Redbull's Global RallyCross 2018

I am shocked that they got rid of Ottawa! I've been to a lot of GRC races and that was by far the best crowd I have seen both days of the double header. They had to bring in more seats and still didnt have enough for everyone. I gotta imagine that one was profitable. I like the New Orleans addition, that sounds like a cool one. Louisville and Atlantic City were awesome the times I went, good to see them return. I am glad they dumped Memphis, that one sucked last year.
 
@toledo47 Do you know the make and model car GRC Lites uses? They don't have any badges on the body.
 
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SpeedPagan said:
@toledo47 Do you know the make and model car GRC Lites uses? They don't have any badges on the body.
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Well, I think officially they say they are supposed to be generic, but they are obviously modeled after the Ford Fiesta cosmetically. And i believed Olsberg created the lites category, and the team now uses Honda, but for years they were a big ford team. I've attached a couple of pics of a supercar and lite to compare
 
toledo47 said:
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Well, I think officially they say they are supposed to be generic, but they are obviously modeled after the Ford Fiesta cosmetically. And i believed Olsberg created the lites category, and the team now uses Honda, but for years they were a big ford team. I've attached a couple of pics of a supercar and lite with the same paint scheme
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Thank you! I was watching Lite races today on YouTube and it just kept nagging at me. Haha.
 
SpeedPagan said:
Thank you! I was watching Lite races today on YouTube and it just kept nagging at me. Haha.
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Sure! You mentioned being disappointed about no race around NC. Did you ever make it to any of their NC races? They raced at Jacksonville NC in 2015 and 2016, they raced a few times at the Charlotte Motor Speedway dirt track before that, and before that they ran at the big track at Charlotte using some portions of the infield road course i believe.
 
toledo47 said:
Sure! You mentioned being disappointed about no race around NC. Did you ever make it to any of their NC races? They raced at Jacksonville NC in 2015 and 2016, they raced a few times at the Charlotte Motor Speedway dirt track before that, and before that they ran at the big track at Charlotte using some portions of the infield road course i believe.
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I'll be honest man, I got into GRC because it came to iRacing, I tried it out and I actually had a lot of fun driving the cars on the iRacing simulator, so I started watching the real life races on YouTube.
 
SpeedPagan said:
I'll be honest man, I got into GRC because it came to iRacing, I tried it out and I actually had a lot of fun driving the cars on the iRacing simulator, so I started watching the real life races on YouTube.
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Cool! I know GRC has been promoting their iRacing stuff a lot on their website and facebook. If iRacing also brings some new fans of their real product, thats great! The series is really great and its kinda sad how few race fans know of it, and generally the series has pretty poor attendance. If you have not seen it yet, do yourself a favor and watch the supercars final from the 2017 Louisville race. I doubt the series has ever had a better race than that! And if the series ever does come back to your area, don't miss the chance to go and say "I'll just go next year", more often than not they are one and done... It usually makes sense since they crowds are usually bad, but even Ottawa with an awesome crowd was one and done apparently...
 
toledo47 said:
Cool! I know GRC has been promoting their iRacing stuff a lot on their website and facebook. If iRacing also brings some new fans of their real product, thats great! The series is really great and its kinda sad how few race fans know of it, and generally the series has pretty poor attendance. If you have not seen it yet, do yourself a favor and watch the supercars final from the 2017 Louisville race. I doubt the series has ever had a better race than that! And if the series ever does come back to your area, don't miss the chance to go and say "I'll just go next year", more often than not they are one and done... It usually makes sense since they crowds are usually bad, but even Ottawa with an awesome crowd was one and done apparently...
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Yea, I love how they have the races set-up with heat races semi-finals and finals. Honestly I'm loving every aspect about GRC, from the racing style, to being a road race with full on contact between drivers, the technique on when to take the Joker lap, the ramps, and the driving on both asphalt and dirt. It really is awesome.
 
