

Absolutely: the car setup and driving style of the front runners is incredibly varied yet, as you say, all of them are recording similar lap times. Liam is the only other driver I can think of though whose car looks as soft as Petter's.

Originally Posted by crossfades

But Solberg probably had the best engine in 2015. Having an engine built by a WRC engine builder and probably spending the most money on the engine too compared to others. Still the best driver in my opinion though even if he had some advantages in the engine.

For me he is still the best but, having said that, I think the margin between Petter and the rest of the field has narrowed considerably.