Round 1 of the 2016 World Rallycross Championship takes place April 16th and 17th in cold and rainy Montalegre, Portugal. A week before the event snow covered the race track for a day. It has to be expected that it will once again be a muddy event like in 2015 and driver skill will be an essential aspect of keeping things together. Janis Baumanis racing with #6 and Timur Timerzyanov as #7 have participated In successful pre-season testing and look forward to their first opportunity to compete.
The people of World RX Team Austria have been working virtually and literally day and night for two months to prepare everything from race trucks to spare parts to test days. The team consists of a majority of new people but a very important core staff of mechanics and engineers takes the experience from 2015 along.
“These have been the most busy months for me in a long time,” said Max Pucher, Team Owner of World RX Team Austria, “to get everything ready for round 1 of the World RX Championship 2016. I feel like I am running a startup business once more as I have done a few times before. It is crazy but also often satisfying when you see how much the guys put in to make it happen. Sometimes emotions fly high but that makes everyone just work harder."
“To be honest, we are just about ready,” admits Team Manager Jürgen Weiß, who is himself a successful RX driver with several championship titles and organises several races a year. “We had to work around a number of problems but when you have a driver get out of the car after a test day and his smile is so broad, you know that you are on the right track.”
“On the final test days when I got my new car with the new 2016 engine,” remembers Janis Baumanis. "I immediately felt the rush of power across the whole range. Yes, I could not hold myself back from smiling in the car for the last few rounds. We have changed the suspension substantially from last year and the race engineers are all circuit racing experts. They know about how to optimise the car each time we take it out. There is a lot of magic computing and mathematics going on.”
“We take a totally different approach than last year,” confirms Max Pucher, "where we were kind of running it like a few rally stages. I realised at the end of the year that we need to take a circuit racing approach. It is not about just trying to drive faster, but the car has to be at optimal performance in engine and suspension at each and every outing. When you make a change, you must know before what it will do to the driving performance. It is impossible to be on top in this championship with the trial and error approach we had in 2015.”
The race was also on long before the first race. The 2015 cars only returned late January from Argentina for rebuild and Timur Timerzyanov's new car was only delivered a few days before the race weekend. “We began meeting in December and Max said they wanted to develop the car more. It’s one thing to go and buy the car but it’s another thing when my team can create my own car with some specialisation.” For the two-time European Rallycross Champion it will be a tough fight: “It will be difficult to compete with the large teams. They have huge experience and have done a lot of development on their cars. The drivers are just so good. I signed with Team Austria because they are young and eager to be on the podium and win races. I feel very much appreciated and can bring my experience to the table. We already made so much progress and I believe we are heading in the right direction. We are really happy to be where we are because Rallycross is destined to become a great, professional sport.”
“I am still waiting for some parts to arrive so that I can participate in the race in Montalegre myself,” adds Max Pucher, who focuses as a driver on Euro RX in 2016, “but I wanted to also compete with these fantastic drivers and work on my 2016 car setup. I have signed up for another three World RX races as a wildcard driver just to be part of it. It will be very disappointing if I can’t drive in Montalegre but it does not impact my plans for this year.”
Max Pucher finalises his expectations: “I have high expectations for drivers, cars and the team, but we have to be realistic and be aware that so many things can go wrong on our first event. Our strategy will be to play our cards well, to be up there and make good championship points to keep everything open. It will be essential to stay out of trouble without major crashes or breakdowns but still drive a 100%. We will know more after the final!”
About World RX Team Austria:
In its second season World RX Team Austria is going through a major transformation to be a fully focused World RX Championship Team. Team owner Max Pucher plans to build the team up to compete successfully in this growing motorsport.
