Italian-based team Gino WRC Invest is looking to establish itself in the American Rally Association, offering a fleet of Rally2 cars for hire in the stateside series.
Rule changes in next season’s ARA are aimed at equalizing the competition between open class and Rally2-specification cars. Gino WRC Invest is ready to seize the opportunity those changes will bring by making cars available for a full season or on a round-by-round basis in America.
Gino WRC Invest owner Alessandro Gino told DirtFish: “We have been watching the development of ARA with a lot of interest. We can see it’s a championship which has a lot of ambition and a lot of passion within the organization.
“The ARA brings together a lot of mixtures of rallying cultures, from the guys who are driving some really interesting cars they have built themselves to the top level of professional teams.
“If you look to endurance racing, American events like Sebring and Daytona have an incredible following – they are amazing races. We think we can see American rallying growing in the same way.”
The Gino WRC Invest fleet includes Hyundai i20 N Rally2s, Škoda Fabia Rally2s and a Ford Fiesta R5.
“We are really fortunate in that we have cars which will suit a variety of budgets,” said Gino WRC Invest project advisor Andrea Adamo. “We have an early mk1 [Fiesta R5] all the way to the latest Hyundai and Škoda. And, of course, the range is expanding all of the time.
“If there’s a young American driver out there who wants to work with the local brand of Ford and find some experience of ARA, we can make a really interesting price with the Fiesta. There’s lots we can do.”
Adamo said the logistics of the series posed no problem to Gino WRC Invest.
“It’s why we have planes and ships, no?” he said. “Seriously, this is the United States of America; it’s not the middle of nowhere.
“Obviously we would like as much lead time as possible for the logistics; for sure, Sno*Drift is still possible for us right now. We have workshops around America we can use for the base, if somebody wants the full season and we leave a car out there.”
