While the influx of news regarding the RallyX Euro League grid has slowed down a bit since 23 February, there’s still more to come, and one of the standout stories of the 2024 rallycross season confirmed the move from the United States to Europe, as Mitchell DeJong joins the impressive grid that will start the season at Montalegre.
In terms of car and team that DeJong will represent, almost nothing changes compared to the shortened 2024 Nitrocross NEXT season, as he will stay in the same FC2 car and will run for BAK40 Motorsports, rejoining Lane Vacala and Eric Gordon, who were his team mates last season while Tanner Foust joins the team for 2025.
DeJong was well known for his association with Olsbergs MSE, one of the parts responsible for the FC2, but previously he was at the wheel of a Honda Civic Coupé RX like the one that Oliver Eriksson used to be a RallyX runner-up. Well accomplished with the OMSE Supercar Lites, where he got a GRC Lites title and two RX Lites wins, he finished third in the Global Rallycross Championship standings in his first full season in a supercar, with three podiums achieved in the process, but once GRC was over and Olsbergs MSE moved back to the World RX, DeJong was without a drive, at least in the real world.
From 2017 to 2024, DeJong followed a career totally focused in sim racing, in a similar case as the recently announced Verstappen.com Racing driver Chris Lulham, although unlike Lulham and more like former rallycross driver Sami-Matti Trogen, DeJong had a go at multiple disciplines on iRacing. Sportscar racing, rallycross and even open wheel and NASCAR, he had a bunch of everything there.
What was probably the most surprising part of his return to real racing last season was that he never lost an ounce of the pace that secured him titles and an X Games gold medal, with the explosive pace and aggressiveness helping him score two wins in the four event season, with the other half of the wins going to his iRacing, NRX NEXT EVO and now RallyX rival Tommi Hallman.
The RallyX Euro League season will start on 29 March at Montalegre, in Portugal, with tickets already available.
PHOTO: BAK40 Motorsports
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