cars news 10: Timmy Hansen Wins First-Ever Nitro Rallycross

This past weekend’s inaugural Nitro Rallycross event added a healthy dose of four-wheel excitement to the 2018 Nitro World Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. After two days of intense competition, Timmy Hansen of Sweden emerged as the winner of the first-ever Nitro Rallycross.

Held at Utah Motorsports Campus (formerly known as Miller Motorsports Park), the Nitro World Games’ new rallycross event treated spectators to a weekend of wheel-to-wheel action on a purpose-built dirt course complete with huge jumps and obstacles. Competitors piloted specially prepped rallycross cars, which ranged from vehicles you can buy in the U.S. like the Ford Focus RS, Subaru WRX, and Volkswagen Beetle to Europe-only models like the Audi S1 and Peugeot 208.

AMAZING to come up with the gold on what I consider to be the best rallycross track of the world ???? What a week-end, I had a blast! Being the 1st ever #NitroWorldGames RX winner comes, of course, also thanks to a great team job ???????? Thank you @Peugeot & @redbull for your support pic.twitter.com/vcs3XLnYQP

— Timmy Hansen (@Timmy_Hansen) September 23, 2018

The competition took place over two days, and a series of heat races and qualifiers determined the lineup going into the final round on Sunday. The field included Hansen, Scott Speed, Chris Atkinson, Mattias Ekstrom, Tanner Foust, Travis Pastrana, and Steve Arpin. Despite starting on pole, Hansen was passed early on by Ekstrom, who led half of the six-lap race. On lap three, Hansen opted to use his joker, a shorter route built into the course that drivers can use once per race, to take back the lead. Ekstrom waited until the last lap for his joker, but was ultimately unable to catch his fellow Swede. Foust would take the last spot on the podium, followed by Arpin in a distant fourth place. The rest of the field, including Nitro Circus founder Pastrana, failed to finish the race after sustaining damage on the first lap. That’s rallycross for you.

If you missed out on the Nitro Rallycross action over the weekend, you can catch qualifying and the finals on Motor Trend OnDemand.