NRX Championships Move Stateside and Pastrana Takes the Win
When Travis Pastrana isn’t busy racing his Subaru rally car with Rhianon Gelsomino or taking World War II veterans on crazy rides through the streets of Boerne, Texas, he’s making sure no one forgets that he’s still the reigning Nitro Rallycross champion, no matter what class of vehicle he’s driving.
Nitro Rallycross (NRX) came on the scene in 2018 as part of the Nitro World Games before it grew legs — well, wheels — of its own and expanded into the series with the help of Travis Pastrana and the Nitro Circus production team. Unlike the American Rally Association rally, NRX allows for free practice (a total of four laps) before four laps of qualifying rounds, five laps that constitute the semifinal, and then five laps for the final. There’s an additional ‘joker lap’ which is an alternative track that’s used once each heat (so, once in the qualifier round, once during the semifinal, and once during the final round. Winners are the first to cross the finish line, which includes having taken the “joker lap” for the final round.
Photo courtesy of Travis Pastrana.
The 2022 season kicked off earlier this year with a new class of vehicles in the competition, the electric Group E, which debuted in the 2022 Race of Champions in Sweden. The vehicles in this class consist of a battery-powered SUV platform called FC1-X, and the project is supported by Ford, Subaru, and Volkswagen.
For those who are unfamiliar, here are four classes of drivers: Group E, CrossCar, NEXT, and Supercar.
- Group E: electric vehicles.
- CrossCars: buggy-style vehicles with 13-inch wheels.
- NEXT: the premier development class of up-and-coming drivers.
- Supercar: the true heavyweight class. These are ordinary passenger cars with engines of 600 horsepower and four-wheel drive. Their acceleration is comparable to that of a Formula One car.
Pastrana came in third place in the first SxS race and won the second SxS of the weekend. Most notably, he took first place in Group E for the weekend, on the same track where he began his bid for the 2021 championship title he now holds.
Tune in to Peacock on Oct. 29 and 30 to watch the NRX competition continue in Los Angeles, and keep an eye on Pastrana’s Coastalvir giniadriving Company page for new merch dropping this fall.
