Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is the second team to join Nitro Rallycross‘ fledgling Group E division for the upcoming 2022/23 season. On Thursday, the team announced a continued partnership with Joel Christoffersson‘s JC Raceteknik to field four FC1-X cars in Group E. Drivers were not immediately revealed.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Joel Christoffersson and his entire team for our FC1-X programme moving forward,” said DRR owner Dennis Reinbold. “Joel and his team are a perfect fit for our organisation and goals within Nitro Rallycross, as we share the same vision, goals and objectives for our team and our growth within this new era of global Nitro Rallycross competition. We partnered with Joel and his organisation in 2021, and have continued through the offseason and have hit the ground running.”
DRR stands out from other Nitro RX teams in that it also competes in the NTT IndyCar Series. The former full-time IndyCar operation currently has two IndyCar entries that intend to enter May’s Indianapolis 500 in Santino Ferrucci and Sage Karam. With the exception of a 2015 stint with Chip Ganassi Racing and a pair of 2019 starts for Carlin, all of Karam’s IndyCar career has been with DRR since his début in 2014.
Karam’s involvement with DRR further extends to the rallycross arm, where he spent the 2019 Americas Rallycross and 2021 Nitro RX seasons in their developmental tiers. He enjoyed tremendous success in both as he never finished lower than second in five ARX2 races and won five of nine Nitro RX NEXT races en route to a runner-up championship placement.
2021 saw DRR field season-long NEXT cars for Karam and Lane Vacala, the latter of whom finished fifth in points. Simon Olofsson and John Holtger ran two rounds apiece for the team while Connor Martell had four. Olofsson and Vacala were previously team-mates in RallyX Nordic.
In Nitro RX’s parent Supercar category, the team allied with Christoffersson and Mattias Ekström‘s EKS RX (the union of which is called EKS JC) to run a duo of full-timers in Cabot Bingham and Tanner Foust. Foust, a former Red Bull Global Rallycross and ARX champion, was sixth in the standings ahead of 2016 GRC Lites champion Bingham’s twelfth.
JC Raceteknik races in FIA World Rallycross under the KYB EKS JC name. With Ekström and Robin Larsson, it won the 2020 World RX Teams Championship before Drivers Champion Johan Kristoffersson migrated to the outfit for 2021 and scored his fourth consecutive title. Larsson also won the European Rallycross Drivers Championship for JC in 2019.
“I’m very excited about the partnership with DRR, Group E, and the electric era that is coming to Nitro Rallycross,” said Christoffersson. “I feel we will have a very strong team together with DRR. We are aiming high and trying to reach the highest amount of success possible. I believe this will make Nitro Rallycross even more exciting with cars that are the same for every driver. It is up to the team and the driver to achieve the best results.”
The DRR/JC effort joins the two-car XITE Energy Racing as the confirmed Group E teams so far.
