Jamaican racing sensation Fraser McConnell says that competing in Nitrocross in San Bernardino, CA is “a dream come true.”
Being a driver in the Group E class of the NitroCross Series is a dream come true,” McConnell told Caribbean Life in an interview on Monday after competing in the race over the weekend at the Glen Helen Raceway.
“I used to watch Rallycross on YouTube as a young boy and always wanted to pursue this as a career,” he added. “2023 is my 5th year in the Rallycross genre; and to be competing with the very best drivers in the world, is a great feeling of accomplishment.
“Representing my homeland of Jamaica is also a great feeling,” McConnell continued. “The Jamaica Tourist Board is one of my sponsors, and I am honored to represent my country on the world stage.
“In some of the places that I race, people have never met a Jamaican,” he said. “So, I am very conscious of making a positive image for my country.”
The story of McConnell, better known as Frazzz, Jamaica’s and the Caribbean’s first ever Nitrocross Champion, is described as “one of inspiration.”
McConnell said he developed “a love of skill and speed” as a young man, racing ATVs around Jamaica’s countryside with fellow Jamaican and different kind of track star, Olympian Usain Bolt.
From there, he has gone on to make racing history, flying around the track and through the air (literally) in his fully electric race car.
In 2018, McConnell became the first Jamaican and Caribbean national ever to compete in Rallycross racing.
Three years later, he secured his first supercar victory defeating a four-time FIA World Champion in Denmark. He also received the People’s Choice Award and the Athlete of the Year for Motorsports.
In 2022, McConnell became the European Rallycross Championships Champion and won round 4 of the US finals at Glen Helen.
This January, he took the top qualifying spot in Calgary, driving on ice and snow.
In June, McConnell kicked off the 2023-2024 US circuit with a season-opening #1 win in Oklahoma.
He made his rallycross debut in 2018, at 22, competing in North America’s ARX2 series, where he recorded the fastest-out-of-the-box time in his first race and went on to win all of his heat races, starting his first finals in pole position.
In his rookie season, McConnell said he made it to the finals in four of the five events and ultimately achieved his first podium finish in the final event of his debut season.
His international racing debut was just one year later, with the FIA RX2 Championship with team Olsbergs MSE, where he finished 4th among the World’s best young rallycross drivers.
His championship victory, to roaring crowds, in the 2019 Americas Rallycross Championship marked a Jamaican driver’s first and only championship win in the genre’s history.
Two years later, McConnell said he graduated to the supercar class and became the first and only Jamaican to claim a supercar victory in the Rally X Nordic Championship, defeating four-time World Rallycross Champion Johan Kristofferson in Denmark.
Later that year, he debuted in the Nitro Rally cross Series. In 2022, her raced in the Nitro Rallycross Series in both the Supercar and Group E (electric) classes, where he dominated the Supercar Class to win the European Supercar Championship.
McConnell said 2022 was also a “breakthrough year” for him, when he was given the opportunity to be the Championship (Reserve) Driver for the Extreme E off-road racing series.
After performing those duties for two events, McConnell said he was the driver for former F1 World Champion Jenson Button’s JBXE Team for the season finale in Uruguay.
He said 2023 “started very well,” when he secured a contract to drive for five-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton’s X44 Team in the Extreme E racing series.
McConnell said he also signed a contract to again drive with the Indianapolis based Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (DRR) in the Group E Class for the 2023/24 NitroCross Series.
