GYMKHANA GRiD 2019: ONE MONTH COUNTDOWN

What’s more, with an entry list of over 50 drivers split between the Rear-Wheel and All-Wheel Drive categories, it is going to be all to fight for come the first flag drop of the battles. Multiple FIA World Champions will rub shoulders with drift legends, off-road racers, circuit drivers, and zealous amateurs - all vying for bragging rights to the fastest time around the custom designed course.

If all that wasn’t enough GRiD marks two landmark motorsport occasions. Three time FIA World Champion and 2016 All-Wheel Drive Champion Petter Solberg, will make one of his final competitive appearances of his motorsport career at GRiD 2019, as a stop of his ‘Farewell Tour’.

“This is definitely one of the coolest events in motorsport now. Ken Block and Monster Energy have made an incredible job of bringing this drifting side of the sport to the people,” explained Petter. “I won this event before and came really close to winning last year when Johan [Kristoffersson] beat me. But I came really close to being beaten by my son Oliver – he was driving our [Citroën] Xsara in South Africa last year and if it wasn’t for an engine problem he might have beaten me. It’s actually a really tricky event, you have to focus and concentrate so hard – if you run even a couple of centimetres wide then you can lose your race. You make a mistake, you get the penalty and you can be finished. Millions of people are watching this event every year and it’s one I really look forward to. It’s intense, but seriously good fun as well.”

What’s more, the Head Hoonigan in Charge Ken Block marks the fifth stop of his Cossie World Tour, by unleashing his Ford Escort RS Cosworth WRC - a.k.a the “Cossie V2” - on the asphalt in Warsaw.

“Celebrating GRiD’s tenth event in the city of Warsaw is going to be an awesome time for sure,” said Ken. “We’ve got the fastest and most complex course designs in the series history lined up. I’m super excited to see everything go live.”

“It’s been great to watch the concept grow over the last ten years. The team at Monster Energy have done an excellent job developing and growing the competition in Europe and South Africa and I’m proud of the event we now have running. It’s always been my dream to bring Gymkhana to the masses in a somewhat reasonable and attainable way, and GRID does that.”

Further highlight names include 2018 Rear-Wheel Drive Champion and international Drift Champion Daigo Saito, rising rally star Oliver Solberg, FIA Cross Country Champion Kuba Przygonski, Russian drift sensation Arkady Tsaregradsev , four-time GRiD champion Luke Woodham, Finnish Rallycross driver Riku Tahko, renowned drift racer Steve Baggsy Biagioni and many more.

A complete entry list will be published on GymkhanaGRiD.com on Monday 26th August, while the full map of the GRiD track will break cover on Friday 30th of August. In the meantime, don’t forget that tickets are available exclusively here. Alternatively media looking to cover the event, should apply via the official accreditation system here.

In the meantime, hit play below to check out of what went down, last time out at Gymkhana GRiD 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa.