The 2024-2025 Nitrocross Series kicks off this weekend in what once might have been deemed an unlikely venue. Travis Pastrana is bringing his unique form of rally racing to the confines of Richmond Raceway on September 7-8, 2024 on a temporary course inside the confines of a track best known for its connection to NASCAR.
Richmond as the kickoff to Season 4 is not a coincidence as Nitrocross looks to the future and ways to excite young fans and racers and lure them into this form of racing.
“For me, the most important thing for the future is going to be those tracks that we can grow,” Pastrana told NBC Sports ahead of the weekend activities. ""Just like NASCAR. There are so many smaller NASCAR tracks all over the country and dirt tracks. The scene is huge right now
“And there is so much young talent coming up there and I want to be able to pull some of that young talent that wants to do rally and wants to jump cars — wanted to jump motorcycles but maybe got hurt or their parents wouldn’t let them — and say, this is your sport.”
Rally racing is perhaps the most difficult form of auto sports to pigeonhole. Ranging from forest to desert rally, snowcross to short course dirt truck racing, the unifying feature is that the racing happens in extreme conditions and elevates the excitement level. Pastrana’s Nitrocross has found a way to bring all of that inside the retaining walls of venues with sightlines that are fan friendly.
Over the course of a year, Nitrocross racers need to perfect their skill on pavement, dirt, sand, snow, and ice.
“If we can challenge the drivers and the teams and make every race feel like it’s different, that someone else has an edge for some reason, we’ve succeeded,” Pastrana said.
Electrifying
Entering their fourth full season, Nitrocross made the commitment to electric cars two years ago. Robin Larsson has won both of those titles.
"[The series] has definitely exceeded expectations in a lot of ways, but we still have a lot to strive for in many others,” Pastrana said. “Last year Dana White (of Ultimate Fighting Championship fame) invested in all the Nitro properties with a big interest in Nitrocross. ... It’s opened up a lot of opportunity for us to be everything that we dream it can be. Definitely this year is going to be huge for us.”
The founders of Nitro Circus and White are natural showmen but there has been a challenge in how to balance traditional atmosphere with the ability to grow into the future.
When White signed on with Nitrocross, he wanted the most power available for electric cars. That has created two challenges.
The first of these is one of the problems every driver dreams of: too much power.
“There have been only two challenges,” Pastrana said. “Keeping the tires from spinning when you can’t hear the motor and you have so much power, because you will be on the starting line and you’re used to being deafened by engine noise blast of 120 decibels of backfiring, anti-lag aggression.
“And now you’re on the starting line trying to get all of your numbers correct, but if you step on the gas too hard without hearing anything, instantly all four wheels are spinning.”
The tires can go from 0 to 180 miles per hour instantaneously.
The other, and perhaps greater problem, is getting racing fans to accept that lack of noise.
The solution might be found in arbitrarily creating noise to accompany the racing action, but Pastrana is not certain that is necessary. While an older generation has been raised with the full throttle roar of racing engines, his kid’s generation has become accustomed to the quieter pulse of electric racing.
Additionally, electric racing solves a problem that has become an epidemic in some areas of the county.
“So many dragstrips and motocross tracks and off-road tracks are being shut down because of the noise,” Pastrana said. “As the cities move out around these tracks, they are being shut down all over the world.”
With electric, there is less of the risk of losing tracks because of noise infringement regulations.
When Nitrocross leaves Virginia after this weekend, they will head to the Utah Motorsports Campus in Salt Lake City (October 5-6). Firebird Motorsports Park in Phoenix, Arizona (November 15-16, 2024), Miami (Fla.) Marine Stadium (January 11-12, 2025), and the Nitrodome in Las Vegas, Nevada (March 1-2, 2025) will complete the schedule as Nitrocross races into the future.