Max Pucher

Max J. Pucher is an Austrian businessman and rallycross driver who most recently get together business and rallycross by establishing and promoting the Titans RX rallycross championship.

Max was an owner of the MJP Racing Team Austria which competed in three seasons of the FIA World Rallycross Championship from 2015 to 2017. Max Pucher himself raced only one full season in the 2015 World Rallycross Championship and part-time in 2016 European Rallycross Championship. In the same time, he raced in the Austrian Rallycross Championship, winning three consecutive titles from 2015 to 2017.

Max Pucher

Successful businessman and world traveler

Born in March 1954 in Vienna, Max J. Pucher completed a college education in electrical power engineering. He didn't design electrical power plants but he rather joined IBM as a computer engineer in 1973, staying in a company for fifteen years.

In 1988, he founded his own company, what is today the ISIS Papyrus Group. Today, he guides a company as the chief architect. Pucher has lived in the United States, Antigua in the Caribbean, and moved to Switzerland in 2006 shortly after a serious sports injury involving three compression fractures in his upper spine.

Max Pucher's Ford Fiesta RX Supercar

Adrenaline junkie entered rallycross in 2014

Pucher was always an adrenaline junkie, having lots of fun in skiing, scuba diving, paragliding, motorcycling, sailing and powerboating. Most recently, he decided to activate himself in some premier motorsport discipline and he chose rallycross.

He bought a 550hp Ford Fiesta RX Supercar from OMSE in Sweden. After gaining some initial experience in rallycross during 2014, Pucher entered the FIA World Rallycross Championship with his team, under the name World RX Team Austria.

Max Pucher and Manfred Stohl in 2015

Full season in the 2015 World Rallycross Championship

The World RX Team Austria was in a fact a combination of two teams, owned by Max Pucher and famous Austrian rally driver Manfred Stohl. In the 2015 World RX season, the team was operating two cars for Mandred Stohl (#7) and Max Pucher (#31), adding the third car for Christoph Brugger in one round.

Max Pucher participated in eleven World RX events but he wasn't competitive among the world's best drivers. He scored no points, with 17th place in two rounds as the best result during the season. On the other side, Pucher won the championship title in the Austrian championship.

Max Pucher raced in the World Rallycross Championship in 2015

Racing in the European and Austrian championships in 2016

In the last round of the 2015 World RX season, Janis Baumanis replaced Pucher and then joined the team as a full-time driver in 2016. The second driver was Timur Timerzyanov. Max Pucher separated from Manfred Stohl and led the team by his own. Both drivers were pretty successful, scoring points in most of the events and taking one World RX podium, to finish fifth among teams at the end of the season.

Pucher himself didn't race in the World Championship but he entered three events of the European Rallycross Championship in the #31 Ford Fiesta. In Austria, he took one more championship trophy.

2017 – Austrian rallycross champion for the third year in a row

In 2017, the MJP Racing Team Austria raced with two cars in the World Rallycross Championship, driven by former DTM driver Timo Scheider and young Swedish ace Kevin Eriksson. Scheider managed to score a podium in the season-opening round. In one event, he was replaced by British racer Andrew Jordan. At the end of the season, the team was fifth in the points again.

In 2017, Max Pucher wasn't racing internationally, participating only in the Austrian Rallycross Championship. He won the third consecutive title.

MaxPucher took three Austrian rallycross championship titles in a row

Preparing a new car and new international championship

Max Pucher's team exited the World Rallycross Championship in 2018, switching its interest in a direction of the US-based Global Rallycross Championship. GRC and MJP Racing announced a partnership to develop the GRC Platinum class and a new race car for 2019.

In the meantime, the GRC has been dismissed and replaced by ARX Americas Rallycross in the US. In Europe, Max Pucher continued to work on an initial plan and established the Titans RX championship.

Photos: fiaworldrallycross.com, motorline.cc,