Nitro Rallycross 2022-2023

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Veiby is definitely in Group E, Coley's instagram stories show him practicing. Not much in the way of supercars, but $5k is a big amount for an entry fee.

[chasing cars]

Correction; the gates actually open at 8am as well on the Sunday with the event starting at 11am though not sure when the actual racing starts. Doesn't seem to be much else going on other than the racing.

So how many supercars, looks to be about 5 at the moment which is not great to say the least.

[schanche]

Was looking forward to this as my first trip to lydden in a long while but lack of information which is diabolical unless you are savvy with trawling through various sites which is not me. Tanner Foust I was hoping to see after watching him in the European championship he was mighty impressive years ago but don’t even know if he is doing it. So of to Headcorn instead weekend after for a change.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Entry list dropped. 10 in Group E, 10 in Crosscar, 8 in NEXT and 5 in supercar. They're going to kill the series before it's off the ground if they stick with this high entry fees, could've charged half the price and got a lot more entries, certainly in supercar.

[chasing cars]

That's poor, far worst than even my pessimistic self was expecting! Any car issues is going to make this whole event a little embarrassing if it isn't already.

Really seems like Nitro came a year too late, would have made more sense to stick with last year's categories for another year or wait to see if Group E takes off before expanding beyond the US.And anyone who bought tickets off the back of those misleading promotional videos are going to be very disappointed with hardly any of the cars featured in them entered or the gap jump which Nitro are so keen to promote.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by chasing cars

would have made more sense to stick with last year's categories for another year or wait to see if Group E takes off before expanding beyond the US

Yeah. I thought NRX was making a hell of a leap moving to electric and expanding to a global program in the same year. Pastrana/Nitro are a big operation though, so I thought if anyone would have the savvy to pull it off, it would be them. At this point though, I am not so sure on that.

Really hope they can pull a good event out of the bag, but I personally think the promotion for this round could have been handled so much better. I have a number of mates who are regular attendees at Lydden and the lack of news put most off, the entry list today seems to have killed the last bits of interest. If a couple of them go now I'll be surprised.

Also, although it is no surprise at this point, I am still really disappointed not to see the Subarus over here.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by schanche

So of to Headcorn instead weekend after for a change.

I'll probably do the same

Originally Posted by chasing cars

That's poor, far worst than even my pessimistic self was expecting! Any car issues is going to make this whole event a little embarrassing if it isn't already.

Yep, that's really bad. They've not got a lot right about organising this event.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Also, although it is no surprise at this point, I am still really disappointed not to see the Subarus over here.

I never really expected Subaru, VSC are busy dealing with the Group E cars and of the 3 cars 1 was Pastrana and the other was basically a giveaway seat. But I did at least expect it to attract some of the more local wildcard drivers, a few more from BRX and some over from Europe....if you're running a rallycross event and Enzo Ide doesn't turn up, is it really a rallycross event?

I know someone at the event and he said yesterday that the Nitro social media guy was taking some photo/video and even he didn't have an entry list at that point. They've had potentially a great opportunity here, and taking it outside of the US is a pretty big step, but it seems to me that they're over-reaching a bit and putting a premium price on a product which doesn't yet have a premium value.

[RichP]

I took the gamble and ordered tickets when they were released, feeling somewhat underwhelmed at the moment. Also just read on DirtFish that Kevin Eriksson isn't racing due to injury, so possibly 9 in the 'top' class!https://dirtfish.com/rallycross/nitr...nitro-rx-2022/

[chasing cars]

Wonder if anyone will step in and replace Ericsson? My decision to go on Sunday was now depending on the attrition rate tomorrow, this is not a good start!

Seems like a lot of disquiet on social media with complaints varying from the lack of drivers/cars, some not realising the top class is now electric, the lack of the gap jump and no Jenson Button which obviously hadn't got through to the casual fan. This shows the danger of using short publicity videos which are almost made to mislead and not actually reporting factual information.All about selling tickets for this event, a very short sighted strategy in my opinion.
As for the Button thing I don't believe it was ever said he would do Lydden but all the original press releases never suggested he wasn't.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

The irony with people being disappointed that Button isn't there, Meeke will probably be quicker

I can't say I really noticed much (if any) fanfare about the potential of a big gap jump, to me it looked fairly clear that those were clips from previous events and not necessarily Lydden. I agree that the info coming from Nitro has been pretty poor, but I also think there's an element of people expecting to be spoon fed everything rather than finding out anything for themselves. E.g if people haven't worked out that it's electric then I don't have a lot of sympathy

[chasing cars]

Originally Posted by SnoodyMcFlude

The irony with people being disappointed that Button isn't there, Meeke will probably be quicker

