JRM Racing has declared its debut outing in the 2015 FIA World Rallycross Championship a success after taking its first ever heat race win during the weekends action.
The Daventry based team entered as “USRX” with American drivers Dave Mirra and Danny Way piloting a brace of MINI Clubman RX Supercars in what was their first outing also. They were well aware of the challenge ahead of them, however Mirra exceeded expectations by winning his Heat two race whilst Way briefly led his heat two race also, ahead of SDRX duo Petter Solberg and Liam Doran.
Both drivers ended the WorldRX of Hockenheim at the Heat stage with Mirra finishing in 17th position overall and Way finishing in 19th overall. JRM Racing Team Principal James Rumsey was very happy with the UK squad’s first WorldRX event.
“It’s been a weekend where we’ve achieved everything we wanted to – and a little bit more. The objective was to learn as much as we could about the MINI RX and to see where the current performance of the car puts us against the competition on the grid,” Rumsey explained.
“Considering this is our first-ever World RX event, I think we can be proud of how the car and drivers performed and the pace that we showed out of the box. We’re not concerned that we just missed on out the semi finals. The prize for us was gathering lots of valuable data that we can take back to the JRM factory and use to good effect in our World RX development programme. That will make us even stronger when we contest our next event.”
Mirra took away the positives of his first WorldRX experience.
“It’s been an awesome weekend and I’ve learned so much about what it takes to cut it in World RX,” reflected Mirra. “My target was to get the most I could out of myself and the MINI RX. I think that’s happened and, without doubt, getting a race win yesterday was an awesome bonus.”
Way was pleased with his weekends work and he is hopeful of more outings in World Rallycross.
“I only have limited experience in a car like the MINI RX but my confidence grew with every heat and I think I made a whole lot of progress on the track,” said Way. “Coming to Hockenheim was a hugely valuable exercise in my development as a driver and I’d love the chance to take that further by doing some more World RX rounds.”