SpeedPagan said:
Yea, I love how they have the races set-up with heat races semi-finals and finals. Honestly I'm loving every aspect about GRC, from the racing style, to being a road race with full on contact between drivers, the technique on when to take the Joker lap, the ramps, and the driving on both asphalt and dirt. It really is awesome.
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It really is one of the best forms of motorsport IMO. The only thing they need is more cars and more fan awareness. Hopefully you can check one out in person soon! Check out the FIA World Rallycross Championship as well. Same exact thing basically, same cars (both supercars and lites), same basic format with the heats, etc... They have huge car counts compared to GRC. The only thing I don't like better with WRX is that they only start 6 cars in the final. GRC's 10 car final is much better IMO. That series is having their inaugural USA event this year as well
 
toledo47 said:
It really is one of the best forms of motorsport IMO. The only thing they need is more cars and more fan awareness. Hopefully you can check one out in person soon! Check out the FIA World Rallycross Championship as well. Same exact thing basically, same cars (both supercars and lites), same basic format with the heats, etc... They have huge car counts compared to GRC. The only thing I don't like better with WRX is that they only start 6 cars in the final. GRC's 10 car final is much better IMO. That series is having their inaugural USA event this year as well
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I do love the cars that they use. Production cars that been modified to turn them into racing cars. It really brings the "Race on Sunday, Drive on Monday" feel to the sport.
 
The only thing i didn't like when I attended the Daytona races was the 20 minute break between races. Run the heats back to back and take a 20 minute break to fix the track for the lites for their back to back heats.
 
Sweet going to try to check out Atlantic City if possible
 
Okay, iRacing got me addicted to this series. The more I practice in my virtual Ford Fiesta, the more I'm enjoying it. It is really a great racing series and I can't wait for the season to start.

I did my first Rookie GRC race tonight at Daytona, started 1st but ended 3rd due to a couple of mistakes that I've made. Still had a lot of fun and I can't wait to race again!

Now I just gotta get my virtual Ford Fiesta to the paint booth.
 
I have been watching Global Rallycross and FIA World Rallycross on YouTube and gods, I love this form of racing. I can't wait for the start of the GRC season!
 
A few updates on GRC. They announced that the double header finale weekend will be at Lydden Hill in the UK, which lost their World RX date, so GRC is a nice replacement for that track!
They also announced today or yesterday where the TBA for June 9-10 will be, it will be a double header at Lancaster National Speedway in New York. I'm very interested in this one since I have passed the track on the highway pretty much everytime i go up to Canada for races which has been a lot of times, have always wanted to see a big show at that track. The announcement also mentioned it will be the season opener. The season opener was going to be at Louisville on May 19. They didn't announce that Louisville is canceled, but it has been removed from the calendar on their site so it seems that it has been cancelled. Too bad since it was the best race of the year last year.
 
toledo47 said:
A few updates on GRC. They announced that the double header finale weekend will be at Lydden Hill in the UK, which lost their World RX date, so GRC is a nice replacement for that track!
They also announced today or yesterday where the TBA for June 9-10 will be, it will be a double header at Lancaster National Speedway in New York. I'm very interested in this one since I have passed the track on the highway pretty much everytime i go up to Canada for races which has been a lot of times, have always wanted to see a big show at that track. The announcement also mentioned it will be the season opener. The season opener was going to be at Louisville on May 19. They didn't announce that Louisville is canceled, but it has been removed from the calendar on their site so it seems that it has been cancelled. Too bad since it was the best race of the year last year.
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Awww, I was hoping they'd return to the convention center parking lot in Louisville. I saw that race on YouTube and it was AWESOME!!
 
SpeedPagan said:
Awww, I was hoping they'd return to the convention center parking lot in Louisville. I saw that race on YouTube and it was AWESOME!!
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Yeah, i agree! I was at the race last year, it was awesome. And by GRC standards it was a good crowd!
I wonder what happened to cause it to be cancelled...
Was really surprised Ottawa wasnt back this year as well, it was by far the best crowd i've seen for GRC. Both days of the double header were packed
 
Not sure if anyone here has been following whats been going on with GRC over the past week or so.
They have put out some odd press releases...
Apparently this year they will be getting rid of both Supercars and Lites. They will have the already announced Polaris UTV series and their new "Gold" class, which features some kind of upgraded lites car. There will be no manufacturer involvement.
Next year they will introduce their "Platinum" class, which it seems will also be spec...
Very odd... especially considering they have strong manufacturer support from Volkswagen, Subaru and Honda....
I have zero interest in the Polaris UTV series, don't care about UTV racing.....
The Gold class would be a nice support series for the supercars... not a replacement for them...
Not too sure I'm interested in attending any of their events this year if thats really all they have. Was planning on attending at least a few.
Will wait to hear more news though, there is very little out there. Looking at the twitter pages of most of the drivers, none of them have acknowledged what has happened yet...
Subaru has been testing their supercars in Florida during the past week, so obviously they are planning on doing something...
 
https://www.autosport.com/wrx/news/134827/americas-rallycross-championship-launched

Well, GRC might as well be dead.
IMG, the promoters of the FIA World Rallycross championship have announced the ARX American Rallycross Championship, with supercars and lites. They have already confirmed participation from VW and Subaru. I dont see why even any of the GRC lites teams would stay on with the new GRC Gold class....
Can GRC even pull off this season? Or will it just end up being cancelled??

