Sir Chris Hoy claims points on World RX debut.

PHOTO CREDIT: Xite Racing.

Former Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy claimed two points on his FIA World Rallycross Championship debut in Spain.


Since his retirement from competitive cycling in 2013, Hoy took up a number of motorsport challenges – most notably the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016 in the LMP2 class. He has also competed in European Le Mans and the British GT Championship.

The Scotsman enjoyed his first taste of World RX. “I’ve had the best experience of my motorsport career so far,” he said. "Its been absolutely awesome. I can't overstate how much fun I have had to be behind the wheel of one of these amazing vehicles. To be part of it. To race. To line up on this grid here. The adrenaline yesterday and today was just incredible."

"So, its like a dream come true for me and I definitely want to come back and try again," he adds.

Hoy came into his maiden World RX race weekend with no true experience only a test session with the Xite Racing team at the Pembrey Circuit ahead of his debut in World RX. 

With no true experience in the World RX Championship, Hoy did not know what to expect in his maiden World RX race weekend. "I did not know what to expect. I certainly did not expect to get championship points. I just did not want to make an idiot of myself and get in other peoples way," said Hoy.

"At the start, I was thinking that I would be getting lapped and keeping other people up. So, it was nice to feel that I was battling towards the end. By race four, I felt like I was able to push on a little bit."  

On Saturday morning in the third qualifying session, Sir Chris Hoy came within metres of claiming the heat win, but Jani Passonen shut the door and the two made contact. Hoy rolled to a stop but quickly restarted and raced to the checkered flag finishing second.

"If I was a little bit quicker, I would have got through that gap and I might have won the third race, but that is what Rallycross is all about," Hoy said. "A bit of contact and a bit of bumping."

"I've learnt so much. Its funny last night going to bed, going to sleep your brain sort of processes all the information and then you wake up in the morning, and I felt that I hit the ground running today. And, I felt that I was on a different level to yesterday. Got some races under my belt and a bit of testing and got a little bit closer to some of the fast boys." 

TEXT - Junaid Samodien