Autosportfoto

Season review: Muennich Motorsport

Team: Muennich Motorsport
Car: Seat Ibiza RX
Drivers: Rene Muennich, Reinis Nitiss, Timo Scheider, Tommy Rustad
Teams Championship Position: 7th (57 points)

Muennich Motorsport was one of the teams in the FIA World Rallycross Championship to introduce new cars for the 2016 season, with a pair of Seat Ibiza RX Supercars. Team owner Rene Muennich and World RX event winner Reinis Nitiss started the year for the German team as it developed the striking new cars, but following the Canadian round of the championship at Trois-Rivieres, Nitiss announced that he would depart the squad to focus on future plans.

Racing in one final event with the team, Nitiss qualified 11th at one of the most competitive events of the year, Loheac in France and made it into the final for the first time with the Ibiza, finishing fifth. Two-time DTM champion Timo Scheider replaced Nitiss for the following round in Barcelona, and returned again for two further appearances in Latvia and at the season finale in Argentina. Improving with each appearance, Scheider made the top 12 in Riga and finished fourth in semi-final two, before qualifying for his first World RX final at Rosario in Argentina. There he scored the team's best result to date with the Ibiza, with fourth overall, ahead of World RX Champion Mattias Ekstrom.

Following his fourth place finish with the squad in Canada 2015, Norway's Tommy Rustad also made a one-off start for the team this year, at the Estering in Germany, while Muennich spent much of his season working on the development of the new cars and scored points in Canada, France and Argentina.

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com