2017
Wow, what a year for the WRA: Jeremy Mayfield's return to auto racing after his downfall in 2009 to score 2 victories, The series of unfortunate events at Spa, the scoring errors at Nurburgring, Brian France's moral crusade against Mayfield, Paygate, and so much more. It was also the debut of the Yenko engine for Team Chevrolet. How did it and other moments fare? Find out!
TEAMS
CHEVROLET
Josh Drake
Almer Rolfsen
Cody Westgate
Ryan Westgate
ASTON MARTIN
Jeremy Mayfield
Mia Bonaventura (R)
FERRARI
Alfredo Di Mercurio
Marco Nesselkamp
Riku Raimainen
Leon Ybarra
JAGUAR
Ian McCabe
Vasiliy Smirkov (8 races)
Dusan Milosevic
Marc Helter (R) (15 races)
AUDI
Randall Wortmann
Jordie Taylor
Kentrelle Jones
LAMBORGHINI
Kenyon Samuel
Christopher Gibson (R)
PORSCHE
Johan Isaksson
Joon Sung-Woo
PAGANI
Michel Van Hoeffel
Jules Eisel
KOENIGSEGG
Adam Haas
Giuseppe Pellegrino
FORD
Alex Builden
Erikh Albirosyan
Fernando Puntas
NISSAN
Shaqir Hassan
Simon Bolat
DODGE
Pierre Rousseau
Vijay Sharma
TOYOTA
Yoshihiro Uetake
HONDA
Ricardo Chavez (R)
MERCEDES
Katie Longwood
Alvaro Silva
BMW
Josef Nikolaidis
Muhammed Hanemekhi
CITROEN
Anderson Williams
SCHEDULE
R1: Canadian GP | Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
R2: American GP | Daytona International Speedway
R3: Swedish GP | Falkenbergs Motorbana
R4: Emirati GP | Yas Marina Circuit
R5: Danish GP | Copenhagen Dockside Course
R6: Malaysian GP | Sepang International Circuit
R7: Norwegian GP | Bergen Street Course
R8: Australian GP | Mount Panorama Circuit
R9: Korean GP | Korea International Circuit
R10: Belgian GP | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
R11: German GP | Nurburgring 24hr Circuit
R12: Chinese GP | Shanghai International Circuit
R13: Portuguese GP | Autodromo do Estoril
R14: French GP | Circuit de la Sarthe
R15: Russian GP | Sochi Autodrom
R16: African GP | Kyalami Racing Circuit
R17: Jamaican GP | Alligator Pond Beach Course
R18: Spanish GP | Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
R19: Dutch GP | Circuit Park Zandvoort
R20: Brazilian GP | Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace
R21: British GP | Brands Hatch
R22: Japanese GP | Suzuka Circuit
R23: Mexican GP | Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
R24: Italian GP | Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
TOP 10 MOMENTS OF THE 2017 WRA SEASON
10. BRIAN FRANCE VS. MAYFIELD
Jeremy Mayfield was making an unbelievable comeback into auto racing after hitting rock bottom in 2009. Josh Drake cleaned up Mayfield's act and got him a ride with the new Aston Martin team. This prompted Brian France to run propaganda against Mayfield, accusing him of everything under the sun from worshipping Neo-Nazism to bringing up his past demons in order to hurt his popularity. The NASCAR garage was so pissed off with France that Dale Earnhardt Jr. threatened to boycott the 2017 season if France didn't resign as head of NASCAR. He did, and life became better for NASCAR fans.
9. ANDERSON WILLIAMS SCORES A SHOCKER AT SARTHE
Anderson Williams scored a fuel mileage victory at the Circuit de la Sarthe, holding off Josh Drake and Ian McCabe for the win.
8. (ANOTHER) BIG CRASH AT KYALAMI
Another day, another big crash at Kyalami. 20 cars were involved in this one. Joon Sung-Woo's Porsche went for a wild flip but somehow continued racing.
