When Calgarians gather to watch 1,200 horsepower of excitement this February, for the second year of Nitrocross racing at GMC Stadium, they’ll be getting something never seen before on ice.

Volkswagen Beetles.

Trading the rocket-like raw power of the series’ Class E all-electric rally cars for 1.6 litre 90-some-horsepower might seem like a downgrade on paper, but the Baja Bug class has proven to be anything but.

Wildly popular on the desert tracks of the Southwestern United States, bringing the ultra-light, stripped-down beetles to snow and ice for six car races—bumping, crashes, and jumps assured—is also bringing a question of how exactly that will translate from the heat of Arizona to the cold of Calgary.

“No idea how they’re gonna handle on ice, but let’s hope the spike tires work and we don’t all just pile up going into turn one,” said Nitrocross Baja Bug class racer and stuntman Jim York.

“If your everyday driving in winter conditions translates to the track or not it’s anybody’s best guess. If it does, I think me and Cowboy Cerrone, we’ve got a leg up because nobody else has ever seen snow. They’re all from Southern California, so you know, driving on ice is going to be completely foreign.”

York, along with fellow former UFC hall-of-famer turned race car driver Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, were in Calgary on Jan. 10 to meet with Nitrocross fans ahead of the races on Feb. 2 and 3.

The pair also braved the start of the cold winter snap to tour Stampede Park, a shock change from the balmy weather of the competition’s last stop at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California in December.

What both York and Cerrone agreed on was that without windows—the class doesn’t use them—it was going to be a cold yet exciting time.

“I can sum that up with what are you going to see, and this is from the Phoenix race: When in any style of racing have you seen six Volkswagen bugs go off a 110-foot jump all at the same time? That speaks for itself,” said York.

“I’m getting excited just talking about it because it is that awesome. It’s tough to put that on paper, or to even voice that. It’s really something you just have to come and see. It’s one of those a-picture’s-worth-a-thousand-words things, and it’s worth the price of admission to come and check this out because it’s that wild.”

Second year of racing in Calgary brings new additions to sport

The return of Nitrocross to GMC Stadium for a second year comes in the middle of major growth for the sport.

In February 2023, the Calgary stop proved to be the biggest in the competition’s lineup with more than 20,000 spectators, but the pressure is on for Calgary fans of Travis Pastrana’s rally offshoot of Nitro Cross to retain that title.

Stops in Phoenix, Arizona, and Salt Lake City, Utah, have brought in tens of thousands of new fans for the sport. The expanded offerings and new classes of races have played a big part in that.

York said the series has increased the fan experience, and the VIP experience, making a Nitrocross race day much more than sitting in seats watching cars go by.

It has to have something exciting for the fans.

Outside of racing bugs, York has been a successful social media manager and motorsports media director, in addition to being a well-known stuntman who holds records for jumping vehicles like herses, and limos—both stretched and hot-tub kinds.

“Competition has always just been my thing. I love it, whether it’s a team sport, whether it’s an individual sport, whatever it might be. It can be the dumbest thing, a game of foosball or game a Big Buck Hunter, or you know, competitive driving on a world stage,” he said.

“I’m used to having to be on for two minutes [in a stunt]. You make a mistake in [Nitrocross], you can recover. I can’t really make a mistake in a jump, but we’ve practiced that.”

The excitement, he said, for both himself and for fans is that they get to see those jumps over and over. When there’s a crash, the drivers pick right back up and start racing again.

“Usually when I jump a car, it’s usually broken when I land so we don’t get to do it again. We’ve learned some things like to know how to jump cars better, but this is one of those where you make the mistake, and you’re mad at yourself, but you don’t get to stop doing it,” York said.

Keeping it pinned to the floor

A big difference, said York, about the Baja Bug class of racing and Nitrocross’ top-level Group E racing is how often the pedal is pinned to the floor. In Baja Bugs it’s pedal down all the time, but in a 1,200hp FC1-X rallycross car, that’s not the case.

Given its stated 0–60 mph speed in 1.4 seconds, the FC1-X on paper, and in practice, is faster than Formula 1 cars.

“That Group E is amazing. Those cars have so much instant power to the ground. I’ve sat in as a co-driver and it’s terrifying. They don’t make the noise that you’re used to that would like signal this is a fast car, but as soon as you’re in that seat, you realize how much power these guys put into the ground and how talented really the drivers are to be able to put together a lap and not just completely go into every wall or over every jump,” he said.

“That’s the one thing for us. We can keep it pinned no problem. Those guys, they’ll gain 20 miles an hour going up for takeoff, so they have to be finessed and that’s it’s, that Supercross mentality—like anybody riding the motorcycles in Supercross—you could overjump everything. So they’ve got to be the right speed, not too fast, not too slow.

For more details on Nitrocross’ Calgary Stop, and for tickets, www.nitrocrossracing.com.