Travis Pastrana has offered a first look at the new track being built for Nitro Rallycross at ERX Motor Park in Minnesota.
Following on from the huge success of the purpose-built track at Utah Motorsports Campus, NRX is embarking on a series of other bespoke track builds for the upcoming series, incorporating dramatic features such as large jumps and banked turns.
Sharing the build progress on Instagram, Pastrana shed some light on the features of the new course, saying it had “so much elevation change, huge banks and zero-gravity drops.
“It’s windy and going to race really well,” he added. “Almost no dust and great dirt here but we are intentionally not watering a few of the corners to see if the swept line could be a potential solution for other tracks where the soil blue grooves right away.
Track test @ERXmotorpark from the 🐐 himself 🤯 #NRX
(via @TravisPastrana) pic.twitter.com/7t3w7Mpge5
— Nitrocross (@Nitrocross_) July 23, 2021
Pastrana was at the track with UTV and Pro-4 racer Andrew Carlson and his team – which he will be racing for later in the year in a trophy truck race – and four-time US rallycross champion Scott Speed.
ERX is the second of five NRX tracks to be completed ahead of the season’s start on September 24-25. Utah Motorsports Campus, which debuted in 2018 at the Nitro World Games and returned a year later, will host the season opener, and speaking to DirtFish at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, Pastrana detailed some of the tweaks being made to that track as well as how its informing the development of others.
“Obviously Utah is built from last year,” he said. “We’ll spend two weeks [there] to really just make sure we get the dust [right] – we finally figured out the dust last year.
“So basically take the whole track, redo the sections I didn’t think raced well last year, [change] a couple of the different jumps to make them just a little bit safer, and obviously the big jump’s staying, [the] triple crossing.
“So we’ll make the track more raceable. [There are] a couple of design changes we’re gonna make for sure, but for the most part we think in probably 10 days we’ll have that track [Utah]. It’s already there.
Next on the track building agenda for NRX is Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Phoenix, Arizona. That venue will host round three on November 13-14, followed by Glen Helen Raceway a week later.
The Californian track was a late addition to the schedule, replacing the now-closed Wild West Motorsports Park in Reno, Nevada – a track that was set to be the first of the new builds to be started and completed.
Coincidentally, however, Glen Helen won’t require much work to prepare it for NRX. Following a test on Utah Motorsports Campus’ all-dirt trophy truck course, the decision was made to retain Glen Helen’s popular off-road layout, retaining its unique character.
Photo: Dominik Wilde
“The only one we’re really not going to be able to do a lot with is going to be [Glen Helen], which I think would be great,” Pastrana said. “And after seeing how the reaction of everyone just running Utah Motorsports Campus on the off-road truck track, and the car on that, everyone was probably more excited to see that and the racing is going to be phenomenal.
“So I don’t think we’re gonna have to change hardly anything at Glen Helen, but the racing’s going to be [great]. You know, you’re four or five wide.
“It’s the easiest track, but I don’t want to make the tracks the same. They’re like, ‘oh, what are the staples?’ I’m like, ‘well, it’s got to have a section that’s very unique. It’s got to have a jump that’s very big at some point and it’s gotta be raceable’.”
More electric details revealed
Earlier this week NRX confirmed which suppliers it had partnered with for the development of the FC1-X, the all-new electric car that will debut in its own class next year. It all shared fresh images of the ground-breaking machine.
Photo: Nitro Rallycross
The car, being developed by a new venture called First Corner – a collaboration between leading rallycross outfit Olsbergs MSE and electromobility specialists QEV Technologies – will debut in a standalone class next year, and promises to be the quickest and most powerful rallycross car ever made, with a 0-60 time of 1.5 seconds and a peak power output in the region of 1,000 bhp.
Three firms have contributed to the car’s drivetrain, with Shanghai-based Newattek providing the battery, which will form part of the car’s floor; Magelec providing the motors, and rally and rallycross veterans Sadev providing the transmission.
Getting that power onto the track will be helped by a suspension setup from British firm R53 engineering, while Alcon will provide the stopping power. Those brakes will be wrapped in bespoke 19×11 inch wheels from Rotiform, a brand well known in the rallycross and off-road community through its links with NRX regular Ken Block.
Yokohama, as previously announced, will continue to supply tires, having done so for the first two NRX competitions at the Nitro World Games, and the 2014 and 2015 Global Rallycross campaigns.
The final pieces of the puzzle involve familiar racing names Motec and Corbeau, which will be supplying the data electronics and seats respectively.
