World Rallycross Championship - Canada RX preview
The FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy will resume after a short summer break at the Canadian city of Trois-Rivieres. Canada RX is the 7th round of the 13-event calendar.
The Canadian World RX event is part of a wider motorsport festival Grand Prix of Trois-Rivieres (GP3R) with lots of activities like the Canadian NASCAR, Formula Drift, FestiDrag or SxSX (side-by-side-cross). A total of 20 Supercars will compete at a very quick 1370m-long track built in 1967., as well as eight RX Lites in the standalone RX Lites Intercontinental Cup.
Most of the World RX regular drivers will be in Canada for the event. The reigning Champion Petter Solberg is the leader in Drivers’ Championship with 159 points, 44 points ahead of Johan Kristoffersson. Andreas Bakkerud is just two points behind Kristoffersson and fourth placed Timmy Hansen has nine points less than Bakkerud. So, four different teams/manufacturers have drivers in the top 4. The best placed Audi driver is Mattias Ekstrom (EKS RX) at 7th place.
2015 World Rallycross Championship, Petter Solberg in Citroen
Joining the World RX regulars in Canada will be two local drivers, Patrick Carpentier and LP Dumoulin, both piloting the JRM Racing-prepared MINI RX Supercars. Five-time IndyCar race-winner Carpentier definitely made quite an impression with his RX debut in 2014 when finished sixth overall. Canadian NASCAR Champion Dumoulin is new to rallycross. Tanner Foust is the other North American wildcard entry. It will be his third World RX event this year and he will drive the Marklund Motorsport’s VW Polo RX Supercar.
There were be some changes in the other Supercars entered for Canada. Austrian rally driver Chris Brugger will replace team owner and driver Max Pucher in the World RX Team Austria. Tommy Rustad will replace Alx Danielsson in the ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport’s Audi S3. Team owner and regular driver Rene Muennich will race the second car in Canada. Ekstrom’s team EKS RX will have two drivers in Canada, but since Anton Marklund‘s Audi isn’t yet ready for racing after a heavy crash at Höljes, he will make a guest appearance in his former car VW Polo RX.
2015 World Rallycross Championship
Eight RX Lites will also compete in the standalone RX Lites Intercontinental Cup including former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Alex Tagliani. Tagliani will be joined by two other Canadians including Pro Mazda Championship front-runner Garett Grist and Monster Energy athlete Brett Turcotte – a successful snocross rider and regular in the Winter X Games. Frenchman Cyril Raymond will make his debut in World RX following an impressive test in the Lites car in Istanbul last year where he was quickest out of 23 entrants. Meanwhile, Oliver Eriksson and Alejandro Fernandez will swap GRC Lites for World RX.
Martin Anayi, World RX Managing Director for IMG, concluded: “Canada delivered a spectacular event in 2014, and this year the organisers have been working hard to ensure our only street circuit race is even better. The approach to turn one is the longest of the whole year, with drivers reaching just over 200km/h at braking point. It’s fantastic to have five native Canadians joining us for their home event.”
Canada RX is two-day event, with practices and two qualifying heats on Friday (August 07) and rest of programme on Saturday (August 08) from 12.15 to 20.00 (local time).
