Tanner Foust made history by claiming victory in the inaugural American Rallycross event this weekend. Foust came out on top after the A Main Final, which was restarted after an early accident involving Travis Pastrana.
Pastrana’s car almost flipped after contact with barriers on the first lap, and as a result of the incident the race was red-flagged.
As the final got underway for the second time, Pastrana was allowed to line-up at the rear of the pack. True grit saw him battle his way through to finish second behind eventual victor Foust
Speaking after his historic win, Foust was more than happy with how the event had gone.
“The American event was great!” said Foust.
Further showing his delight at the event, Foust added “I have gotten to drive some pretty cool events in the Ford Fiesta, but this is the most fun I have had yet in this car”.
Foust also took time out to praise the performance of, what many American’s class as ‘smaller cars’, such as the Ford Fiesta.
An enormous amount of power can be drawn from the power plants in the Rallycross machines, and of this Foust said “Then again that is really the opportunity we in RallyCar have is to help change the perception in this country of smaller cars like the Fiesta, cars that here are viewed as economy cars, but in the rest of the world are viewed as performance vehicles”.
The 2WD event was won by Josh Wimpey, who was competing in a 1987 Volkswagen Gti, a car which will be more than popular as the American Rallycross series heads back to New Jersey for the second round in October.
The event saw a total of 23 driver competing, and everyone had nothing but praise for the way the event ran, as well as the atmosphere generated by the enthusiastic spectators who had shown up to cheer on the drivers.
Travis Pastrana was outspoken with his thoughts of the atmosphere “I could literally hear the fans cheering from inside my car!”, said the Subaru Rally Team USA driver.
Further praise came from Andrew Comrie-Picard, who said “This is an excellent racing format and I see so many excited spectators”.
Comrie-Picard added “and the cool thing is seeing so many excited drivers. You could see it when Dave Mirra and I immediately caught up with each after our Heat race to discuss what happened out there!”.
Tanner Foust also spoke of his delight at the way the event had gone, “It’s great to see such great competition and fan support in the US right from the start,” said Foust.
After competing in selected events of the renown European Rallycross Championship, Foust also spoke of his desire to see more drivers competing, and hoped some of the European crews would venture over to the States.
“I can’t wait to see some more drivers out here in the next rounds; hopefully we’ll see some Europeans over here to give it a shot soon”, said Foust.
