GRC Rallycross Europe
GRC Rallycross Europe (formerly known as Red Bull Global Rallycross or Global Rallycross ) is a group of rallycross series currently organized by racing driver Max Pucher and businessman Chip Pankow. The first series was run in North America in 2011 and ran for seven seasons until 2018, when the series was replaced by the Americas Rallycross Championship. At the end of 2018, Max Pucher revitalized the brand and founded the GRC Rallycross Europe series, starting in 2019, with an international start planned for 2020.
history
After rallycross was included in the 2010 Los Angeles X Games, three demonstration events were held at New Jersey Motorsports Park in late 2010. Subsequently, the Global Rallycross Management organized their first championship season in 2011 with five events. Tanner Foust won the first championship title in 2011. In 2012 he won the title again.
In addition to promoting the series, Global Rallycross Management managed invitations and competitions for X Games rallycross competitions.
In 2013, the series hosted races outside of the United States for the first time. Later in the season she introduced the Lites Division, an evolutionary series. Joni Wiman made his debut at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and was the first champion after winning all six races.
On October 28, 2016, the series announced the creation of an electric racing division.
In 2018, Global Rallycross ceased operations in its original form, only to be revived and relocated to Europe later that year, with a plan to reintroduce the championship to North America in 2020. In February 2019 the series was renamed GRC Rallycross Europe and removed "Global" from its name in order to avoid conflicts with competitions sanctioned by the FIA.
Format (before 2019)
Qualifying
The qualifying took place over a period of one hour. The field was divided into small groups that took to the track in 10-minute sessions. The line-up for the races was determined by the time of the qualifying laps of the drivers.
Runs
A race weekend consisted of a lap or two that count for championship points and a semi-final. The prelims consisted of three sessions with four or five vehicles each, while the semi-finals consisted of two sessions with six or more vehicles each. In an event with only one lap of runs, such as B. a double race, points were awarded in the semifinals, but not the other way around.
The three best places in the semifinals switched to the main field and the teams had time to work on their cars while other teams continued to drive. All drivers who do not make it to the final via the semi-finals compete against each other in order to get one of the last four qualifying places. Ten cars will then compete in the final.
begin
The races started with a standing start, with riders given 30 and 10 second intervals before the green. During this time they must activate starting systems, including an anti-lag system. The fastest driver of the previous session got the inside lane into the first corner.
Joker Lap
Each track was equipped with two routes: the main route and the Joker Lap route, which every driver has to drive once per race. The GRC Joker Lap usually shortened the length of the route considerably (while in the FIA World Rallycross Championship the JL detour is longer than the main route to slow the cars down for at least two seconds), so when driving the Joker Lap can influence your racing strategy. Depending on the venue, the Joker Lap may have additional obstacles that slow the vehicles down considerably and thus make the main route faster. In the 2015 midseason, GRC made a change to the joker lap, in which the drivers were not allowed to drive the joker lap on the first lap.
Penalty Box
The penalty box was a change for the 2013 season and was designed to prevent violations on the track without having to show the red flag or restart the race. In the event of an early start or unsportsmanlike driving, the affected driver had to drive into a 50-meter-long lane off the track, where he had to wait for a track officer to release him. The Penalty Box was first used at the first X Games Brazil event when [Nelson Piquet Jr.] started early in Run 2.
Championship points
From 2014, championship points were only awarded to drivers who had committed to drive at least half of the season. In this point system, individual drivers were skipped when awarding points; For example, if the race winner was not entitled to points, the runner-up received first place. The points were awarded to eligible finishers at the end of the event as follows:
| position | 1. | 2. | 3. | 4th | 5. | 6th | 7th | 8th. | 9. | 10. | 11. and below |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 50 | 45 | 40 | 35 | 30th | 25th | 20th | 15th | 10 | 5 | 1 |
In addition, points were awarded in all runs and semi-finals. First place was five points, second place four points, and so on up to fifth place and below, which got one point. Only drivers who were excluded from a race or who did not make it onto the grid were not awarded any points for their runs. On race weekends with three races, the third round alone determined the starting positions in the finals and did not award any points.
At the end of the season, the driver with the most points became Global Rallycross Champion. The two best cars per manufacturer also score points in the manufacturers' standings.
Format (from 2019)
The new format is being used for the first time in Europe and consists of 10 one-day racing days on 5 racing weekends with a mixed surface (asphalt and gravel), with the 5th event serving as the series finale.
Each race day consists of:
- 3 qualifying's: In each of the 3 runs there are several races with max. 5 vehicles called groups. Depending on their placement in this group, the drivers receive points (30 points for 1st place, 25 points for 2nd place, etc.) and points for the total time (ranking of all drivers in a qualifying according to the fastest time over 5 laps). The driver with the most points from this combination is the winner of the qualifying, the driver with the second most points is the 2nd in qualifying, etc.
