Global RallyCross was set to make its X Games appearance in Barcelona, Spain. Things didn't go as planned, however, and the race wound up being cancelled. What does it take to cancel a RallyCross race? Rain, apparently.
Fans who were set to watch the race were a bit unhappy, and took to Facebook and Twitter to voice their disappointment over the race cancellation. Ken Block responded on Instagram in order to shed light on the decision made by race officials.
"I noticed a lot of negative comments on Insta/FB/Twitter about the @XGames #GlobalRallyCross race being cancelled last night due to rain. To quickly explain it, GRC runs a spec tire for all of their events and it's the only tire allowed. It's a grooved racing slick designed mostly for tarmac. This means that on a soaked, slick, mud racing surface like the one here in Spain last night (it was a dirt surface on a flat stadium floor with no chance of drainage), it's just not going to perform for racing in that situation. The decision to cancel the race was smart because there wouldn't have been a competition, it would have been bumper-cars at 15 mph, as none of us could possibly get any traction. Cars would have been wrecked for no good reason and the racing itself would have been horrible. At the end of the day, I am gutted that my team and I came all the way to Spain and didn't get to race…but the GRC officials made the right call. Anyway, BIG thanks to all the Spanish fans for coming out and braving the rain just to watch, and thanks to everyone who tuned in on TV. Can’t wait to race at X Games Munich now."
So it seems that the tires are to blame here. That's a shame, and we hope its something that gets sorted for future races. A single spec tire option seems like a poor idea since this event isn't run in a single spec environment. Weather conditions change, and the series should adapt to that notion. We'd love to see RallyCross grab hold both here and across the globe. There has to be actual racing for that to happen though.
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