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What's new for World RX in 2017?

The fourth season of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy will get underway at the end of March, at Barcelona in Spain.

There are a number of changes and additions to World RX for 2017, as explained below.

CCTV or ‘Mobile Video Race Control' in official terms, will be implemented at circuits to assist the Race Director and Stewards in investigating on-track incidents. The multi-camera setup will relay live images to a control unit, where the Race Director can call for images to be replayed so he can review an incident, or ask the Stewards to investigate further using the images. The system will cover all of the main areas of the circuit, providing an additional source of evidence for the officials.

There will be a new penalty system for ‘Unsportsmanlike behaviour during a Competition'. For each infringement, as deemed by the Race Director or Stewards, there will be a reprimand as a minimum. After three reprimands in one season five Championship points will be deduced from that driver. After six reprimands in one season, the penalty will be 10 Championship points. After eight reprimands the driver will have 15 points deduced, and after ten reprimands, that driver will be disqualified from the Championship.

For the first time in 2017, drivers who are not selected to enter an event due to an oversubscribed entry will be placed on a reserve list. Thus, if a pre-selected driver withdraws an entry before the Monday (noon) preceding the relevant competition, the first reserve driver on the list will be offered the vacant place. The place will then be offered to the next driver on the list if the place is not filled.

A Driver may use two turbos in at each event and now six during the Championship season. The penalty for exceeding that number will be the deduction of 10 Championship points for each individual infringement.

One new event will feature as part of the 12-round World RX schedule. The Killarney circuit in South Africa's capital city, Cape Town, will host the final round of the Championship on November 10 - 11.

The FIA European Rallycross Championship will continue to run over five European-based rounds of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Barcelona, Norway, Sweden, France and Latvia. The FIA European Rallycross Championship for Super1600 will run in Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, France, Latvia and Germany, while FIA European Rallycross Championship for TouringCar competitors will race in Barcelona, Belgium, Great Britain, Norway and Germany. The maximum number of entries in World RX at each event is 25, in Euro RX Supercar 35, Euro RX Super1600 30 and Euro RX TouringCar 20.

The single-make support category formerly known as the RX Lites Cup will now be called RX2. Competitors and teams in the category will be given exclusive paddock space. Driver's race wear will also be consistent through the field. RX2 will join World RX at the two ‘flyaway' races in Canada and South Africa as part of seven rounds. The category will also race at World RX events in Belgium, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden and France.

Much has changed in the team and driver line-ups ahead of the 2017 FIA World Rallycross Championship. Six permeant two-cars teams will compete for the Team's title, while 18 permanent drivers will battle for the World RX Drivers' Championship. Double Champion Petter Solberg will partner Sweden's Johan Kristoffersson in the manufacturer-backed PSRX Volkswagen Sweden team, to race a pair of new Polo GTi Supercars. Mattias Ekstrom's EKS team has also received manufacturer support, from Audi. EKS will run an Individual Drivers Championship entry for Reinis Nitiss in a third Audi S1, alongside it's two-car Team entry. Team Peugeot-Hansen will also run an Individual Entry alongside its two-car team, for reigning FIA European Rallycross Champion Kevin Hansen in a third Peugeot 208 WRX.

Two-time DTM champion Timo Scheider has signed for MJP Racing Team Austria (formerly World RX Team Austria) to partner World RX event winner Kevin Eriksson, while the team's 2016 drivers Timur Timerzyanov and Janis Baumanis will race for new outfit, STARD, run by Manfred Stohl. DA Racing-Eurodatacar will field a Peugeot 208 WRX for Jean-Baptiste Dubourg as an individual entry, while Great Britain's Guy Wilks will drive a Volkswagen Polo Supercar run by the Loco World RX Team. Kornel "CsuCsu" Lukacs will drive Gigi Galli's Kia Rio Supercar in a full Championship and Niclas Gronholm will drive an M-Sport built Ford Fiesta Supercar as an individual entry.

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com