It's a new year, new season, and new team for two-time European Rallycross Champion Timur Timerzyanov. The Russian Rocket announced last month that he will be campaigning the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship season with World RX Team Austria. Timur has already proven his driving record. While with Swedish Team Hansen, he won two consecutive European Rallycross Championships, one in 2012 and the next in 2013. Before that, in 2010, he earned the championship in S1600 class. Joining Timur on the team this season will be Latvian driver Janis Baumanis. We saw Baumanis' debut last season for Team Austria at the final round of World RX in Argentina. Baumanis finished the round at an impressive fourth place.
Rallycross360 recently talked with Timur and asked him about the new team.
What was the deciding factor for going with World RX Team Austria?
"There was some discussion in Argentina after the race", he said, "We began meeting in December and they said they wanted to develop the car more. Today, it is much more difficult to be in rallycross without a good support team."
There are a lot of good teams. It's one thing to go and buy the car but it's another thing when you can go and build the car and do your own design. That is what we are trying to do; trying to create our own car with some specialization."
Will it be a difficult fight going against the factory teams such as Peugeot and Ford America?
"It will be difficult to fight with these guys. They have huge experience and have done a lot of development on their cars. I signed with Team Austria because they want to be on the podium and win races."
Many new teams have been announced and the competition in rallycross is getting tighter. Will you have the extra speed needed to be on the podium?
"The car is quite quick", said Timerzyanov, "and they want to create more with this car. I think they have enough experience and knowledge from last year and now they can go forward this year."
Over the past couple of years, the sport of rallycross has quickly grown in popularity around the globe. Announcements of many new teams have been made for the 2016 World Rallycross schedule. The competition is getting tighter. Is World RX Team Austria in a strong competitive position?
"We are where we should be", said Timur, "we are coming on when the sport is starting to be created as a great, professional sport. We are really happy to be where we are. It's getting better and better and I believe we are [heading] in the right direction."
Teams have been busy preparing and testing for the first round in Portugal and we have all had the pleasure of witnessing most of the process on social media. We look forward to watching World RX Team Austria this season and seeing Timur give fellow competitors a run for their money. For rallycross fans the anticipation of this first round is like a child anticipating Christmas morning.