Steve Arpin and GRX Loenbro brought home a successful result concluding the first round of Nitro Rallycross. Arpin had only received the car as early as Tuesday and was not yet up to speed with the car, especially after switching platforms. He now pilots a Hyundai instead of the Ford he’s grown accustomed to the last few years.
“The GRX Loenbro HempFusion #00 has been like a rocket since the guys pulled it out of the shipping container”, Arpin said. “It’s been 2 years since I’ve raced in rallycross and it took me a little bit to get used to the differences between this new platform and the Fiesta, but I think we are in a great spot!”
The privateer team started the weekend strong after making it all the way to the semifinals in the bracket heats following day one. Arpin was able to beat the big-name drivers of Tanner Foust and Robin Larsson only to fall short when faced with Travis Pastrana in the third round. This placed him third in the overnight standings and easily into the final for the next day.
With Arpin easily into the final, he had nothing to do but focus on the task ahead, finishing on the podium. Focusing on his driving and avoiding incidents, he managed to pilot the i20 to a solid second-place finish for the first race of the season.
Team principal Jussi Pinomaki commented on the event saying, “Obviously, we are really really happy. We started from a blank sheet and managed to continuously improve over the two days. We managed to stay out of trouble and have a decent pace on track and together that brought us a great result.”
GRX Loenbro enters round two with a solid amount of points and looks to keep the ball rolling as they chase down more podiums.
