The FIA has released a statement confirming FIA World Rallycross Championship promoter IMG will step down after this season, despite having a 20 year long contract and therefore a brand new promoter will take over the running of the series at the beginning of next year.
In 2013 the entertainment and sports powerhouse business IMG was given the rights to take over as the official promoter for the FIA European Rallycross Championship that saw the motorsport increase its popularity worldwide and attracted several big names to the championship.
After controlling Euro RX for one season, they then decided to turn it into a full world championship series, with the FIA World Rallycross Championship being created in 2014.
However after several manufacturers pulled out from the championship in 2018 due to the proposed electrification of the series, the series perhaps hasn’t been quite as strong as it once was in terms of entry numbers.
IMG has still continued however to get the championship fully electric ready, and this year they introduced the world’s first all-electric rallycross support series Projekt E together with STARD.
Next year the FIA eRX2 Championship will become the first series under FIA to be fully electric.
The FIA are still planning to get the whole World RX series fully electric by 2022, which the new promoter will be helping with and the FIA is now accepting bids on their website for potential new promoters.
The statement read; “The announcement follows discussions between IMG and the FIA, in which IMG has expressed a desire not to continue as the World RX promoter in 2021 and 2022. Discussions between the FIA and IMG are ongoing. The FIA remains committed to ensuring the ongoing success of the Championship.”
“The FIA is committed to the evolution of Rallycross with World RX in 2021 alongside RX2e – the first-ever FIA electric Rallycross Championship. From 2022, World RX will become fully electric as part of the FIA’s long-term vision for the sport which was first revealed in 2019.”
