Newgarden and Castroneves look for Rallyx on Ice return in 2019
Team Penske Indycar stars Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves are eyeing further Rallyx On Ice outings following their maiden appearances in the winter series.
Newgarden made his rallycross debut in the single-make Supercar Lites category on Al’s frozen lake circuit two weeks ago, before Castroneves stepped aboard the same car for the season finale at Gol last weekend. Newgarden qualified for the semi-finals and finished fifth in his knock-out race to be 18th overall, while Castroneves came home in 22nd.
“It was amazing to have the opportunity to come over and try this,” said reigning Indycar champion Newgarden. “It was very difficult; I take my hat off to all the regular rallycross guys. They’re phenomenal at what they do. The track was technical and it became very rutted the more cars ran, so the deeper we got into the weekend, the more precise you had to be and people don’t realise just how easy it is to put it into a snow bank if you go off-line. I just need to take a couple more steps and then maybe we can return next year and do a little bit better. I really want to master this.”
Oliver Eriksson won the season finale to secure the 2018 title ahead of older brother Kevin, while Jesse Kallio won the RX Academy on Ice title and World RX driver Kevin Hansen netted the Speedcar Xtreme buggy series with a podium finish in the last round. British RX Junior driver Ole Henry Steinsholt won the buggy final.