One year on from its dynamic debut at the Race of Champions, Nitro Rallycross' FC1-X race car will return to the all-star event as one of its competition vehicles.
For the second year in a row the Race of Champions is taking place on the frozen Baltic Sea at Pite Havsbad in Piteå, Sweden, just 60 miles away from the Arctic circle. The confirmed inclusion of the all-electric machine from Nitro RX's Group E category at the event means that the car will have three consecutive weekends of ice action following Nitro RX's successful race at Circuit Trois-Rivières in Quebec last weekend, and the upcoming round at Calgary's Stampede Park in the first weekend of February.
The Race of Champions pits the world's best drivers together in a head-to-head knockout competition in identical cars, not too dissimilar from our own qualifying Battle Bracket. The FC1-X will be rotated as part of a pool of five different vehicles that also includes the SuperCar Lites cars used in NRX NEXT. What's more, the FC1-X's 1000 horsepower makes it the most powerful car in use at the event – that figure also accounts for almost half of the combined horsepower of all five cars (2,359 horsepower).
Reigning Nitro RX champion Travis Pastrana has been drawn against 2018 Nitro RX podium finisher Mattias Ekström l in the opening round of the individual ROC competition, with the winner of that heat facing off against either Tanner Foust and Johan Kristoffersson – two other previous Nitro RX participants.
Before that though is the Nations Cup team contest, with Pastrana and Foust teaming up for the USA. They take on Team All Stars (Thierry Neuville, BEL and Felipe Drugovich, BRA) in their first heat.