The Volkswagen Andretti Autosport Rallycross team struggled in Open Practice and the first heat stage at the first round of this weekend’s Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship double header event.
Both of the team’s Volkswagen Beetle GRCs had little track time in Practice due to various setup changes being made to suit the cars to the track whilst only Tanner Foust went out in to compete in the first knockout stage, however he struggled during the heat. X Games Gold medalist Scott Speed missed his qualifying session, which forced him to take the Joker Lap in his heat early to grab second place. Speed managed to hang onto the position, failing to catch Patrik Sandell in Heat 1A but holding off Sebastian Eriksson.
Speed acknowledged that he didnt have the best start to the weekend so far.
“Today was a tough day for the whole crew. We have put so much time and effort in to get these cars up to speed during the offseason and right now we’re just disappointed. Luckily, it’s a double-header weekend, so we still have another shot at getting this SHARK WEEK Beetle into the main show. All we can do now is look forward and figure out how to minimize our mistakes.”
Tanner Foust praised the team for its hard work despite a difficult start to the weekend.
“Rollercoaster first day in Daytona for the double-header weekend. It’s been an extremely long day dealing with the changes, but the Volkswagen Andretti team has been hard at work getting this Rockstar Energy Drink Beetle back in racing shape. We didn’t put as many laps in today as we would have liked, but it’s better to find these issues now than on a race day. We’ll fight back tomorrow, it’s a whole new day of racing and hopefully we can give the Daytona crowd a good show.”
Due to severe weather conditions, all remaining track action at the circuit was put on hold on Saturday when normal service resumes.
