Speedleague is an international motorsports league recently founded by (Red Bull) Global Rallycross Championship creator Brian Gale. Building on the League's role as a sport organizer for X Games motorsports, Speedleague have partnered with ESPN to develop a slate of fresh events that appeal to a younger, more energetic and diverse audience. Trent Price caught up with Brian Gale to talk Electric Rallycross and the future of motor sport.
Trent Price: Was Electric Rallycross a natural evolution for Speed League?
Brian Gale: Yes, from the standpoint that we’re always looking to do new and different types of motorsports competitions more relevant to a younger and more diverse audience.
From a larger industry point of view, the future of personal transportation is rapidly advancing and we in the motorsports industry will need to adapt as the supporting manufacturers and brands realign their marketing programs accordingly.
The idea of electric powered rallycross originally began for me when I was in the process of launching Global Rallycross. I was pitching sponsorship to an energy management company when one of their executives brought up the idea of adding a class of electric cars. That’s when I became aware of the almost ideal combination of rallycross style heat racing mixed with the huge on-demand torque made available with electric power.
TP: Red Bull Global Rallycross have announced their own EV class for 2018. Do you expect there to be a rush of categories to become the ‘premier’ electric rallycross category?
BG: I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least a couple other iterations. There are few ideas in the world of motorsports more obvious at the moment than racing electric powered cars in a rallycross style format. It’s not hard to imagine considering the growing popularity of rallycross and Formula-e, and that EV’s are particularly suited to short bursts of intense power.
One thing certain is that it won’t be positive for the sport if a promoter were to try and organize competitions featuring both electric and ICE versions of rallycross in the same events. The conflicts of interest are certain to result in a less than ideal and derivative product. For example, we know that, once sorted, the electric powered versions will likely outperform the existing rallycross cars and a true and impartial scenario where the promoter mixes the two doesn’t seem probable.
Anyway, what would it prove other than the promoter is disingenuous in its environmental message? The promise of electric rally car racing is huge and there’s just too much at stake to trust it in the hands of people also promoting the
entrenched technology platform.
As with most endeavours, the people involved will make the difference between success and failure. I’ve been fortunate while forming Speedleague to surround myself with competition and operations staff with experience in the latest hybrid and electric powered motorsports at the top levels of racing. In fact, the capability of our staff has played a major part in our rational for launching the E/RACING series in the first place.
TP: Volkswagen have expressed an interest in electric rallycross. Have you engaged in any discussions as yet?
BG: We’ve been talking to many different manufacturers and their interest has been substantial. We’re in the process of assembling a manufacturer’s technical working group to create an effective forum to discuss our technical regulations. Participation will give them the chance to influence how E/RACING might best serve as a real world platform to advance their engineering goals.
TP: With autonomous vehicles destined to
have a big impact on the commercial automotive market, do you expect Rallycross is well poised to capitalize on what could result in a dwindling interest in touring cars?
BG: The effect of autonomous mobility on motorsports will be interesting. While we’ll leave the challenge of racing robotic vehicles to others, we’re having some interesting discussions on how
autonomous technology might provide some new aspect to our live show as well as providing our technical staff an extra tool for balancing performance between the cars.
TP: You mentioned that an Electric Rallycross Formula allows for greater venue options. Is this primarily due to the lessened environmental impact?
BG: For sure it’s becoming increasingly difficult to hold traditional style races in urban areas and other environmentally sensitive settings.
The changing landscape hit home for me when I was looking for a rallycross venue for X Games Munich in 2013. Originally we planned on racing in the Olympic Stadium, the main X Games venue, but that turned out to not be an option because of local resistance to the noise and emissions. There was a point where we were only a couple months out from the event before finally finding a suitable venue even remotely close to the stadium. The growing societal limitations on what I had thought to be a highly flexible footprint of rallycross suddenly became clear.
Basically speaking, electric power broadens our options and provides us the ability to think more creatively about venues. My intention with E/RACING is to use the opportunity of new technologies to revive the original idea of rally car racing in unusual venues, such as: downtown areas, stadiums, beaches, desserts, snowy mountainsides, etc.
Images: STARD