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Andreas Eriksson on 2017 RX2 International Series

It was announced during the penultimate round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Germany recently that for 2017, the RX Lites Cup series will be called RX2 and will join World RX at seven events next season.

The RX2 series was founded by Olsbergs MSE owner Andreas Eriksson, who says the name change is to form a closer tie with World RX, as part of a new multi-continent status.

"We wanted to make the Lites a little more international," said Eriksson. "It's already proven to be a good feeder class and we wanted it to follow the RX name together with World RX."

The three RX2 (RX Lites Cup) champions; Kevin Eriksson (2014), Kevin Hansen (2015) and Cyril Raymond (2016) all competed in the latest round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Supercar, which Eriksson feels vindicates the success of the category as a feeder series. "I was really proud to have one of them who is European Champion (Hansen), another who won his first World Championship event that weekend (Eriksson) and the other making his Supercar debut in the same event," he said. "I really feel that shows the quality of RX2, and as soon as we get the first World Champion that started in RX2, that will be amazing. I think people see that this class really works."

For the first time next season, RX2 will be truly international, joining World RX rounds in Canada and South Africa alongside traditional European events. "There is a Nordic and American series with Lites cars, but we wanted a championship that is international. Not many racing series have three continents and this was a good opportunity to do that. We can't just do everything in Nordic countries and Northern Europe."

Two days of Lites testing are taking place at Strangnas in Sweden this, near to OMSE's base, and Eriksson says interest is higher than ever. "We've had a big test with 20 drivers on Thursday and 22 on Friday. This is the most interest we've ever had and a lot of international teams are interested too," said Eriksson.

"All of the races we have on the calendar are great races, we're trying to go to new places that we haven't been before, but we also want to keep the big races we've already been to. I think people will be surprised when we announce more news for next year, because we've worked really hard to keep the costs down and to have more benefits for the guys doing the whole series."

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com