The 2020 grid of the FIA World Rallycross Championship was set to have 13 cars on a full time basis, thanks to the huge influx of announcements from the teams, but two late additions add not only numbers but quality to the grid, being them Kevin Abbring and Janis Baumanis.
Abbring decided to join the rallycross scene after years of top level rallying, which in fact he still splits with the discipline of the supercars, and his World RX start was incredibly promising, as he embarked in the Skoda Fabia RX of a ESMotorsport trying to find their way during the 2019 season, and scored two fourth place finishes at Hell and Höljes, and this didn’t escalate just because Abbring had a busy schedule for the end of the last year.
For 2020, Abbring had plans set for the Euro RX in a contract settled with GCK, but then during the Covid-19 pandemic, the idea turned into a part time World RX campaign, which will see the Dutchman take part in the Abu Dhabi RX, Montalegre RX, Nürburgring RX and Cape Town RX, being the third GCK Clio R.S. RX along with Guerlain Chicherit and Rokas Baciuska in the Unkorrupted team and Anton Marklund in the GCK Bilstein team, keeping his GCK Megane R.S. RX. GCK will also offer support to Monster Energy RX Cartel's pair of Meganes, which will keep the team extremely busy during the weekends.
Baumanis on the other way is a proven regular in the World RX scene, but with STARD opting to not keeping their World RX operation active, the Latvian had to look for options, and this is where JC Raceteknik enters in his path, as under the KYB Team JC banner due to their shock absorber support deal, Baumanis will be able to align a second Audi S1 EKS RX alongside established Swede Robin Larsson, and the connection between Joel Christoffersson, JC Raceteknik boss, and Mattias Ekström will see EKS continue their technical partnership after helping Larsson achieve the Euro RX and RallyX Nordic titles in 2019.
Curiously Baumanis’ move from Ford to Audi machinery reminds of Andreas Bakkerud, who made the same move in 2018 and quickly found his pace, which eventually had a runner-up finish in the 2019 season. Also, despite having to get used to his new car, he can count with a well established title-winning team, KYB’s long term commitment to EKS and Larsson will be the reference due to him being incredibly fast with Audi machinery.
With the Barcelona RX and Montalegre RX being postponed, the Spa RX is the next event to debut the 2020 calendar on May 16th, but the date is very likely to be changed.
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