I can't say I really noticed much (if any) fanfare about the potential of a big gap jump, to me it looked fairly clear that those were clips from previous events and not necessarily Lydden. I agree that the info coming from Nitro has been pretty poor, but I also think there's an element of people expecting to be spoon fed everything rather than finding out anything for themselves. E.g if people haven't worked out that it's electric then I don't have a lot of sympathy

Yes but those videos were promotional videos advertising an event which in reality is going to be quite different to what was shown in them. Non rallycross fans may not even know what Lydden looks like, so they see a video which starts with "where else can you see a big jump like this" with footage of a gap jump and some are going to get taken in by that, and then showing suburus and the Hansen Peugeots with no mention of ev cars it is understandable that people do feel mislead and let's face it trying to find factual info has not been that easy but yes for sure I would do some homework if it was something I knew little about.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Sorry, but if anyone is booking tickets on the basis of a 30 second teaser and not doing any more research then I still have little sympathy. If you're spending money to watch an event, at least find out what it actually is. You only need to watch a tiny bit more to see where those tracks were and you only need to log onto their website to realise that Group E is the top class and is electric.

I'm all for jumping on Nitro and slagging them off for the poor supercar entry, poor info and generally being too expensive, but if someone is spending £40 on a ticket because they saw a 30 second clip on Facebook then they've really only got themselves to blame.

[chasing cars]

Oh I agree with you but maybe a little less hype and a little more honesty then there maybe less disgruntled people though probably less tickets sold.
Anyway if your going tomorrow please give your honest assessment of the day if you can to help me decide about going Sunday,as I get a feeling on social media the feedback will be extreme in the positive or extreme in the negative.

[schanche]

Originally Posted by SnoodyMcFlude

I'm all for jumping on Nitro and slagging them off for the poor supercar entry, poor info and generally being too expensive, but if someone is spending £40 on a ticket because they saw a 30 second clip on Facebook then they've really only got themselves to blame.

Yep sums it up perfectly ??

[chasing cars]

Watched the livestream and my thoughts are, track looked good and seems like it was regularly watered. The joker is a bit frustrating as because its at the last corner we have lost last lap on track battles but have gained a decent first lap. The EV cars looked OK, the sound as expected, but didn't look particularly quick through the corners and because of their weight weren't that spectacular over the jump.

What I really struggled with was the format. The 2 car battle thing really isn't for me and throw in the joker too and it doesn't look great especially the "final" which ended up as 1 car.The format also means some drivers do literally one 3 lap race all day, really not sure how that justifies the large entry fee. Very short day as well, just 3 and half hours and that included 2 big accidents but it was pretty much non stop apart from that.

Think Lydden is unfortunate to have the first round as the entry size may increase and the EV cars will get to use more power in the future.
Last thing the coverage was OK but why did they have to zoom in so tight on the cars and nearly always just followed the leader even on the first lap?
Will probably give it a go tomorrow and should be more full grids but don't think there will be a huge lot of races.

[Barrie]

I’ve just got back. Firstly anything rallycross related I can get to I’ll always make the effort. Today’s event had its moments. The MSE Fiesta’s were good, enjoyed them. The rest wasn’t really catching my attention, the two overseas supercars were impressive. Electrics, I’ll never accept they are good to watch even with professional drivers. On a plus side the track looked ace.

[MissClarrpz]

I thought once the day got going it was a good event. If anyone's doubting going I'd strongly recommend attending tomorrow. The battle brackets didn't have any good moments unfortunately. 2 car races can be entertaining like last year but it just didn't work here. When there are 4,5 or 8 cars barrelling through turn 1 I think that will be very good.

Was sceptical about the jump and flow through the chicane but I was proven wrong, the jump is a good addition. However, if a car gets hit wide just before the jump there is a 1-2 metre drop which means the car will roll, hit the flag poles or both. 1 car rolled today and I've said it all week, I think someone will hit the flags

[Snail_342]

Absolutely brilliant weekend. The electric Rallycross cars were insane, much much quicker then the supercars and unreal torque. And those crosskarts were wicked, need to see them more often. Track layout also needs to stay, loved the new s’s section, jump and joker lap, a real challenge for the drivers that caught a lot off guard.

Only complaints from me are the lack of commentary and speakers, needs improving on Nitro’s side as they had their own systems in place. Also more bookings needed so the days a bit longer. But both will naturally improve with time with this only being the first year.

Now, where do I pre order my tickets for next year?!?!

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Well I went with an open mind, if anything wanting to be won over by electric...I'm still undecided.

First off, new track layout I think is great and I feel the Joker merge gives more of a battle than the old one ever did, especially in the run to the line on the last lap and also gave us some really good runs down to T1 (Meeke and Bakkerud being one). The jump is really mellow and everyone seemed to be able to just float it, great addition and the kink before it was tricky enough to add something too. Spoke to a few of the retro guys and they reckoned it was so much better than the Silverstone one in terms of a smooth landing. I believe it's there to stay, although possibly lowered a bit depending on what feedback comes from the drivers.

