Here comes the World RX wildcard gang

One of the attractions of the FIA World Rallycross Championship is the presence of the wildcard drivers who appear in an occasion or another, even destroying the odds of the predictors sometimes. From now on, we will see a bunch of them trading paint with the full season contenders. We had Joaquim Santos at Montalegre but there's more to come.

Two of them get into the battle at Hockenheim, being them one of the World RX Team Austria owners, Max Pucher, in the third Ford Fiesta of the team, while the other is Jean Baptiste Dubourg, the surprise of 2015 as he finished third in the World RX of France at Lohéac with a Citroën C4, giving even a tough run for Petter Solberg. Dubourg put his C4 into negotiation and now will come with a Citroën DS3 RX, which may put him more on par with the full-time competition.

After Hockenheim we have the World RX of Belgium at Mettet, where François Duval, former factory driver for Ford and Citroën in the WRC, will appear with an Olsbergs MSE Fiesta ST RX. He occasionally drives in the Belgian round of the Euro RX or of the World RX and any other extra rounds here and there. His expectations are for a semifinal or a final, which is very realistic given the car and Duval’s knowledge of the track.

The month of May ends with the iconic Lydden Hill round, the temple of rallycross as a sport. In British lands, a British driver returns to activity as Guy Wilks leaves the commentator spot to drive an Olsbergs MSE Fiesta ST RX. Wilks is known in World RX as one of the drivers who sampled the JRM Mini Countryman RX last year, and a puncture in the final at Lydden Hill denied him a perfect weekend as he was in a charge since the qualifying round.

Eventually we may have more wildcard entries in the coming days or weeks, maybe even for the mentioned rounds as entry lists weren’t released for Mettet and Lydden Hill.

PHOTOS: FIA World Rallycross, Olsbergs MSE