Titans-RX


TitansRX International Europe Series is a group of rallycross series, currently organised by racing driver Max Pucher and businessman Chip Pankow. The initial series was series run in North America in 2011 and ran for seven seasons until the series folded in 2018, where the series was replaced by the Americas Rallycross Championship. In late-2018, Max Pucher revived the brand and set up the series Titans-RX Europe, starting in 2019 and the International Series starting in 2020.

History

Following Rallycross's inclusion in the 2010 Los Angeles X Games, three demonstration events were held in late 2010 at the New Jersey Motorsports Park, and Global Rallycross Management organized their first championship season of five events in 2011. Tanner Foust won the inaugural championship title in 2011. He retained the title again in 2012.
In addition to promoting the series, Global Rallycross Management managed invitations and competition for X Games Rallycross contests.
In 2013, the series held races outside the United States for the first time. Later in the season, it introduced the Lites division, a developmental series. Making its debut at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Joni Wiman was the inaugural champion after winning all six races.
On October 28, 2016, the series announced the formation of an electric racing division.
In 2018 Global Rallycross in its initial form ceased operations, only to be revived later that same year and relocating to Europe, with a plan to reintroduce the championship to North America in 2020. In February 2019, the series renamed itself to Titans-RX, removing "Global" from its name to avoid conflict with FIA sanctioned competitions.

Format (pre-2019)

Qualifying

Qualifying was conducted over the course of one hour. The field was broken up into small groups that took to the track in 10-minute sessions. Seeding for heat races was determined by a driver's qualifying lap time.

Heats

A race weekend consisted of one or two rounds of heats that count for championship points, as well as a semifinal. The heats always consisted of three sessions of four or five cars each, while the semifinals consisted of two sessions of six or more cars each. In the case of an event with only one round of heats, such as a doubleheader race, points were awarded in the semifinal, but not otherwise.
The top three finishers in the semifinals transferred into the main event, giving their teams time to work on their cars while others continue to compete. All drivers who do not make it into the main event via the semifinals would compete in the last chance qualifier for the final four remaining qualifying spots. Ten cars then compete in the main event.

Start

Races began with a standing start, where drivers are given 30- and 10-second intervals before the green. During that time they must activate launch systems, including an anti-lag system, before starting the race. The fastest driver in the previous session was given the inside lane to the first corner.

Joker lap

Each course was equipped with two routes: the main route, and the joker lap route, which each driver must only take once per race. The GRC joker lap route typically shortened the length of the track significantly, so when a drive takes the joker lap can affect their race strategy. Depending on venue, the joker lap route may have additional obstacles which significantly slow the cars thus making the main route faster. In mid season 2015, GRC made some change to the joker lap, where drivers were not allowed to take the joker lap on the first lap.

Penalty box

The penalty box was a new addition to series for the 2013 season, and was designed to deal with on-track infractions without having to red flag or restart the race. In event of a jump start or unsportsmanlike driving, the penalised driver would pull into a 50-metre lane off track, where they would be held until a track official releases them. The penalty box was first used at the first event at X Games Brazil, when Nelson Piquet Jr. jump-started at the beginning of Heat 2.

Championship points

As of 2014, championship points were awarded only to drivers who had committed to running at least half of the season. Under that point system, one-off drivers were skipped over when points were awarded; for example, if the race winner was not eligible to earn points, the event runner-up would earn first place points. Points were awarded at the conclusion of the event to eligible finishers as follows:
In addition, points were awarded in all rounds of heats and semifinals. First place earned five points, second place earned four points, and so on through fifth place and below, which earn one point. Only drivers who were disqualified from a heat or fail to pull to the starting grid did not receive points for their heats. On race weekends with three rounds of heats, the third round solely determined starting spots in the main event and did not award points.
At the end of the season, the driver to score the most points was crowned Global Rallycross champion. The top two cars per manufacturer also scored points in the manufacturer's championship.

Format (2019 onwards)

The new format will first be used in the European championship which will consist of 10 one-day events driven on 5 closed circuits with mixed surface, with an 11th event acting as a series final. Each event consists of:
Unlike other rallycross championships, Titans-RX has abolished Joker Laps and instead has modified the intermediate point system to encourage overtaking on the main part of the track.

Points system

Intermediate points are split into two categories, Race Time points and Race Position points, which are scored as follows:
Championship points are scored as follows:
From 2019 onwards, the newly introduced TitansRX class, a one-make car class designed to be as fast as the Supercar class but a fraction of the price.

Champions

North America (TitansRX Class)

North America (Supercar Class)

Europe (TitansRX Class)

International Series (TitansRX Class)