Saturday was definitely more hard going, the speakers weren't working at Paddock so we didn't really know what was going on and it's really easy to miss the start of a race when it's electric cars. That's probably my biggest negative about Group E, you completely lose that moment of anticipation building as cars come out the pre-grid and do practice starts etc. plus all the anti-lag building before the lights go green. BUT the cars are mega quick and the traction as they accelerate out of the slower corners is really impressive, as is the run through the chicane and over the line. Battle brackets I still don't mind, watched a lot of the last year and often produce good racing...although I'd still prefer if they just went the same route they use for NEXT and have two finals over the weekend.

Sunday racing was really good, we moved up to the exit of the hairpin where the speakers were working and having Coley made Group E so much more watchable, plus the fact they were banging door handles helped. 8 cars in the final definitely a good move, we basically lost 3 on lap 1 but it still leaves a good number of them battling. But realistically it was the Crosscars that were the most entertaining, they're only a couple of seconds off the Group E cars, the racing was more fun and they have noise. Some of the kiddies driving them were sending huge jumps too. Supercars were great to hear but it isn't really a race when two drivers have the all-singing, all-dancing kit, kind of proved with how much better they got off the line in the final and just disappeared. Oh and George Megennis is a bit fighty isn't he, can tell he's from the Hansen stable.

As for negatives, there are a few. Firstly, we arrived at about 9:45 on Friday evening to be told by security that they weren't letting any camping in as the person scanning tickets clocked off at 9. This wasn't mentioned anywhere (ffs camping tickets only came out last week) and there were probably about 11 others in the same boat. We got let in after about 20 minutes, I think they realised they may as well let us in rather than have us just park up on the road outside.

Speakers weren't working at Paddock, I'd much rather have sat there on Sunday but electric cars without comms just don't cut it in terms of excitement. We got an email from Ticketmaster where Nitro had said all the things we couldn't bring, they won't succeed in Europe if they keep with that, it included: own food/drink, seats, shade, cutlery and anyone found with alcohol would be removed without refund...if I'd got that email before the event then I'd not have gone at all, luckily it came as I was sat in my seat trackside with a beer in my hand.

Obviously the biggest negative is lack of entries, especially supercar, apparently a big list of drivers were interested but the stupid money put them off, especially as I'm told anyone bringing a team couldn't bring their own food and was supposed to pay £1200 to have the Nitro catering. Would love to see more Crosscars too, hopefully at least the Scandinavian rounds will have a few more, being so close to the nest Nordic round probably didn't help for Lydden.

Ultimately it's really about whether I'd go back...and I'm not sure. A bigger grid in all areas and confirmation that there's still decent commentary (I'm a big fan of Coley so ideally him) and I'd probably be there. If it's same size grid then I'll be a bit more picky and would be less likely to make the trip. It's certainly not like when I first went to the World RX there though, where driving home it was a case of "can't wait to come again next year, that was fantastic". Basically I'm still open minded to electric, but it's just lacking something at the minute.

Sorry for the massive post, tried to give a balance of the different parts of the weekend.

[chasing cars]

Excellent review. I didn't go in the end as I feared there wouldn't be many races on the Sunday and the only info I could get was from the website which is for a 16 car entry.

Anyway I can give an opinion from viewing all the live stream which was vastly improved on the Sunday. It kept me captivated so that has to be good but the format for me left a little to be desired or as Meeke said, he didn't know what was going on.
The battle brackets for me were not great, especially when 1 car packs up and you have a joker meaning most of the time it 1 car circulating almost on its own.
The stranger bit for me was the Sunday with the top 4 going straight to the final meaning the drivers you probably want to see most only doing 2 races or in the case of Meeke and Pastrana 1 race and 1 corner all day.

The crosscars looked and sounded great, seen them at Barcelona with grids of 20 plus, really hope they take off over here.
More supercars and I would definitely have gone unfortunately unless they still get decent numbers in the US which I doubt I can see them getting dropped.

The EVs looked good and will undoubtedly get quicker and more reliable but it's a 1 make class so if as I suspect, next year will be just 3 one make classes and how long before NEXT becomes electric? Part of the joy of rallycross was seeing so many different makes of cars while wandering around the paddock.Soon it will just be the Retros.

Obviously the biggest downside was communication and information. Lydden did put out on Facebook about conflicting info from ticketmaster but this seems to be what happens when not just 1 organisation is involved. Organised by Nitro who gave no info, the paying public in the hands of ticketmaster who gave out false info and Lydden who seemed to be in the middle of it all and doing there best to sort it out.Similar happened with the first WRX at Silverstone.

