Tanner Foust has admitted he that losing out on a third Red Bull Global Rallycross title to Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross team mate Scott Speed was ‘bittersweet’.
Foust won five races over the course of the 2017 season, more than any other driver, but a poor weekend in Atlantic City virtually ended his championship hopes.
“It’s bittersweet,” said Foust. “I know that I did my job in Los Angeles to finish things out with pretty much a perfect weekend, but I’m still a little frustrated with Atlantic City where I lost the championship lead.”
“Part of that was not my fault with getting punted in the first corner and then the second race of that weekend was my fault just being a little bit more aggressive than I needed to be,” he admitted. “In the end, all season all you can do is do your job, hope the car stays together, and hope it’s fast.”
Foust came into the season finale on the back of a pair of wins in Seattle and needed a perfect weekend, plus bad luck for Speed, in order to win the championship.
While Foust was unbeaten throughout the LA weekend, sweeping his heats, semi final, and dominating the final, it wasn’t enough to beat Speed who needed to finish at least eighth in the main event to take a third straight crown – he finished second.
“The gap coming into this last round was just insurmountable,” said Foust. “I’m not going to lie, before the semi-finals I had a glimpse of hope when I realised I’d made up enough points to actually be able to do it if he had a problem in the final but it would take something really horrendous from somebody on the back row. I’m still against people who just clean people out because I’ve been on the receiving end of that many times.”
Despite Foust’s defeat, it was a third straight title for Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross, and a third in just four years of competing in Red Bull GRC, something Foust is still very positive about.
“Ultimately it’s great for the team and I know that’s politically correct but these guys crank hard,” he said. “We make it look easy sometimes from the outside, but they really work very hard to innovate.”
“Every single time that we’ve come to a race this year there’s been a new part or new innovation on the car and I don’t know if many teams can say that,” Foust added. “These guys are working the hardest I think and so they deserve it.”