The FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy is set to take on America in 2018. IMG, the championship rights holder, has agreed a five-year deal with Circuit of the Americas (COTA) at Austin, Texas that will see it make its debut on WRX calendar the weekend of 29-30 September 2018.
The USA is identified a key territory for World RX for IMG, teams, manufacturers and sponsors and this latest news is in line with the World Championship’s continued growth. The 2018 calendar will feature nine European rounds, Canada, the USA and South Africa.
“The United States of America has been on our radar since the World Championship began in 2014 but we were determined to wait for the right opportunity,” explained World RX managing director for IMG, Paul Bellamy. “We have been in discussion with a number of venues across the USA but COTA shared our vision for the World Championship and can deliver a key objective of building a first-class rallycross facility. With IMG’s strong presence throughout the US we are confident that the COTA World RX event will be a huge success.
“Other elements of the weekend that we are working on include music, food festivals and action sports – allowing fans from a variety of backgrounds to attend and enjoy an action-packed weekend in the ‘live music capital of the world’. The track that we are constructing will be in the stadium area on part of the F1 circuit between turns 12 and 15 – a natural amphitheatre that will enable fans to see the whole track from their seat.”
“We are delighted to announce that another FIA World Championship will be coming to COTA,” added chair of the circuit, Bobby Epstein. “There is no doubt that rallycross is a rapidly growing discipline – the fans can watch races in quick succession and the 600bhp cars are mightily impressive. The addition of a world-class rallycross circuit will be a welcome addition to our growing venue, and we look forward to working closely with IMG in making the first ever World RX event in the USA a resounding success.”
Construction of the new rallycross circuit is expected to get underway in the coming months.
