Rallycross is a motorsport where the cars can reach 60 MPH from a standstill in under two seconds, with cars flying 70 feet through the air, big name racers, and plenty of chaos. Sanctioning bodies have even billed it as “America’s fastest growing motorsport.” But somehow rallycross is struggling to find footing in America.

On Nov. 15, 2019, America’s Rallycross (ARX) disappointed thousands of rallycross fans by making the “difficult decision” to cut their losses and shut down the series after the 2019 season. This has left multiple teams without a series to race in, and some new additions to speedways useless. Despite this, industry leaders don’t seem to have lost hope in the future of the sport.

ARX started in the wake of the Redbull Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) shutting down in late 2017 and took over as the only rallycross series ran mainly in the Americas. Picking up where GRC left off, ARX provided racing for both the Rallycross Supercars, and the Rallycross Lites class, a sort of training series for the main, and added a third class for rear-wheel drive “Cross Karts” for even younger racers.

Despite this, there wasn’t enough interest and after two seasons ARX folded.

So how will all the involved parties move forward without a series to race in? It’s sort of like asking what professional football teams would do if the NFL folded. There would be a lot of untapped potential and a massive gap in the sports market. In a similar way, everyone involved seems to think that this isn’t an ending, but rather a new chapter.

Bill Kerstetter is the operations manager at Detroit, Michigan’s BuhlSport, which owns the Racing4Detroit Rallycross Supercar Lites team.

“We enjoyed running in ARX for the past two years and it is unfortunate the series was unable to continue operating,” said Kerstetter.

Racing4Detroit is looking toward the future concerning rallycross, and not letting this setback taint their view of the sport.

“We would definitely be interested in running in another series, should that opportunity present itself,” says Kerstetter

Justin Simpson, CEO of DirtFish Rally School and Motorsports, is in a similar situation. Although at the moment there are no confirmed drivers for the DirtFish Supercar Lites team and no current events available to compete in, DirtFish is keeping its fleet of five Supercar Lites cars ready to go just in case.

A DirtFish Supercar Lites class car in Louisville KY, May 2017.

“(We have) every intention of racing as much as possible,” Simpson says.

Although the venues ARX raced at won’t suffer much from losing one event from a much longer calendar, owners and employees do feel at somewhat of a loss from the closure.

Chris Blair, executive vice president and general manager of World Wide Technology Raceway outside of St. Louis, Missouri said the track was disappointed to see the series cut short.

“We worked closely with the ARX team to build a premium venue for their events, “said Blair, “The officials, teams, drivers and sponsors stated that our track was one of the greatest rallycross tracks in the world and everyone was excited to build on the success of 2019.”

In 2019, ARX picked up new multiple year contracts not only with World Wide Technology Raceway, but also the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course outside Lexington, Ohio.

Craig Rust, president of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course said these events ran smoothly from an operational standpoint. Mid-Ohio was responsible for much of the operations leading up to race-day with ARX managing the competition, similar to how they would how they would run an Indycar or NASCAR race.

The main challenge for Rust and the rest of the track was modifying the “keyhole” section of their track to accommodate the racing series. Their team built a ramp and removed parts of the grass to create the dirt section of the course. In the end, Rust says the course was well-received by the competitors.

Moving forward, both representatives from both tracks said they would be interested in discussing the possibility of running rallycross events with a new series should the opportunity come their way, but nothing has happened yet.

Although ARX was responsible for most of the rallycross in North America, there are a few other events that have ran the past few years, the problem is things are changing for those too.

European sanctioning body FIA World Rallycross Championship (World RX) used to run an event at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Texas, but being that both World RX and ARX are under the parent company of IMG, the event was taken over by ARX in 2019. World RX also ran an event at Circuit Trois-Rivieres in Canada that was run alongside ARX in 2019, but dropped the event and did not re-add COTA for 2020, leaving the Americas off the World RX schedule entirely.

TitansRX, formed in late 2018 from the ashes of GRC in Europe, is expanding into the Americas. However, only by taking over the Trois-Riveres event from World RX. Although keeping some rallycross action on the continent, it’s not helpful to ARX teams as their cars won’t meet the same standards as TitansRX while they’re here.

The only event left in the Americas for former ARX teams in the United States is a one-off race in Utah that has ran the past two years as part of the Nitro World Games.