After the 3rd qualifying, the points are added up and the 12 drivers with the most points in the intermediate standings advance to the semi-finals.
- 2 semi-finals: In both semi-finals, 6 vehicles each start over 6 laps. The top 3 drivers from each semi-final advance to the final.
- Final: Like the semi-finals, this race will be held with 6 cars but over 7 laps. The winner of the final is considered the winner of the event and receives 25 championship points.
In contrast to other rallycross championships, GRC has abolished the joker lap in order to encourage more overtaking maneuvers again. The joker lap is called a penalty lap, e.g. B. in the event of a false start. In addition, the point system was modified (total time AND placement in the group). This combination should also reward the "slower" group winners and also increase the motivation for overtaking maneuvers
Point system
Intermediate points are divided into two categories, points for time (for race time, regardless of the group) and points for placement (for position in each group), which are evaluated as follows:
| Point scale | position | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 2. | 3. | 4th | 5. | 6th | 7th | 8th. | 9. | 10. | 11. | 12. | 13. | 14th | 15th | 16. | 17th | 18th | 19th | 20th | |||||||||
| time | 30th | 29 | 28 | 27 | 26th | 25th | 24 | 23 | 22nd | 21st | 20th | 19th | 18th | 17th | 16 | 15th | 14th | 13 | 12 | 11 | ||||||||
| position | 30th | 25th | 20th | 15th | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Championship points are counted as follows:
| Point scale | position | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 2. | 3. | 4th | 5. | 6th | 7th | 8th. | 9. | 10. | 11. | 12. | 13. | 14th | 15th | ||||||||||||||
| Qualifying | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Semi-finals | 12 | 10 | 8th | 6th | 5 | 4th | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| final | 25th | 22nd | 20th | 18th | 16 | 14th | ||||||||||||||||||||||
- Marked in red: riders who did not advance to the semifinals / finals
Vehicle classes
From 2019, two classes will be driven, the supercar class and the newly introduced Titan class, a branded car class that is supposed to be as fast as the supercar class, but only a fraction of the price.
winner
North America (Titan Class)
| season | driver | team | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| driver | team | vehicle | team | vehicle | |
| 2020 | Pantera RX6 | Pantera RX6 | |||
North America (Supercar Class)
| season | driver | Manufacturer | team | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| driver | team | vehicle | Manufacturer | vehicle | team | vehicle | |
| 2011 |
 Tanner Foust
|
 Olsberg's MSE Ford Racing
|
Ford Fiesta | not carried out | not carried out | ||
| 2012 |
Tanner Foust
|
Olsberg's MSE Ford Racing
|
Ford Fiesta | ||||
| 2013 |
 Toomas Heikkinen
|
Olsberg's MSE Ford Racing
|
Ford Fiesta ST |
ford
|
Ford Fiesta ST | ||
| 2014 |
Joni Wiman
|
Olsberg's MSE Ford Racing
|
Ford Fiesta ST |
ford
|
Ford Fiesta ST | ||
| 2015 |
Scott Speed
|
Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross
|
VW Beetle |
ford
|
Ford Fiesta ST | ||
| 2016 |
Scott Speed
|
Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross
|
VW Beetle |
 Volkswagen
|
VW Beetle | ||
| 2017 |
Scott Speed
|
Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross
|
VW Beetle |
Volkswagen
|
VW Beetle | ||
| 2018 | not carried out | not carried out | |||||
| 2019 | |||||||
| 2020 | |||||||
Europe (Titan Class)
| season | driver | team | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| driver | team | vehicle | team | vehicle | |
| 2019 | Pantera RX6 | Pantera RX6 | |||
Europe (Supercar Class)
| season | driver | team | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| driver | team | vehicle | team | vehicle | |
| 2019 | |||||
International Series (Titan Class)
| season | driver | team | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| driver | team | vehicle | team | vehicle | |
| 2020 | Pantera RX6 | Pantera RX6 | |||
International Series (Supercar Class)
| season | driver | team | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| driver | team | vehicle | team | vehicle | |
| 2020 | |||||
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chris Leone: TODAY IN GRC HISTORY: JULY 11 . In: Global Rallycross . July 11, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
- ↑ Red Bull Global Rallycross Adding Electric Racing for 2018 . In: Yahoo! Sports . October 28, 2016. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
- ↑ Red Bull Global Rallycross Changes Race Format, Increases Points On Offer . In: New England Sports Network . April 20, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
- ↑ a b Max Pucher : Global Rallycross Europe Series Introduction 2018.
- ↑ Pucher, Max . Interview by BD Blower . Concerning the format of GRC Europe 2019. January 19, 2019.