Nitro Rallycross Championship R1 2022 – Lydden Hill

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I know a few on the forum are Lydden Hill regulars, but not sure if anyone made this as I didn’t see any mention of it in the Facebook group.

After running a season in the US, the Nitro Rallycross Championship has gone global for 2022 and the first stop in the calendar was Lydden.







Aside from an international calendar, the other big change with Nitro this year is moving the top tier of the Championship to electric. Instead of going for something production based, organisers have opted for a spec platform.



The FC1-X is a purpose built rallycross “car”. I personally think it is more like an electric trophy truck than a car but, irrespective, it has the equivalent of 1000 bhp (750ish for racing with a limited 250 bhp boost available) and looked extremely capable on circuit.





As well as the top tier electric cars, there were various support classes, including a small contingent of retro entries. There is always room for an Escort!





We have rallycross buggies in the UK, but Crosscar is the international equivalent and they were highly entertaining on circuit. Some of the best races of the weekend came from this class.



As you might expect, the FC1-X is stupidly fast off the line and, with zero noise before launch, you have to be paying attention to catch the starts!





Robin Larsson cleaned up over both days of racing, winning the head-to-head battles on Saturday and then taking the win in the pack racing on Sunday.







The handful of Group B cars present were, as ever, pretty popular and great to see on track. With the cost of using these continue to climb I wonder how long it will be before they are all locked up in private collections.













Traditional rallycross Supercars were also present and, although I do like to embrace new technology, I don’t think I’ll ever love electric stuff as much as the noisy petrol cars.



Still, although the design of the electric cars in this Championship isn’t entirely to my taste, the racing was still pretty decent and if this is the way the sport has to go, I am still hopeful it will be worth following.

More pictures here if anyone is interested!