Over the past few years, owner-driver Eric Gordon has taken BAK40 Motorsports from the newest team in the American rallycross paddock to a player at the front of the field in multiple classes. He’ll look to grow that momentum by taking the team to RallyX Euro League for 2025, heading to Circuito Internacional de Montalegre later this month with a multi-car lineup led by returning full-time driver Lane Vacala and international rallycross champion Tanner Foust behind the wheel of the team’s Star Car.

In part one of our two-part interview, Gordon talks about his excitement about bringing the team to Europe with RallyX, the transition from the SuperCar Lites to the FC2, and continuing the team’s multi-year relationship with Vacala. Stay tuned for part two on Sunday!

You’re bringing BAK40 to Europe for the RallyX Euro League. It’s a big season, a lot of competition, probably some of the most competition you guys have faced. So what are you the most excited about in bringing the team over?

Honestly, I’m equally excited about a lot of things. But the biggest thing is, some of these European tracks are iconic in the rallycross world and just, all the venues that are there, all the drivers, all the teams, personally that’s where I watched most of the rallycross stuff on TV, eyeballing it like “I want to see this, I want to do this.”

As far as me going with the team, it’s something I always wanted to do. I want to be in America as well, and be huge here. But to get the opportunity to go there and race against some of these guys, see our team perform, and have the All-American guys go over a little bit and put a dent in their talent level—my excitement is pretty much around the team we’ve put together and also the fact that we get to run some of these tracks under the RallyX banner and grow with it.

You’ve got the FC2, and that car has been a fantastic weapon for you guys. You started with the SuperCar Lites, moved up with everybody else, and you guys had a great time with the FC2 right away with victories and podiums at Richmond and Utah. How has having that new car and growing into that helped the team continue to progress?

That was a huge stepping stone for us. Everybody loves the Lites because it was affordable, they were fun, the competition was great. But you always want that Supercar power. We all need more power, we need this and that. And that platform is a powerhouse, it’s a Supercar. So now it kind of makes everybody want to be in that car. So we’ve got previous Supercar drivers coming back—it’s not like they’re stepping backwards, it’s more of a lateral move for them to come out of the Supercar class and the FC2, which is sort of a new Supercar. And it helps add that validity to the class because it’s no longer like, “oh, it’s a Lites car,” it’s a Supercar. So you have the Supercar drivers that had car manufacturers supporting them coming back through the class. For it to grow, that’s what we needed. We needed that car, that platform.

We only got to do two weekends or so with it under the Nitrocross banner, but it was an eye opener. The car is wicked fast. Even the guys that were driving the E cars were like, “Whoa.” It’s got the good sounds—you get the pops and the bangs that attracts everybody, even drivers. So it has helped. It helped our business, obviously, it helped the class, and it’s helped the series out. So, it has made it a very easy transition to grow into what it needs to be with other drivers, pro-level drivers and the competition. So I think it’s gonna be something to watch for, for sure.

You’ve had a relationship with Lane Vacala for years now, dating back to podiums in his very first race with you guys and getting wins and podiums in both cars. There haven’t always been a lot of drivers and teams, at least in American rallycross, that have stuck together for multiple years and continued to find success. What has really worked well between you to find that success over the past few seasons?

I think you really pinpointed it. Lane fit our group perfectly, he slid right in there. He accepted us, he was aware of the difference to what he was coming from—he was in, I don’t want to say a more professional side, but with a team that has lots of experience with this. And he knew coming to us that we were, you know, we were just getting our feet wet with the rallycross world. But I felt confidence because he trusted us to support him.

We got him towards the end of the season, I think his first race might have been the ice race, the first ice race in Calgary. And from knowing Lane prior to when he started running with us, he came out of his shell instantly. He just was like, boom, I’m here, I’m going to run. We made him feel supported whether he was winning or losing. He wasn’t expecting anything above and beyond from us, he just wanted support, and that’s why we were there. So him and I and the team, we forged such a great relationship with him. We knew he had the talent, he knows he had the talent, but he always somehow arena had weird bad luck points or he just was like midpack. Like he’d crank up to first place and somehow get whacked or end up in third.

When he came to us, I said, “there’s no expectations here. We have great mechanics. Go out and run the car. You make an oops somewhere, we fix it. There’s no pressure. You don’t have to come in and apologize, it’s just racing. Go out and let’s see what you got.” And he went out and he excelled. Like you said, right out of the gate we were on the podium with him, and he’s just grown from there. He just has shown what he’s really had.

When he stepped into this FC-2 car, I thought it was going to be a weird transition for him. He was in the Lites car for seven years, something like that. And the FC-2, even though it’s the Lites chassis, it’s a whole different animal, it’s a Supercar now. I was thinking, this is really going to freak him out. You know, it’s a weird experience, all of a sudden it’s just really fast, you’re like what’s going on? But he went out and acted like he’s been in that car forever. And he was like, “I love this thing.” You know, his skills developed, his car control developed.

So Lane’s just solid. He’s been with us. He’s such a solid competitor. We’ve dedicated ourselves to him, and he and his family have dedicated themselves to us. So it’s a very good working relationship. There’s a lot of trust on both sides there.

Photos by Raceline Media