Guerlain Chicherit’s GC Kompetition squad will double the efforts compared to most of the 2018 season, as the team announced this Tuesday (5) a four car program solely focused in the FIA World Rallycross Championship this year.
In fact, GCK incorporates what was dubbed as G-FORS last year into the main World RX operation, as well the pair of GCK Clio R.S. RX cars that competed in the Euro RX, under the name of GCK Academy, and although it will be a permanent entry, the team will act as a junior squad, really looking alike the Hansen Academy team that brought Kevin Hansen to the supercars. By the way, FORS Performance will take of the operation of the quartet of entries during the whole 2019.
In this junior team the lineup will be composed by former RX2 rivals, as rising stars Cyril Raymond and Guillaume de Ridder will drive the Clios. Belgian driver de Ridder not only saw Raymond win the 2017 RX2 International Series, but also saw the Frenchman be promoted into the supercars in 2018 as an independent entry in the Euro RX, while de Ridder battled hard for the RX2 title, only to be defeated by Oliver Eriksson, and Raymond was pretty competitive in his first full season in the supercars, winning at Lohéac and fighting for the Euro RX title, only to see Reinis Nitiss claim it.
As for the main GCK team, the formula is repeated as two GCK Megane R.S. RX will be used by team owner Guerlain Chicherit and 2018 Euro RX runner-up Anton Marrklund. They already ran together in GCK during the end of the 2018 World RX season as Anton was one of the replacements of Jerome Grosset-Janin, who left mid-season.
While Chicherit advanced seven times to the semifinals and once to the final, what is pretty decent considering that 2018 was the debut year of the GCK Megane, there is still a need for improvement, which may come as experience with the car and a more balanced field can be considered in 2019.
A curious fact is that GCK made good use of the rallycross ladder by snapping not only the second and third in Euro RX but also the RX2 runner-up, and they will meet Euro RX champion Nitiss in the World stage this year, with the Latvian star competing with GRX TANECO.
The 2019 FIA World Rallycross Championship season will start on April 6th with the Abu Dhabi RX at the Yas Marina Circuit.
PHOTO: GCK
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