With Extreme E‘s Copper X Prix still four weeks away, Tanner Foust will give short course off-road racing another go this weekend as he enters Championship Off-Road‘s Polaris World Championship Off-Road Races at Crandon International Raceway. He will compete in the Pro 2 class once again, driving the #34 truck owned by fellow Yokohama Tire athlete Andrew Carlson.
Although Foust has competed in a variety of racing codes from rallycross to hillclimbing, his short course experience is limited by comparison. He first ran the discipline in 2014, driving a Pro 2 at Lake Elsinore with the now defunct Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series alongside fellow motorsport star Travis Pastrana.
Seven years later, Foust and Pastrana joined forces again as they entered their maiden Crandon World Championship with backing from Yokohama, though Pastrana ran the Pro 4 race while Foust stayed in Pro 2. Foust would finish seventh in the World Championship followed by fifth in the next day’s Red Bull Crandon World Cup.
Being the most prestigious event in short course racing, the World Championship frequently attracts special one-offs like Foust, Pastrana, and Bryce Menzies. However, Menzies has opted not to run the 2022 edition as he wants to spend time with his family following his son’s birth while Pastrana is in St. Petersburg with the American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series.
Foust tested at Crandon in August to prepare for his entry. He was twelfth of sixteen drivers in Thursday’s practice session and qualified in the same position with a lap time of 1:31.134, over four-and-a-half seconds behind pole winner Ryan Beat.
The first Pro 2 race will take place on Saturday, 3 September, at 5:15 PM Central. Sunday will see the Pro 2 World Championship at 10:15 AM followed by the Red Bull World Cup at 5 PM.
Much of Foust’s racing in 2022 has been in Extreme E as he and Emma Gilmour début the McLaren XE programme. After three races, the team is eighth in the championship with a best classification of fifth in the season-opening Desert X Prix.
