Red Bull Global Rallycross: The most exciting thing in racing?

WASHINGTON, DC—Sad though it is to admit, motorsport is on the decline. People—especially young people—just aren't as interested in watching cars go around a track as they were 20 or 30 years ago. But there's one form of racing that's managing to buck that trend, and it's called rallycross. Red Bull, the Thai/Austrian energy drinks company, certainly believes in this, too. The organization backs a series called Global Rallycross (GRC) that races around the US and the Caribbean. Aimed at a younger demographic, the cars are wild, the drivers are approachable, and the action is full-throttle. GRC just made its annual stop in Washington, DC, this past weekend, so we went along to RFK stadium to check it out. What's more, GRC was even kind enough to give us a ride around the track with up-and-coming young racer Alex Keyes.

Rallycross takes the fire-spitting, turbocharged all-wheel drive machines that are used in traditional point-to-point rallying and unleashes their true inner beast. Rather than competing one at a time against the clock, packs of drivers go wheel-to-wheel on short courses that are a mixture of pavement and dirt. Short heat races are the order of the day, eliminating the slower cars until the fastest 10 make the final. Oh, and the courses have a jump, plus a short cut (or joker) that each driver has to use once in a race.

The sport began in Europe several decades ago as a faster-paced and more TV-friendly alternative to traditional rallying. It also provided a refuge for the Group B monsters of the early 1980s, which proved too fast and too lethal for the back roads and forests that rallies were held on. It came to the US in 2010 as part of the X Games, where it quickly won favor with some of the adrenalin junkie athletes who were getting old and wanted a competitive outlet that didn't involve breaking bones and tearing ligaments on half-pipes.