Looking out towards Hong Kong’s famous Victoria Bay, a cloud suddenly appears. Is it mist coming in off the water, a depression bringing in one of the peninsula’s well-known volatile weather fronts? Ah no, it’s just dust off the aggregate. It is November and we’re in the eye of a World Rallycross storm as workers frenetically try to get the series’ first street race ready on time.

The event sees WRX literally break new ground as it hits Hong Kong – a stunning new location for its season finale. With the backdrop looking like something out of Harrison Ford’s Blade Runner, the half-a-mile circuit – a mix of gravel and asphalt – will see cars slide, jump and battle door-to door in front of a vertigo-inducing skyline on the edge of the water.

What makes the weekend even more crucial is that the championship is looking to recover from a devastating battery fire suffered by Sébastien Loeb’s Special One Racing team earlier this year. The outfit lost both its new-for-2023 electric RX1e cars and all its equipment, the knock-on impact looking at one point like it might derail the entire season for all the other teams too.

The world championship was paused for several rounds as a result before the title chase was restarted with double-headers in both South Africa and Hong Kong to round out the year. The only catch being that the top class cars have been parked while investigations by battery manufacturer Kreisel continue, with drivers using the second-tier also-electric RX2e machines instead, with the wick turned up to 400bhp from 370.

It is a less than ideal solution, but hopes are high that a bumper contest in the spectacular setting of Hong Kong can provide the series with a much-needed good-news story. But even before a wheel is turned, the organisers have found themselves in a race against time to get the circuit set up.

When Motor Sport arrives on the Friday of the weekend, cranes swing freight containers overhead, lorries noisily reverse and the sound of hammering rings out across the paddock. The track and temporary facilities aren’t finished, and the event starts tomorrow.

“No toilets, no internet, no track!” says one mechanic, but with Formula 1 and WRX track designers Apex working up until the last minute in a monumental effort which started 10 days ago, the gravel is finally laid, advertising hoardings spirit-levelled in place and VIP fridges are stocked. The PR disaster of an incomplete track is averted – now we just need some car racing.

When it gets going on the Saturday, the action will decide whether WRX strongman Johan Kristofferson can win a record sixth title or young fellow Swede Kevin Hansen do the almost unthinkable by snatching the crown from under his nose.

With the former enjoying a 36-point lead over Hansen and 46 available across the double-header weekend, the odds are in Kristofferson’s favour – but he has to negotiate what looks already like one of the most formidable circuits on the calendar.

“You need to build up speed and make friends with the walls to be confident,” says Kristofferson. “This weekend will be different for me because it will mostly be about not chasing ultimate speed [but securing points for the title], trying to manage the risks a bit more: it’s narrow, very unforgiving and mistakes could damage the car – the track will bite back very hard. I won’t be on the limit as much as I like.”

For his part Hansen, 25, is revelling in his best ever season. “I’m trying to focus on my own thing,” he says. “Johan is very far ahead and will 99.9% win the title – that’s fair play to him. He and his team have been great. I think this has been my best year so far. It’s a really nice feeling coming to the end of ’23.”

“You need to build up speed and make friends with the walls”

This is unfamiliar territory in every sense of the phrase for the championship. The glitzy track setting surrounded by skyscrapers is a long way from mud-splattered venues such as the UK’s Lydden Hill or Hell in Norway. It is part of WRX’s plan to expand by taking its product to the people through street races – and doing this in markets it has never gone to before such as South East Asia.

The idea has been tried before: the now-defunct Global Rallycross series ran street races of a sort at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale and Belle Isle in Detroit, and the X Games organised a race on streets in LA in 2012. WRX last ran on public roads when it encompassed a few suburban streets at 2019’s Trois Rivières.

None of these were quite as full-blooded as WRX’s push into Hong Kong. The event is seen as a toe in the water with potential future street races mooted, as the championship looks to recreate the recent F1 model of complementing classic venues with city locations like Miami and the following weekend’s Las Vegas GP.

However, despite the ambitions, a dark cloud still hangs over proceedings in Victoria Harbour due to recent events earlier in the season at what was supposed to be a glorious homecoming at one of the spiritual centres of rallycross, Lydden Hill.

A battery on the Special One Racing Lancia tribute car of Sébastien Loeb caught fire on the Friday of the weekend. A huge blaze ensued, destroying his team’s equipment. The WRC legend described the fire as “brutal”. Powertrain manufacturer Kreisel hasn’t yet announced what the root cause of the issue was or a solution for next season.

Asked whether he was confident about the future of the series in light of the information vacuum, Kristofferson replies with a succinct “No”, and Special One Racing, unhappy with the lack of findings since the event, declined an invitation to participate in Hong Kong with cars provided for it.

But there are positive noises elsewhere in the paddock. Hansen – ever the upbeat spokesperson for the series – feels a solution will be found.

“I’m optimistic,” he says. “Everybody wants to race our own cars again. We’ll come to a good conclusion and future for rallycross. [It was] the first time for a fire like that, in a new era of motor sport. Things will change. I think it’s just an exciting time.”

Series CEO Arne Dirks echoes the sentiment, while acknowledging how tough this recent period has been for the sport.

“It hasn’t been an easy moment for all of us,” Dirks says. “But I think how we moved on, this is typical rallycross. Working even closer together, you see all the passion from the teams in finding a way to continue.

“From our understanding we are ready to race with the RX1e cars in 2024, but this is the responsibility of the FIA and Kreisel. We’re confident of being back on track.”

That the championship has decided to press on and run its final showpiece event demonstrates its importance to the racing series. And the exotic location – delegations from other potential new venues are said to be present – is no coincidence.

As Hansen’s father and team boss, 14-time champion Kenneth, says: “There are nearly 150 car manufacturers in China alone – surely some of them must be interested.”

The potential of the Hong Kong round is something emphasised by his son Kevin too.

“I think this is maybe the biggest break that we’ve had since becoming a world championship,” he says. “It is really an astonishing location – it’s the first time that we have pulled off something like this, something people have dreamt of for such a long time. Formula 1, Formula E and touring cars have city centre races – it’s different when it’s rallycross because it’s such an arena sport and you get it [here] so compact and extreme.

“You can spread a message around the town which doesn’t disturb them, but people are really able to come in, have a look and experience it in a great way. I think for the future we’ll see more city centre races on this side of the world but also in Europe.

“It’s perfect for the sport and perfect for manufacturers – we need to come to the fans in a completely different way rather than just going to faraway races like Höljes in Sweden and Lohéac in France.”

There are others betting on more rallycross action in this part of the world too. Yan Zhang, a former Chinese TV anchor who in the mid-2000s became one of the region’s first female single-seater racers, now has her own racing team, track and school in Beijing. She’s keen to promote the motor sport discipline in this part of the region, as well as supporting women in racing.

“Especially in China, when I started a lot of men would remark, ‘Women? Bad drivers!’” she says. “But we’re now becoming more involved and rallycross can help in that it’s a big party. It shows how racing can be fun.”

In 2022 WRX full-timer Klara Andersson – another Swede – became the first woman to score a podium finish in the world championship era and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky stepped up to the top class in Hong Kong after finishing third this year in a second division which has a 40% female grid. It’s clearly a good platform for women in motor sport.

“It really is an astonishing location – it’s the first time we’ve pulled of something like this”

Back on track, the celebratory atmosphere kicks up a gear as a bumper crowd turns out to watch the cars battle it out in balmy conditions on day two.

Kristofferson scores a solid 1-2 with team-mate Ole Veiby, but the real star of the show is the man who comes in third: Patrick O’Donovan. The 19-year-old is already a double British Rallycross champion and appears to be turning into the sport’s chirpy answer to Lando Norris.

Wisecracking and grinning his way through every interview, the young Londoner is just as charismatic behind the wheel, sliding and drifting his way onto the podium. The driver is mobbed on his way to the prize-giving, the crowd then screaming in delight as he dances for joy on the rostrum at third place in his debut WRX weekend.

In comparison to its ’80s thrill-a-minute heyday, rallycross has felt like a neglected discipline in recent years. However, as this weekend in Hong Kong shows, it has all the ingredients to be one of the most exciting motor sports around. It just needs to get the message out there.