Fia World Rallycross Championship

UPDATE: Autosport reports that Tanner Foust has also withdrawn from the World Rallycross Championship event in Turkey, citing personal reasons.

Mattias Ekström doesn't need to prove anything. He's won the DTM title twice and before that the Swedish Touring Car Championship. But being a racing driver as he is, Ekström has been looking for new challenges. He's contested the Swedish Rally six times, the German Rally twice, he's driven in V8 Supercars and in NASCAR. He's even won the Race of Champions. Twice. Heck, we're surprised his long-time sponsor Red Bull hasn't let him try out one of its F1 cars. But this season it's on to

Rallycross is seeing a sudden surge in popularity with two series bringing the racing to the US and Europe. The Ford OMSE team is competing in both championships this season, and it saw no reason not to hold practice with a highly modified Fiesta in the snow of Northern Sweden. It brought together Andreas Bakkerud from the European-focused FIA World Rallycross Championship and Patrik Sandell from the North American-focused Global Rallycross series for some training and fun. They certainly appear

Organizers of the FIA World Rallycross Championship are getting serious, but if they're going to challenge the Global RallyCross Championship for status as the premier rallycross series on the world stage, it's going to need some star power – big names to put it on the map. Because while GRC has names like Pastrana, Gronholm and Millen in its ranks, the only name approaching household status in the FIA-sanctioned series is 2003 WRC champ Petter Solberg.

Jacques Villeneuve has raced just about everything. The last Formula One World Champion from North America, this French-Canadian driver has raced in F1, Indy, NASCAR and Le Mans, not to mention the Andros Trophy of ice racing and V8 Supercars down in Australia. In fact, having dominated Indy in 1995, F1 in 1997 and placing second at Le Mans in 2008, he's the closest to a living winner of the elusive (if unofficial) Triple Crown of Motorsport as we're likely to see in our lifetime. And now he's g