Nitro Rallycross (NRX) as it currently exists is like a one-off ARX race on steroids. Teams from the United States compete against each other and International racers in a Supercars class race on a purpose-built track known for having a massive gap jump that crosses over a tabletop jump that crosses over a tunnel.

In other words, there’s flying cars, flying over flying cars, while other cars pass through a tunnel beneath the two.

Although no official statements have been made, many teams expect NRX to save rallycross for America.

Andreas Eriksson, former rallycross driver and founder of the Swedish–based Olsbergs Motorsport Evolution (OMSE) builds rallycross cars, invented the Rallycross Lites class and has owned teams that competed in GRC and World RX. Eriksson is also heavily involved with the future of American rallycross.

One of Olsbergs MSE’s Honda Civic Rallycross Supercars, Indianapolis IN, 2017.

After visiting the NRX event in Utah this year, Eriksson found that everyone involved wanted to push the sport in America despite the difficulties it was facing, and that the momentum that had seemingly died for rallycross was still very much alive.

Kerstetter said concerning running in a possible future rallycross series, that although there have been no confirmed moves made, he sees NRX as the most likely channel for a future rallycross series in America.

Simpson also echoed this possibility saying there were talks of NRX’s expansion but nothing had been secured or confirmed yet.

The real issue for Racing4Detroit, DirtFish and many of the up and coming drivers and teams from ARX, is NRX’s lack of Supercar Lites class meaning those teams can’t race their cars unless NRX decides to expand this year.

But DirtFish is unfazed. The Washington based company is known for being heavily involved in rally instruction, rallycross racing and sometimes stage rally racing with the American Rally Association. On top of the two racing teams they run, they also hosted an event for GRC in 2014 on their grounds.

“Our intention is to support the sport as much as we can in whatever way we can,” says Simpson.

With this commitment, Simpson said he believes there are a few things that could help rallycross grow in America. The first is building more public knowledge through free media and affordable events with vendors and other activities to do while there.

Eriksson said when rallycross started in America, its inclusion in the XGames was a massive push for the sport, and NRX is in a very similar situation being a part of a bigger extreme sports event. This gives the spectators more opportunities for watching other events, participating in more activities, and also draws in more vendors than any one sport alone could.

Simpson also said a more consistent schedule would also be helpful. Although it’s always good to expand to new venues, if you aren’t coming back year after year people aren’t typically as aware

Eriksson said he believes taking that one step further and allowing for purpose built tracks to take shape would also keep them from needing to reinvest the same money every year in track preparations.

In addition to all this, a big issue of the past few years has been the car count. The last season of ARX only saw seven competitors in its ARX Supercars class.

Being a car builder, Eriksson and OMSE is willing to help with this.

“If Olsbergs chooses to do something we will choose to do it big,” he says.

With the increasing cost of the sport, Eriksson is also interested in building a more grassroots version of rallycross racing in America to help more people get involved in competing in a similar way to how many series run in Europe.

Something huge that would likely draw more fans though, is switching to electric. World RX is running a new series alongside its main events known as “Projekt E” in 2020. This will be the first all-electric rallycross championship ever run, and if it goes well there could be a big push for something similar in America.

Eriksson said he is very interested in pursuing an electric rallycross series, stating that there are manufacturers interested in backing one, and also looking to the increased performance possibilities of the cars.

Eriksson believes that electric rallycross needs to be some of the fastest racing in the world, and even said somewhat jokingly that they should go “(from) zero to 60 in one second.”

Simpson says electrification is important whether you’re a fan of the internal combustion engine or not. Not only will it likely draw in manufacturer backing, but he also said it could streamline costs, and attract more fans and spectators.

To put it into perspective, even NASCAR is heavily considering hybrid technology for their racecars, and they only switched to electronic fuel injection less than a decade ago.

Whether or not the future of rallycross in America is electric, these industry leaders are sure there is in fact a future for the sport here.

“It’s not going to surprise me when somebody relaunches a new rallycross series in the US,” said Rust.

Eriksson hinted towards some form of a relaunch, saying that everyone is working together to produce something new.

“I really believe we will see some movements going forward,” Eriksson says.

In a press release, ARX team Loenbro Motorsports said, “Moving forward, Loenbro Motorsports remains committed to the sport and is working to ensure it continues to grow while we explore opportunities for 2020 and beyond.” They continued to say that due to some recent meetings and conversations, they are excited for the future of the sport in America.

“I’m committing myself to making this work,” says Eriksson.

If that commitment pays off, rallycross may once again be “the fastest growing motorsport in America.