This weekend the long awaited debut of the new all-electric FIA World Rallycross Championship RX1e class will be making its debut, a new era that replaces the old internal combustion engine Supercars in the world level of rallycross, but this will also not be the only thing that is new for the sport this weekend.
Ramudden World RX of Norway will also become the first-ever rallycross race meeting that is not allowing the drivers to use the joker lap on the first lap of each race due to new regulations made by the Rallycross Promoter GmbH and the FIA.
Why you might ask? The new regulations says if a track do have a joker lap placed at the first corner of the venue, it cannot simply be used. So the drivers needs to battle through the first lap before they can split up the tactics on the following lap, however, with the new regulations of the Progression Race format and the new Heats format, the laps are now five instead of the old format of four.
If a driver happens to be taking the joker lap on the first lap, it will not be counted as a valid joker so the driver has complete it one more time during the remaining laps of the race and the regulations are also supplemented for the FIA European Rallycross Championship´s RX1 and RX3 classes as well as the all-electric FIA RX2e Championship support class.
Credit: IMG / FIA World RX
The entry list of eight drivers for the weekend should produce some good action anyway, featuring high-calibre names such as the four-time World RX champion Johan Kristoffersson, 2019 World RX champion Timmy Hansen and his brother, the 2016 Euro RX champion Kevin Hansen, the 2022 RallyX Nordic champion Niclas Grönholm as well as World RX returneer Ole-Christian Veiby and championship regular Rene Munnich, also the debutant Gustav Bergström and first full-time female driver Klara Andersson.
The Kristoffersson Motorsport squad will be fielding three brand-new Volkswagen Polo RX1e cars for Kristoffersson, Veiby and Bergström. Hansen Motorsport will be fielding two older generation Peugeot 208 RX1e cars for the two Hansen brothers while the new team of CE Dealer Team runed by the successful touring car outfit PWR will be fielding two PWR 001 cars, a car that is a close resemblance to Hyundai i20 used by their driver Grönholm in the past seasons. Grönholm is joined by Andersson and entered as a sole entry is Munnich Motorsport with a Seat Ibiza RX1e. The Lancia Delta Evo-E cars runed by GCK Motorsport are not completed in time for Hell, however, the cars will be on track in nearby future.