All crews involved in the FIA World Rallycross Championship travelled to Lydden Hill to compete in the fifth round of the 2023 season, but not a single wheel was spun since Friday, and the organization confirmed that the Sunday (23) schedule won’t be adjusted after missing the whole Saturday (22) due to the investigations regarding the fire that broke out at the Special ONE Racing area.
The devastating fire started on Friday morning, with the FIA estimating that it occurred at 8:43 AM according to camera footage analysis, and soon a video came to social media where most of the Special ONE Racing structure was already consumed by the flames, which included the pair of Lancia Delta Evo-e RX1e cars set to be used by Guerlain Chicherit and Sébastien Loeb.
Since then, all activity was suspended on Friday and the Lydden Hill Circuit remained closed until Saturday morning, when the FIA RX2e, the 5 Nations British RX Championship and the Retro Rallycross Championship were given the OK to follow the weekend schedule, while the whole World RX paddock remained parked awaiting for the investigations to unveil further details, with the other teams also cooperating with the work.
Late into Saturday a public statement was released which established that the World RX will not race on Sunday, while the other championships on site will keep their schedules, with the reason being explained in a document released by the stewards in the night of Saturday. While video evidence showed that the fire started at one of the cars batteries, the investigation hasn’t progressed enough since Friday to determine the exact root cause that led to the fire.
In grounds of safety, as KREISEL Electric, the provider of the RX1e powertrain kit, was unable to provide enough assurance of the complete safety of the system due to the uncertainty of the cause of the fire, so the most sensible option was to cancel the round only for World RX. The idea is that if, in case of any similar incident as the event progressed, it would make the work to contain the fire harder, which could led to it to threat more than one structure in the surrounding, affecting either the members in the paddock or those in the stands, which would increase the possibility of injuries.
At the moment, investigations will continue on site, probably going on after the end of the event, but no changes in the remainder of the calendar were determined, so the next stop for the World RX will be Mettet, in Belgium, which returns to the calendar on 6 August after four years of absence, with Loeb being the last winner while still driving for Hansen World RX Team.
Via public statement, Special ONE Racing confirmed that with its cars and equipment lost in the fire, they will not take part of the championship from Mettet RX onwards. The first chassis was done in mid 2022 while the second one was ready very late last year, which means that if the team confirms a return after evaluation of its future, it will be a work from scratch based on the knowledge they have on their former cars. No injuries were reported among the team members.
PHOTO: Special ONE Racing
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