Conor Daly will race on this weekend’s Nitrocross season opener on the Visions off-road pageant in Oklahoma for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

In what will likely be his first race outing since departing Ed Carpenter Racing within the NTT Information IndyCar sequence, Daly will drive for the championship-winning group alongside Fraser McConnell, whose return was introduced final week.

“I’m extremely excited to hitch Dreyer & Reinbold Racing JC and compete within the upcoming Nitrocross race in Oklahoma,” stated Daly. “The prospect to check my skills on this intense, adrenaline-fueled sequence is one thing I’ve been anticipating. I’m grateful to the group for believing in me and offering this unimaginable alternative. 

“I can’t wait to get behind the wheel and showcase what we will obtain collectively. I additionally wish to thank Travis Pastrana and Nitrocross for all of their assist and energy in getting this program collectively.”

Group proprietor Dennis Reinbold was happy to safe Daly’s providers, saying that his diversified resume will assist the reigning champions to maintain shifting ahead.

“We’re completely thrilled to welcome Daly to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing JC for the primary spherical of the 2023-24 Nitrocross season,” he stated. “Conor’s confirmed expertise and racing prowess make him a perfect addition to our group. We’ve got little question that his distinctive abilities will considerably contribute to our success on this thrilling motorsport self-discipline.”

Daly joins a area that additionally contains five-time World Rally winner Kris Meeke and Oliver Bennett (XITE Power Racing), Kevin and Oliver Eriksson and 2012 Manufacturing World Rally champion and 2019 Race of Champions winner Benito Guerra (Olsbergs MSE), and Travis Pastrana and Conner Martell (Vermont SportsCar).

Whereas it is going to be Daly’s first begin in a rallycross-like occasion, he’s not a stranger to the self-discipline. Following the conclusion of the 2016 International Rallycross season, Daly examined the Olsbergs MSE Honda Civic supercar in Los Angeles.

The take a look at happened due to Daly’s relationship with Honda, whom he was then competing for in IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing, and whereas his race debut comes nearly seven years after that first take a look at, he did inform this author on the time that he was a fan of the self-discipline and that he’d “undoubtedly take a possibility (to race in rallycross) ought to one current itself.

Within the intervening years he has taken half in rallycross and off-road occasions on iRacing, and has additionally competed alongside 2021 Nitrocross champion Pastrana in NASCAR.

Constructed on what the sequence calls “a just about clean canvas”, the monitor that Daly will compete on is probably the most dramatic the championship – previously often called Nitro Rallycross – has constructed so far, and encompasses an general elevation change of over 150-feet.

“This monitor has such wonderful pure elevation,” stated Pastrana. “We determined to work extra with the prevailing terrain and make it enjoyable and distinctive with components we couldn’t construct wherever else.

“Our objective is to make a number of strains in nearly each nook so totally different driving types will shine via.”

The monitor begins with a tarmac begin straight with a dramatic ascent into the largely dust course, main right into a banked hairpin flip, the most important of its sort ever constructed for rallycross and rallycross-like competitors.

A sequence of 5 snaking hairpins follows, earlier than a brace of sweeping bends onto a tabletop leap. There, the monitor splits, a left-hand flip going into the joker lap – which must be taken as soon as per race – and a proper that results in a run underneath the tabletop. The principle lap and the joker rejoin on the finish of the lap, simply earlier than a left sweep earlier than the banked flip as soon as once more.

The monitor is the tenth to characteristic in Nitrocross because it started in 2018 and Pastrana stated it’ll proceed to evolve over the approaching years.

“We’re simply getting began. Yearly it is going to evolve,” he stated. “The objective is to have the ability to run many of the monitor ahead and backward. We are going to concrete some turns and pave others. 

“There will likely be an choice to run a dust part that we will change from year-to-year and run every little thing from Lemons vehicles to Supermoto to off-road vans. MidAmerica in Oklahoma appears to be like to be the very best monitor on the Nitrocross circuit this yr and it’ll solely get higher from right here.”