2014A NASA RallyCross Challenge Season

The 2014A NASA RallyCross Challenge Season will be the seventh season of the NASA RallyCross Challenge. Josh Mertz and Red Bull Subaru MRT will return as the defending Drivers' and Constructors' Champions.

Background
The seventh NASA RallyCross Challenge season will see a slew of changes.
 * The Works and Semi-Works will combine to become one single Constructors' Championship, following the lack of entries in the 2013C Semi-Works championship.
 * The official NASA RallyCross rulebook has been rewritten.
 * Red Bull Subaru MRT inherits numbers 1 and 2 for 2014A.
 * Revolution Racing, the Quadruple Constructors' Champions, will revert to 51 and 71.
 * Mangled Lemons Racing returns with Keith Sherman and Nick Kahrs, for their second campaign as a Constructor team.
 * Volkswagen reshuffles their team, with Brandon Lambert hiring Dylan Smith. They will drive cars 21 and 22.

Schedule Changes

 * Charlotte is dropped due to complaints from the teams that the start caused unneeded expenses, which they could not afford.
 * Bent Twig is dropped due to issues with the circuit construction.
 * The Royal Purple Endurance Cup expands to three races, with the first ever Spanish round of the championship being added.
 * Munich becomes a points round, and marks Germany's return to the calendar for the first time since 2013A.
 * The schedule is reshuffled, which sees all 5 international rounds at the beginning of the championship to cut down on logistics costs.

Team and Driver Changes

 * Josh Mertz confirmed on 12 December 2013 that the partnership between Citroën and MRT would cease after the 2013C Season. It was later announced Subaru would return as the manufacturer, after four seasons under the Citroën banner.
 * Brandon Lambert confirmed on 6 January 2013 that MONSTER Energy would be leaving the VW World Rally Team. Also, Tanner Smith was dropped from the team for failure to arrive to race events and MONSTER Energy dropped their sponsorship of the team.
 * Mangled Lemons Racing confirmed a long term deal with Ford to be their Works partner.
 * Tristan Hagenstein was hired by MRT after Great Lakes Motorsports ceased operations.
 * Dylan Smith was signed to Volkswagen mid season in 2013C, and as a result left MRT Junior.
 * Corbin Wentz was signed to the new Volkswagen Junior team in Bent Twig.
 * Cody Erdmann was unable to commit to the full season, so as a result, Adam Simons was resigned to MRT Junior and will drive for them when Tristan Hagenstein is driving in place of Erdmann.
 * Brandon Nicholson was signed to a one race contract for the All-Star for Revolution Junior, which was subsequently upped to a full season contract.
 * Solstice Racing will expand to two cars for select races.

Pre-season and All-Star
The seventh season of the NASA RallyCross Challenge started with a bang with the first ever All Star race in Irwindale. Eight cars arrived to compete, which were split into two heats of four. Double defending Champion Josh Mertz took the first heat convincingly, while Brandon Lambert blasted away and won the second heat uncontested. In the LCQ, MRT teammates Cody Erdmann and Tristan Hagenstein battled for the final front row spot, with Hagenstein prevailing after Erdmann hit the barriers in the joker. After three restart attempts, the final got underway. Chris Wetz and Cody Erdmann tangled, along with Josh Mertz and Brandon Lambert, however everyone kept going without an issue. Trough the calamity and chaos, Brandon Lambert took the victory ahead of Josh Mertz, as Dylan Livengood rounded out the podium in third.

Round One - Croft
After a few weeks off, the NASA RallyCross contingent descended on Croft for the seventh British RallyCross Grand Prix. Winners of the heats were Wetz, Lambert, and Mertz, the latter with ongoing transmission issues troubling him aboard car #1. On the first attempt at a race start, Josh Mertz got the lead - but everyone else tangled behind him, instigated between the Mangled Lemons Racing teammates. On the second attempt at a race restart, Lambert got the holeshot - but behind him, Mertz got tagged and flipped by Chris Wetz. Luckily for the #1, a red flag was called shortly there after due to track blocking incidents in the gymkhana section and the off road section. The third and final attempt at a race restart went smoothly, with Lambert leading into turn one. However, that was short lived for the 2012A champion, as he threw it off the road, giving the lead to Mertz. The #1 led the brigade into the pit lane, which included the VW's and Simons in the Junior Subaru. Livengood led on the road, allowing the clean air to work with his Mitsubishi Lancer. His race, unfortunately, went for naught when he crashed into the chicane tire barrier. On the other side of the circuit, Mertz's Subaru developed a transmission issue which would take him out of the lead once he rounded the circuit, as Livengood had taken to the pitlane. While fumbling in the cockpit to fix the shifter, Mertz did not prepare correctly to jump into the gymkhana section and flipped, which blocked the course. Behind him, the VW cars also tangled. Meanwhile, Wetz snuck into the race lead and battled with Luke Fleming for the race victory, with Wetz coming out on top and Fleming in second. Hagenstein, on his debut points race for MRT, finished 3rd. Rounding out the top 5 was Livengood and Mertz, followed by Lambert, Smith, and Simons the remaining Final order.

Round Two - Valkenswaard
The biggest story of the Dutch RallyCross Grand Prix was that for the first time ever, the defending champion did not make the final. The Subaru MRT mechanics performed a late switch of transmissions on Car #1, which resulted in the Double Defending champion having little practice to get used to his new sequential shifting instead of the traditional H pattern which was used. This was the first time Mertz missed the final since 2012B Charlotte, and allowed teammates Cody Erdmann, Tristan Hagenstein, and Luke Fleming to deliver a strong result for the team. On the start, Erdmann shoved Livengood into the tire barrier, which resulted in Car #51's race being run on the spot. Later on in the lap, Chris Wetz flipped, leaving Revolution Racing feeling Déjà vu (like 2013C Riverside) with both cars finishing 7th and 8th. Amidst the chaos, Brandon Lambert snuck through on Erdmann and took the victory, followed by Caleb Paul in a one off drive for Mangled Lemons in third, followed by Fleming, Hagenstein, and one off driver DeNise. As stated earlier, the Revolution Mitsubishi's rounded out the final order, with Wetz in seventh and Livengood in eighth.

Round Three - Spain
The third round of the championship, and the first round of the Royal Purple Endurance Cup had the largest field of the 2014A season and required a restart and an aborted start before it got going. On the front row was Brandon Lambert in his VW, the twin private Subarus of Ryan Williams and Caleb Paul, the Revolution Mitsubishi of Dylan Livengood, and the MRT Subaru of Double defending champion Josh Mertz. On the first lap, Williams tangled with Livengood that sent them both flipping off the track. Later on, Lambert and Mertz tangled, allowing Caleb Paul and Dylan Smith to pull away. Lambert was able to get by Mertz after Matt Emerson, in the Junior VW, turned Mertz on the front straight. Ryan Williams then retaliated against Livengood and was subsequently disqualified. Paul was unchallenged as he went on to win, followed by Smith and Lambert on the podium. The rest of the final order was Emerson, Mertz, Simons, Wetz, Fleming, Livengood, and the disqualified Williams in 10th.

2014A Drivers' Championship
Points are awarded to the top 16 finishers.

1 Kurdziel was disqualified after causing a large unintentional wreck in the LCQ. 2Williams was disqualified after retaliating against Dylan Livengood in the final, and failing to withdraw from the race when instructed to do so.

2014A Manufacturers' Championship
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