Nitro Rallycross Race Preview: Glen Helen
Nitro Rallycross takes on the second American round of its 2022-23 season, and fourth overall, this weekend with its return to the Los Angeles area and the legendary Glen Helen Raceway. As always, Nitro Rallycross Los Angeles will see many of the sport’s biggest names go wheel-to-wheel over two full days of action, with battle bracket qualifying for the headline Group E electric cars on Saturday, racing on Sunday, and two full rounds for both the NRX Next and SXS classes across the two days. As always, Peacock will carry the action live all weekend long.
As with the previous round at ERX Motor Park in Minnesota, NRX’s visit to Glen Helen sees the series adapt a short course off-road track for rallycross. NRX’s signature over-under gap jump, Joker Lap, and an off-course starting grid are all added to the mix to produce a unique flavor of action for the well-established circuit. Last year, it was series founder Travis Pastrana on top of the box at Glen Helen, winning his second race in as many weeks for Subaru Motorsports USA in the Supercar class on the way to the inaugural series title.
Nine drivers are on the Group Egrid for this weekend, led as always by Vermont SportsCar driver and ERX winner Pastrana. After a less-than-stellar start to the season in Europe, Pastrana made the most of his return to home soil, jumping all the way to fourth in points and closing the gap on the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing trio of Robin Larsson, Andreas Bakkerud, and Fraser McConnell. Both Bakkerud and McConnell recovered from massive practice accidents at ERX to return to the top five in repaired cars. They’ll be joined by the usual suspects: Conner Martell alongside Pastrana at VSC, Oliver Bennett and Jenson Button at Xite Energy Racing, and brothers Oliver and Kevin Eriksson at Olsbergs MSE.
Pastrana will once again pull double duty in the SXS class, where he’ll join an eclectic list of names including fellow action sports legend-turned-rallycross standout Brian Deegan, top women’s skateboarder Leticia Bufoni, and even Lia Block, the daughter of Ken Block, who trades in her typical stage rally car for a UTV for the first time this year. Deegan and Pastrana came out on top at ERX, with Gregoire Michaud joining Pastrana as a two-time podium finisher on opening weekend. NRX Next will fill out the weekend grid with a crop of talented young racers behind the wheel of OMSE’s venerable SuperCar Lites platform, the most popular development car in rallycross in America for the past decade.
Tickets remain available for Nitro Rallycross Los Angeles at Glen Helen Raceway, with general admission tickets priced at $20 for Saturday and $25 for Sunday, and VIP passes available for each day as well. Following Glen Helen, the series returns to Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Arizona in two weeks’ time, where Pastrana will look to defend another 2021 victory and NASCAR star Chase Elliott will return to the grid as a wild card.