Reviewing 2020 - World RX

2020 was certainly a different year than what we expected, so we can be at least thankful for at least having motorsport to enjoy despite the constraints for the organizations, teams and drivers, so let’s starting the 2020 review with the FIA World Rallycross Championship, as it thrived despite suffering some heavy hits before the season could start, and ending with Johan Kristoffersson as a triple champion and certainly a rallycross legend.

As per usual, the season will be reviewed under certain topics in general, not only related to the on track competition.

-Be thankful for having a season

This is a thing that could be extended to each and every season review of this blog when talking about the 2020 season, but the World RX took some serious hits in the guts with events canceled before and during the season, which sent it to an early end and deprived everybody of some good ones like Hell, Lohéac and Spa. The northern Europe was certainly the refuge for the championship, with Latvia and Barcelona helping in building an eight event calendar that was expected to hit 10 if Spa and Nürburgring weren’t called off over COVID concerns, which by a miracle didn’t affect the Spanish round as Barcelona was diving into a second wave of the disease.

-Say it again: “Double header”

With the reduced number of venues available for the 2020 season, the most used expression during the season was certainly “double header” (OK, after Andrew Coley’s “MEGA”). If having four of them wasn’t enough, Höljes and Kouvola held back to back events, meaning four rounds in a week, a recipe for a lot of stress and worry over keeping the cars in a usable state as time was certainly an enemy.

The organization had experience with it thanks to the defunct Americas Rallycross, and some teams faced the double header concept at RallyX Nordic, so managing everything to go through Saturday to live another on Sunday wasn’t a major hurdle, with no teams having game breaking issues.

-I believe your suspension shouldn’t be doing that

A number of teams brought updates to their suspensions for the 2020 season, and it was proven to the area that suffered the most. While other teams had occasional issues here and there, the major case here was at the GCK camp, with Monster Energy RX Cartel taking a big hit during the first half of the season due to bent or falling pieces after some considerable impact, lateral or vertical. Most of the things were solved in the second half, which turned Andreas Bakkerud as competitive as his runner-up 2019 self, for example.

-Brawn vs. Brains

Don’t be fooled by the results that crowned Johan Kristoffersson the 2020 champion, Mattias Ekström made sure he would suffer to get that glory. Kristoffersson’s alien driving style that turns precision into pace was matched by Ekström in a number of occasions, but the KYB Team JC driver aced when the tactics were needed, with Robin Larsson tagging along if needed to take some tenths away from Kristoffersson. The tactical approach isn’t new to Eki as this ace under the sleeve was used in 2019, although some bad timing ended with him and Andreas Bakkerud failing to slow down Kristoffersson.

-Hyvää huomenta, minun nimeni on Juha Rytkönen

Even though GRX’s only victory with Niclas Grönholm at home was celebrated, it shouldn’t be the only fact from the Kouvola RX weekend. Juha Rytkönen aced in the third GRX Hyundai i20 RX by making good use of his experience at the Tykkimäki, getting a runner-up finish on Saturday and missing the Final because of a penalty on Sunday.

Rytkönen’s performance opened the eyes of the entire grid as a number of drivers complimented his skill on both days, and what was supposed to be a one-off turned into a partial campaign as Ferratum Team offered a seat, though he never drove it competitively.

-The fading light of the 2019 victors

The nail biting end of the 2019 season showed us that Timmy Hansen, Kevin Hansen and Andreas Bakkerud are championship winning material, but apparently the lack of pace and repetitive problems in the cars hindered their 2020 campaigns, staying on the shadow of the title contenders for a long time until the trio could find the way to fight, which brought a win to Timmy, two podiums for Kevin and four Finals for Bakkerud.

-GCK, the downfall and the change of plans

While the trio of GCK Meganes proved to have pace under normal conditions, the series of mechanical problems, especially early in the season proved to be their main headache, though it wasn’t nothing near what happened to the GCK Clios of UNKORRUPTED. The absolute lack of pace made the team the punchbag of the regular field, to a point that Kevin Abbring had to drive once in place of Rokas Baciuska, and the team even forfeited the Barcelona RX, eventually ending the season at Latvia.

With the shift to electrical motorsport, GCK opted to do a full restart, abandoning the World RX until the electrification plans become reality and finding home back in the Rally Dakar by testing the new GCK e-Blast EV.

-There’s more behind the curtains

Johan Kristoffersson celebrated his third title, KYB Team JC was the best team of the lot, GCK sent its goodbye letter and the 2021 calendar is a reality, but the most concerning unfinished matter is the case of the new World RX promoter, as IMG announced during the 2020 season that it would leave the World RX promotion after taking charge during the Euro RX days in the early 2010s, making the World Championship a huge success beyond belief, with some good decisions being alongside some questionable ones throughout the years.

With no name being exactly a strong candidate, even the calendar may suffer changes depending of the wishes of the new corporation in charge, with an extra effect also expected in the future of the competition and its push to electric power.

As a conclusion, the 2020 World RX delivered more with less at hand, even if in the opinion of some the final result may be considered predictable. Kristoffersson and Ekström were the main characters of the season, but the 2019 title contenders and Niclas Grönholm had their show time in some moments, along with the impressive surprise that was Juha Rytkönen.

We can only wait for the better in 2021 despite some doubts now, and preferably some close fights as it looks like 2021 may be the last year with internal combustion only in the now called RX1 class.

PHOTOS: FIA World Rallycross Championship, Liam Doran, Kristoffersson Motorsport, JC Raceteknik, Grönholm RX,  Team Hansen, GCK