Dennis Reinbold has affirmed his Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team’s commitment to rallycross in the United States, despite its unclear future.
While an expanded Nitro Rallycross series is expected to fill the void left by Global Rallycross and Americas Rallycross, no official announcement has been made so far.
However, a lot of work is going on behind the scenes to ready the new series and Reinbold – whose outfit has competed full-time in the second-tier of US rallycross since 2015 – has assured that he will continue to be involved in rallycross going forward, despite a tumultuous few years for the discipline stateside.
“We have taken the approach that we are going to invest and be a part of whatever series,” he told DirtFish.
“I mean, [it’s] three years and we’re on our third series but we’re all in because we see the future of rallycross being strong and we see it as making sense to a lot of people whether they’re coming out of go-karts or off-road or whatever, we see value to that and we we see growth potential so we’re just all in.
“We were all in on GRC, we were all in on ARX2, and now with Nitro, we’re going to be all in as well.”
After a difficult few seasons for rallycross in the US, Reinbold is happy with the approach being taken by Nitro Circus so far.
“I think they’ve made some good decisions, they’re pushing the schedule back a little bit and that gives us time to prepare,” he said. “[It] gives us time to work on things like sponsorship, signing drivers and just getting ready to go out and a really legitimate way to put on a show.
“Racing’s entertainment and we want to do that, but we want to be competitive, that’s our focus. But they need car counts to be able to do that and we can help provide that so that’s what we’re all about.”
There has been no word on a rallycross schedule in the US for 2020 so far, with the coronavirus pandemic likely causing further delays on that front. But the COVID-19 complications haven’t necessarily hampered DRR’s own preparations.
“Not really for us,” Reinbold said when asked if the pandemic had affected the team’s preparations.
“The virus has had an effect on everyone worldwide so we’re not unique in any manner so delaying seasons for both IndyCar and rallycross, I think both administrative groups have made good decisions and are doing so and monitoring.
“We all want to get back to racing, but we also want to have fans in the stands and when is that appropriate? I don’t know that answer, I don’t think anybody knows much.”
