Saturday 16 November 2019

The Americas Rallycross Championship canned after two seasons.


The Americas Rallycross series will not continue next year, the series promoter IMG has revealed.

ARX was formed by the World Rallycross promoter IMG for the 2018 season after the demise of the Red Bull Global Rallycross championship, which ceased operations in April 2018 amid mounting financial issues. 

The first ARX season ran over a four-event calendar in 2018, with three of those rounds joining the World Rallycross championship as support races and the standalone round at the Circuit of the Americas. 

The Americas Rallycross championship expanded to a six-event calendar in 2019 including an event in Austin, one in Canada (support to World RX), and two rounds at Mid-Ohio. 

ARX attracted factory teams, the likes of Volkswagen and Subaru, including a privateer team, but only seven cars contested the 2019 full season.

"After consultation with a wide group of stakeholders and interested parties, IMG has taken the difficult decision to not extend the Americas Rallycross Championship beyond the 2019 season," the IMG statement said. 

"We would like to thank our passionate fans, teams, drivers, partners and event hosts for their support and participation in Americas Rallycross."

Scott Speed was crowned the inaugural ARX Champion, and in 2019, he switched to Subaru Motorsport but was forced to miss the second half of the season after sustaining a back injury at the Nitro Rallycross event. 

In an expansion plan, ARX added a third-tier ARX3 category in 2019, featuring Sierra Cars buggies, alongside the Supercars and ARX2 categories.

Tanner Foust claimed the ARX title at the Mid-Ohio season finale, while Jamaica’s Fraser McConnell clinched the ARX2 title.

John McInnes claimed inaugural ARX3 title.

The American rallycross scene faces an uncertain future following the withdrawal of the Americas Rallycross Championship and World RX dropping the American round at COTA in 2019, and the Canadian round at Trois-Rivieres for 2020. 

While the future of rallycross seems bleak right now, the organizers of the Nitro World Games is expected to run at least one Nitro Rallycross event in America next year. 

Written By - Junaid Samodien

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