World Rallycross has faced some strong headwinds in recent years.
IMG ditched the series eight years into a 20-year promoter contract, with the same Red Bull–KW25 consortium currently in charge of the World Rally Championship stepping in to take over in 2021.
That entity, Rallycross Promoter, then elected to walk away from promoting the series at the end of last year. The FIA has now stepped in to take direct control over the championship’s promotion.
On the face of it, losing two promoters in five years and having motorsport’s governing body step in might look concerning.
The championship’s official tire supplier Hoosier doesn’t agree.
“We are happy that things are going in a direction right now,” Martin Heckers, Hoosier’s European president, emphasized to DirtFish.
It’s not the first time this has happened, of course. Before World RX was birthed in 2013, the pinnacle of rallycross was the European championship. The FIA had been the promoter of that series before IMG won its 20-year deal.
“It’s great that the FIA is showing the commitment and taking the responsibility to move on with rallycross,” added Heckers.
“We know them well, we know they have a lot of very committed people with a very long-standing passion for rally and rallycross.”
Hoosier’s CEO Joerg Burfien is even optimistic that having the governing body and promoter rolled into one will be an efficiency benefit.
Having both as one unit, he believes, will get stuff done faster – something which was occasionally a struggle under the previous arrangement.
“The FIA is a very professional organization,” Burfien highlighted. “So was the previous promoter but now we hope that we will be a little bit more efficient in communication. It can only get easier when you only have one party to deal with.”