7. RICARDO CHAVEZ UPSETS AT FALKENBERG
The Bolivian shocked a few people when he managed to score a victory for Honda after Vasiliy Smirkov's road-raging from being bumped into the sand by Adam Haas resulted in Smirkov driving backwards across the track under caution. He missed and instead crashed into 1st-place Jeremy Mayfield with 6 to go. This allowed Chavez to move up to 1st place. Smirkov would be suspended for the next race at the Yas Marina Circuit.
6. SMIRKOV'S VENGEANCE CONTINUES
After the aforementioned failed attempt at revenge, Smirkov would see a second chance at South Korea. Adam Haas again bumped him into the sand pit and again Smirkov drove backwards. This time he succeeded in taking out Haas but also took out Josh Drake, who still managed to finish the race. He also tried to push friend Fernando Puntas into the lead under caution but Puntas refused to cooperate. Smirkov would be suspended for the entire rest of the season and would be replaced by Marc Helter.
5. MAYFIELD WINS TWICE
After being in jail at one point in his life, Jeremy Mayfield went on to score 2 victories at both Sepang and Interlagos. His comeback into professional auto racing was complete.
4. SCORING ERROR AT NURBURGRING
During the final 3 laps of the German Grand Prix, a scoring glitch resulted in the caution being brought out to fix the problem. Then the scoring fired a shot heard round the world: Ryan Westgate, who was previously about to be 1 lap down, was declared the leader. Then later on in the lap, the pace car picked up Alfredo Di Mercurio. Simon Bolat's spin during the caution period meant that the race would end under caution, and as a result, Di Mercurio and Drake banged on each for the remaining lap under caution. This would cause both cars to spin out on the final lap and 3rd-place Dusan Milosevic was able to score an upset victory, Then Drake was ruled a lap down.
3. CHAOS AT SPA
With 3 laps to go, Josh Drake blew an engine, allowing Alfredo Di Mercurio to take the lead. With 4 turns to go, however, Di Mercurio ran out of fuel and Pierre Rousseau passed him for the upset.
2. PAYGATE
It was the Japanese Grand Prix, Drake had a comfortable points lead after coming back from being 287 points behind, and Ryan Westgate was pissed that he didn't get his promised bonus money, So what did he do about it? He wrecked his own teammate, Drake, on lap 24 in an attempt to sabotage his team's chances of winning the constructors' championship. Wow. What a douche.
1. DRAKE SCORES A TREBLE
Josh Drake surprised a few people when he announced that he would do NASCAR Cup and WRA at the same time and also participate in the Indianapolis 500. Well, he managed to win the Indianapolis 500 despite having no prior experience in an open-wheel car and he also won the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup and WRA Championships all in the same year, and this man isn't even in his 20's yet.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
BONAVENTURA WITH A PODIUM
Mia Bonaventura took the world by surprise when she earned a 2nd-place standings finish and 3 victories in her rookie season.
DRAKE STALLS AT BATHURST
Drake started on the pole at Bathurst but had an Andy Houston moment coming out of the final turn for the start of the race as he stalled the car. He would manage to battle back to a 10th place finish.
RACE WINNERS
Canada: Almer Rolfsen
United States: Adam Haas
Sweden: Ricardo Chavez
UAE: Almer Rolfsen
Denmark: Ian McCabe
Malaysia: Jeremy Mayfield
Norway: Alfredo Di Mercurio
Australia: Mia Bonaventura
South Korea: Joon Sung-Woo
Belgium: Pierre Rousseau
Germany: Dusan Milosevic
China: Mia Bonaventura
Portugal: Josh Drake
France: Anderson Williams
Russia: Josh Drake
South Africa: Adam Haas
Jamaica: Marco Nesselkamp
Spain: Almer Rolfsen
Netherlands: Josh Drake
Brazil: Jeremy Mayfield
United Kingdom: Josh Drake
Japan: Mia Bonaventura
Mexico: Josh Drake
Italy: Josh Drake
DRIVERS' CHAMPION: JOSH DRAKE
TEAM CHAMPION: CHEVROLET
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: MIA BONAVENTURA (ASTON MARTIN)