The FIA European Rallycross Championship has been named ‘European Race Series of the Year” at the Professional MotorSport World Expo Awards.
The award was presented to championship promoter IMG Motorsport, who took over the running of the series at the end of 2012. IMG Motorsport is part of IMG Worldwide, a global company dealing in sports, fashion and media.
“This is a great honour for all those involved in our first season running the FIA European Rallycross Championship on behalf of the FIA, especially considering last year’s winner was the top class DTM series,” said Martin Anayi, Managing Director of the FIA European Rallycross Championship. “We’ve been delighted with the immediate success of the Championship, the public and media interest around the sport of RallycrossRX and the calibre of drivers we’ve been able to attract in our first year. RallycrossRX has huge potential for growth and this will be emphasised next season when we move to full FIA World Championship status.”
The FIA World Motor Sport Council recently approved the creation of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, the first World Championship for the category. The championship, developed from the FIA European Rallycross Championship will be run over 11 or 12, up from 9, and will see events take place in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East.
The 2013 European Rallycross season included two of the largest rallycross crowds of all time, including the record-breaking crowd of over 72,000 spectators at Loheac in France, which saw the likes of Sebastien Loeb and Kris Meeke take on championship regulars including World Rally Champion Petter Solberg.