They called this the first appearance of Americas Rallycross in America, which is likely to add one more element of confusion to an already confused debut -- what is Americas Rallycross? Did it debut someplace besides America? And what have you done with our beloved Red Bull Global Rallycross?

Let’s start back-to-front on those three questions. As we’ve told you, Red Bull Global Rallycross is pretty much dead. The series might have been beloved by its fans, but not promoters and suppliers, some of whom have sued the series and its heavy-handed CEO, Colin Dyne, for non-payment of outstanding debts. No worries for Dyne: He has Michael Avenatti, lawyer for possible presidential-level stripper Stormy Daniels, on the case.

And yes, as we also told you, Americas Rallycross debuted at Silverstone in England, at the massive Speedmachine fest that also included the FIA World Rallycross series. It was kind of a test run, with just two teams from America and the rest from Europe. But at least it happened, before a lot of fans there who may or may not have understood why.

So, finally, Saturday’s Dirtfish America’s Rallycross race at Circuit of the Americas -- on a track that was reconstituted inside turns 12 and 15 of the Formula 1 track and fortunately improved on the one they used for the X-Games in 2014 -- did serve as the debut to American fans. Americas Rallycross, or ARX, is an offshoot of FIA World Rallycross, both of which are owned by IMG, a massive corporation. IMG made a quick decision to step in and try to save Rallycross in the U.S. after GRC hit a jump and never came down.

ARX’s next appearance will be in Montreal for the Grand Prix de Trois Rivieres on Aug. 4-5, as a supporting act for the Canadian round of the World Rallycross. Then both those series return to COTA on Sept. 29-30 for the World RX of USA, which -- and this is probably important in terms of drawing a crowd -- also features rapper-turned-actor Ludacris. (F1 fans will want to know that Britney Spears and Bruno Mars will be the featured entertainment for the F1 race at COTA on Oct. 19-21.)

So how did the race on Saturday go? Not bad, really, considering two things we had been led to believe did not occur: First, the consensus seemed to be that at least 10 cars would show up, even if IMG had to fly some European competitors over. Only eight cars were there, and only one, an unfortunately uncompetitive Mini Cooper, visited from overseas.

Of those cars, three were factory-backed Subarus from Vermont Sportscar, and two were factory-backed Volkswagen Beetles from Andretti Autosport. And competitor Steve Arpin brought a pair of Ford Focus entries that may get a little help from Ford -- and might get more in the future -- but not enough to call them “factory-backed.”

Fortunately for the series, Arpin’s teammate was Ken Block, the Hoonigan himself. And alongside regular Subaru drivers Patrik Sandell and Chris Atkinson was Travis Pastrana, fresh from his Evel Knievel-inspired TV special from Las Vegas.

And the VW contingent was, as expected, former F1 racer Scott Speed and TV presenter Tanner Foust. Though you may not have heard of Arpin, Sandell and Atkinson, rallycross fans have, and everyone knows Block, Pastrana, Speed and Foust.

So the low car count was one disappointment. The other was that the event essentially started with Cars & Coffee and an autograph signing at 9 a.m., and ended when the last race took the checkered flag at 8 p.m. We were told the race would be held in the evening, not in the daytime, in July, in Texas, with the high temperature falling just short of 100 degrees. The fans sitting on those aluminum bleachers -- not that there were many -- can attest to the fact that it was warmish.

All that said, this U.S. debut was fun. The actual racing started about 1 p.m., with the Americas Rallycross series running four qualifying races, a semifinal and a final race that was won by defending Red Bull GRC champion Scott Speed, with Ken Block a surprising and popular second. Faust, who won at Silverstone, was third. Fourth was Pastrana, who was undeniably rusty after being out of a rallycross car a long time, though he clearly was getting the feel back as the day went on.

Truthfully, though, some of the best racing was in the ARX2 series, which is very similar to the GRC’s Lites cars. The ARX2 cars are essentially spec Ford Fiestas, with about 300 hp, half what the regular ARX cars have. Several of the entries were from the Dirtfish stable -- that’s the well-regarded rally and rallycross school in Washington, near Seattle -- with the winner being Connor Martell, who drove a flawless race to beat out Dirtfish teammate and top qualifier Fraser McConnell, a relative newcomer from Jamaica.

If you consider last Saturday’s event as a dry run for the Americas Rallycross series -- and by all accounts IMG executives did, explaining why they gave out hundreds of free tickets, yet were still smiling -- it was a success, but there is no question that expecting fans to sit in the stands for at least seven hours was optimistic. The September race, the season finale for the Americas Rallycross series, should check all the right boxes.

Coverage of the events is streamed live on the ARX Rallycross Facebook and YouTube pages, and the DirtFish ARX at COTA will be featured in a one-hour highlights show on CBS Sports Network, Wednesday, July 18 at 8 p.m. ET.

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