World RX announces inaugural ice race to commence 2025 season in Canada
All-new ice event set to start 2025 World Rallycross season
Johan Kristoffersson, Volkswagen Polo
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
The World Rallycross Championship will commence its 2025 season with an inaugural ice race in Canada at the Trois-Rivieres circuit, subject to World Motor Sport Council approval.
RX events typically take place on mixed surface tracks, consisting of gravel and dirt sections.
The ice event is provisionally scheduled to take place on 24-25 January and marks the championship's first visit to Canada since before the pandemic, having been a fixture on the calendar for the first six seasons of World RX from 2014.
"We are incredibly excited to be returning to Canada for the first time since 2019 for an event that will look like nothing we have ever seen on the calendar before," said Rallycross Promoter Managing Director Arne Dirks.
"We are of course familiar with Trois-Rivieres, but seeing it on snow is going to add an all-new incredibly spectacular element to our calendar.
"We cannot think of a better way to kick off the 2025 season."
A statement said that attending fans "will be kept warm in heated glass-enclosed grandstands with temperatures outside expected to be well below freezing".
"World RX drivers have always loved coming to Trois-Rivieres,” said circuit general manager Dominic Fugere.
Johan Kristoffersson
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
"The switch to ice, in the middle of a Quebec winter, will not cool their ardent eagerness to race here."
World RX has already announced that its Portuguese round will move to Lousada, after agreeing a three-year deal with the venue which hosted the FIA European Rallycross Championship from 1991 until 2008, on 2-4 May.
The Finnish Kymiring circuit has also agreed what the promoter has described as a long-term agreement as the nation returns to the calendar for the first time since 2020.
A full calendar is expected in the coming weeks and could include a UK round as plans to realise an inner-city event in Coventry continue to take shape.
World RX included Lydden Hill on its calendar last year, its first UK event since a visit to Silverstone in 2019, but the premier class was called off following a devastating battery fire that engulfed Special One Racing's Lancia Deltas that meant the RX1e cars were not seen again for the remainder of the season.
Combustion engine cars were once again admitted for this season to race against the electric RX1e machines in a development the promoters have labelled the Battle of Technologies.
Six-time champion Johan Kristoffersson is firmly on course to add another title to his tally and holds a 46-point advantage heading into the season-concluding double-header in China, which replaces the originally planned season finale in Australia.
Kristoffersson has driven a combustion-powered VW Polo for his family Kristoffersson Motorsport team, entered under the KMS - HORSE Powertrain banner.
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