ARX in 2018 will be a 4 race series. Silverstone, Austin, Trois Rivieres and a fourth to be announced...
Not too thrilled with that schedule. All of those are already WRX weekends... and its American RX but the first race is in the UK...
 
Will be an interesting year of transition for rallycross in USA. 2019 will be really interesting. Seems like 2018 ARX is more like a test season.

Confirmed teams so far

ARX Supercars:
Chris Atkinson - Subaru Rally Team
Patrik Sandell - Subaru Rally Team
Scott Speed - VW Andretti Rallycross
Tanner Foust - VW Andretti Rallycross

GRC Gold:
Travis Pecoy - Dreyer and Reinbold
 
Sorry I haven't been commenting on this, been busy. Why is GRC going to spec racing? I have yet to see spec racing really put on a good show. Also the new cars look ugly, I prefer the cars look like the cars that I can drive on the road.

I am definitely going to keep an eye on the American RX Series and see if it pans out. I love racing rallycross on iRacing and I'll watch whatever rallycross I can get my hands and eyes on.
 
SpeedPagan said:
Sorry I haven't been commenting on this, been busy. Why is GRC going to spec racing? I have yet to see spec racing really put on a good show. Also the new cars look ugly, I prefer the cars look like the cars that I can drive on the road.

I am definitely going to keep an eye on the American RX Series and see if it pans out. I love racing rallycross on iRacing and I'll watch whatever rallycross I can get my hands and eyes on.
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The rumor is that some manufacturers may have withdrawn from GRC, forcing GRC to go to this "Gold class".
I don't expect it to last.. I think they will try to ride it out as long as Red Bull is paying the bills... The lites are OK... But nobody wants to just see some upgraded lites...
I kinda doubt they will make it through the year. I planned on going to at least a few of their races, but unless something happens and they make some impressive announcements, i dont think i'll ever be attending another GRC race. Lites and Polaris ATVs aren't worth going to... Definitely not worth travelling for and paying $35 for.
GRC races were kinda a rip off before at the $50~70 price range but at least they had a really awesome supercar class..
Its a shame to see it die off so quickly.
 
2018 season has been cancelled, GRC is dead. No surprised there.
ARX is the future of the series in the states. 4 races for 2018, Silverstone, Trois Rivieres and COTA x2.
I hope ARX puts together a better calendar next year.
 
Awwww, I was really pulling for GRC too. I still love racing the GRC series on iRacing and the races I've seen on YouTube was fun to watch.
 
SpeedPagan said:
Awwww, I was really pulling for GRC too. I still love racing the GRC series on iRacing and the races I've seen on YouTube was fun to watch.
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If they were actually going to proceed with this season, it still would not have even resembled what it looked like in past years. Once the supercars were out, they were done. The lites cant be a headline class of a big series...
ARX looking good with 6 drivers now confirmed. 2 Vw of Tanner Foust and Scott Speed, 2 Subarus Chris Atkinon and Patrik Sandell and 2 Fords with Ken Block and Steve Arpin. Hopefully the 3 car Honda team will be joining them as well. Besides the Hondas, the only drivers\teams without confirmed plans are Cabot Bigham and Austin Dyne. I cant see Dyne doing anything. His Dad Colin owns GRC and he was just there as a field filler in the end i guess.
 
SpeedPagan said:
When does the ARX season begin?
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Round 1 May 27 Silverstone UK
Round 2 July TBC Circuit of the Americas Austin, TX
Round 3 Aug 5 GP3R Trois Rivieres, QC
Round 4 Sep 30 Circuit of the Americas Austin, TX
The schedule kinda sucks, I'm hoping that they are just treating this as kind of a test season and will have a real full schedule next year. The only one this year that is a stand alone is the July race... all of the others are as a support class to the WRX events.

The series website is at https://www.arxrallycross.com/ , they are also on facebook.
 
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