Rallycross

Rallycross is a form of sprint style motorsport held on a mixed-surface racing circuit using modified production touring cars or prototype racing cars. It began in the 1960s as a cross between rallying and autocross.

It is popular in European countries. Internationally, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) organise the World and European Rallycross Championships.

The discipline was created for television, and first shown on 4 February 1967. ABC Weekend TV producer and ITV's World of Sport director, Robert Reed, had covered the RAC Rally of Great Britain for TV in November 1966 but had struggled to present it in a way that would appeal to mass audiences. His vision was "to combine the thrills of autocross with the ordeals of rallying, reducing seven days and 3,000 miles to seven minutes and one mile."

Reed enlisted the help of Bud Smith (d. 1994) and the Tunbridge Wells Centre of the 750 MC to organise an event and devise the rules. They invited well-known professional rally drivers to Lydden Circuit in Kent, a circuit with grass racing history which had installed short sections of chalk and tarmac. Set in a natural amphitheatre with varying gradients and with mixed-surfaces, the circuit allowed four cameras to keep visibility of all the cars all of the time. This first rallycross was won by later Formula One driver and Rally Monte Carlo winner Vic Elford in an original Porsche 911, ahead of Brian Melia in a Ford Lotus Cortina and Tony Fall in a BMC Mini Cooper S.

Another two rallycrosses were made for TV at Lydden, broadcast on 11 March and 29 July 1967, before the new World of Sport Rallycross Championship for the ABC TV viewers started with round one broadcast on 23 September, to be followed by round two on 7 October, the latter being watched by up to 1.2m viewers. The series was run over a total of six rounds (three at Lydden and three at Croft in Yorkshire) and was won by Englishman Tony Chappell (Ford Escort Twin Cam), who became the first Rallycross champion after winning the final round of the new series on 6 April 1968 at Lydden.

The first international rallycross event was televised live from Lydden on 25 November 1967, organised to coincide with the timing of the RAC Rally. Famous drivers contesting the rally from abroad such as Timo Makinen, Simo Lampinen and Rauno Aaltonen were invited to drive for a "rest of the world" team in a match versus a Great Britain team. However, due to the rally being cancelled at the last minute on the evening of 17 November due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, many foreign drivers immediately went home. Subsequently, only British drivers competed in the maiden international rallycross event one week later, which was won by Andrew Cowan in a works Hillman Imp. Thames Estuary Automobile Club's (TEAC) clubman's rallycross was held the day after. It opened up the new sport to up to 100 amateur competitors and helped pave the way for the growth of rallycross as a participation sport, not just a TV spectacle. The Motor Sport Division of the Royal Automobile Club wasted no time in claiming authority over the new discipline, adding Rallycross to their Motor Sport Year Book for 1968. It gave the definition: "Rallycross—A race or speed event which takes place on a combination of sealed and unsealed surface as part of a permanent circuit."

After one and a half years and several rallycross events at Lydden as well as Croft Circuit (near Darlington) the BBC adopted the young sport for its Grandstand programme while ITV dropped it after the British Rallycross Winter Series 1968/69. In 1969, Lydden Circuit and Croft Circuit were joined by another RX venue, Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. However, while both Lydden and Croft nowadays are still in use for rallycross, Cadwell Park dropped this type of car racing from its schedule. By that time, there were nearly ten million Britons watching some of the events on television.

Rob Herzet of AVRO, a Dutch counterpart to Robert Reed at ABC, discovered rallycross during a visit to Great Britain in 1968 and immediately believed in its potential for the television viewers. Herzet contacted the race and rally driver and journalist, Gerard van Lennep, who agreed to help organise an event. He found a suitable venue at a military testing ground near the town of Venlo, close to the Dutch-German border. A second at Elst in Gelderland was also found, but aid offered by the army turned the decision into the favour of Venlo.