So would I go next year? A bigger entry which we know about at least a week before, no big price hikes and a better format then yes I'd definitely do it, as it is now, still not sure.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Actually that reminds me, if they use Ticketmaster again then it'll be another tick in the Con column, what a terrible way to ticket an event.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by SnoodyMcFlude

Sorry for the massive post, tried to give a balance of the different parts of the weekend.

I am really interested to see what others thought of it, so good to read your post.

Starting with a negative, a lot of it seemed very last minute and the timetable seemed to be in a constant state of flux which was a real pain. Think I saw four or five timetables for Saturday.

I thought the new layout was decent, especially as the Retro class seemed able to use it without issue (which I hope means all the National classes could). The level of track maintenance seemed ridiculous though. I don't know if that was due to the re-working that was done on Friday, but having to fettle the track every two or three races is fine when you have small grids, but a National round with decent numbers would take about three days to run with that level of maintenance.

Thought the commentary on Saturday was awful - including Coley who, unusually, seemed to be making loads of mistakes - didn't hear quite as much on Sunday, but what I caught seemed better. All very American, but it is an American series so I say that as an observation, not a critique.

I am personally not that enthused by the battle format and, like others have said, would much rather see a more traditional race structure for both days of the event. One or two good tussles on Saturday, but it the was pack racing I was waiting for and as a consequence I much preferred Sunday over Saturday.

Crosscars are properly cool. They look so much more lively than the RX150 and it was great to see them getting chucked around. The Next had some really entertaining races, fantastic recovery from Olofsson, the rear of the car looked about 50% tape by the end of the weekend!

Supercar entry was the biggest disappointment of the weekend for me. It was already clear before that Subaru weren't going to be there (and I can understand why), but I was really hoping the series would bring those cars (and drivers) to Europe. The eye-watering entry fee surely put some locals off and I wonder how many will be interested at the other European stops given the cost. Still, cool to see a couple of ex-World cars at Lydden and they provided an interesting benchmark for the FCX-1, speaking of which...

...spotted an unused FC1-X in the paddock which I was having a nose around. Mainly space frame and all CF panels, so I guess the vast majority of the weight is coming from the motors, batteries and transmission. Looked much better prepared than the Pantera as well, which was good to see.

Really interesting to compare FC1-X and Supercar times on the two days. Arguably unfair to draw any conclusions given the variable track conditions, but the fastest time I saw set on both days was posted by McConnell in the i20. Sure there is more to come from the FC1-X, but it isn't quite at the level of "fastest rallycross car ever" yet. Would love to see a telemetry comparison between the two. The FC1-X looked slow at North Bend, but the speed they were carrying through Paddock and into the chicane was ridiculous.

Overall though? Definitely thought there were more positives than negatives. If I had to pick one international series then I'm still favouring World RX, but I'd definitely consider attending another Nitro round. As said by chasing cars though, I would expect to see a much more certainty in the event before the day.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

I think there may even have been two spare cars, one with a wing (parked next to Olsbergs paddock) and one without which was parked behind the OMSE spares truck.

I'd love to see crosscars become a regular class over here, I know they're still not cheap but the cars seem remarkably well built and give great entertainment. I know Dan Rooke has had a couple of drives in the Ya Ya Car at some autocross events down here and is one of the drivers for the FIA Motorsport Games. However I guess there would be some resistance from Ollie as it would effectively phase out RX150?

I assumed that the regular maintenance was as much because they had the time to do it as it was a requirement? Although I guess being such a new addition wouldn't have helped much. It seemed pretty solid when we walked the course on Saturday evening.

[AlamakiRX]

The FIA Cross Cars are already a category in the UK, they have been adopted by MSUK and have become a category in their own right in the BTRDA Rallycross Championship.

They are full FIA spec, there were 2 at Lydden in May, 2 more Blyton in June and then 6-8 in September at Pembrey and Knockhill, with some 'big' names due to drive them before the season is out!!

Originally Posted by SnoodyMcFlude

I think there may even have been two spare cars, one with a wing (parked next to Olsbergs paddock) and one without which was parked behind the OMSE spares truck.

I'd love to see crosscars become a regular class over here, I know they're still not cheap but the cars seem remarkably well built and give great entertainment. I know Dan Rooke has had a couple of drives in the Ya Ya Car at some autocross events down here and is one of the drivers for the FIA Motorsport Games. However I guess there would be some resistance from Ollie as it would effectively phase out RX150?

I assumed that the regular maintenance was as much because they had the time to do it as it was a requirement? Although I guess being such a new addition wouldn't have helped much. It seemed pretty solid when we walked the course on Saturday evening.