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| Former Stage Rally driver Art Gruszka made the move to RallyCross in 2010, he has since competed in RALLYCAR RALLYCROSS, GLOBAL RALLYCROSS and now the USRALLYCROSS series. Art is pictured here in 2011 competing in the GRC. Photo; Neil McDaid |
Millville, NJ (July 22, 2012) -- 21 teams put on an entertaining show at the second round of the U.S. Rallycross Series on Saturday, July 21st at the New Jersey Motorsports Park under cloudy skies and cool temperatures.
After a
day of practice and qualifying sessions teams lined up for the Main events to
decide who will be the best in their groupings.
Art
Gruszka from Villa Park, IL took the 4WD Class win that featured drama and a
controversial finish involving David Sterckx from Santa Ana, CA.
Sterckx
entered the event using his stage rally prepared Subaru STI that was quickly
converted for rallycross competition and did not have nearly the power that
Gruzska's Mitsubishi EVO possessed. Yet, Sterckx held an 8 second advantage in
the first heat and a 4 second advantage in the next heat over Gruzska.
The pair
met in the 4WD Main event with five other teams, and Gruzska instantly took the
lead. After three laps Sterckx made up the distance and took an inside line
through a dirt section and appeared to begin a pass. Instead, Sterckx and
Gruszka bumped causing Gruzska to spin and lose his position. Sterckx continued
to the finish as a black flag for disqualification was waved in his direction.
Gruszka
continued the race on a flat tire after the fallout and managed to finish.
Rally America officials determined that Sterckx did not own the inside line and
was the cause of the spin, thus awarding the class win to Gruzska.
"I
looked in the mirror and didn't see Sterckx," said Gruszka, "This
race was very fast, the car was very fast."
4WD Class
newcomber Ryan Wilcox from Suffield, CT took second place 5 seconds behind
Gruzska, and Sebastian Kokoszka from Wake Forest, NC took third place despite a
flat tire halfway through the race.
After a
very exciting 2WD Super Class Main event, Dillon Van Way from Carencro, LA in
his turbocharged Ford Fiesta normally used for stage rally beat the more
powerful Swedish team of Mikael Eriksson from Jakobsberg, Sweden in his 2002
Porsche GT3.
Van Way
has raced against Eriksson in the past when the two ran the 2011 Global
Rallycross competition where Eriksson took the 2WD title.
Van Way
is having a tough season with mechanical difficulties in this car in the Rally
America National Championship holding sixth place in the 2WD Class and failing
to finish the first round of the U.S. Rallycross Series held at NJMP on May 19th.
"This
rallycross win is the highlight of my season," exclaimed Van Way,
"All except for one rallycross event we've qualified first, been on the
podium once. It finally happened!"
In the
Main final event Eriksson pulled away at the start, but Van Way overtook
Eriksson in the Joker dirt section, a small dirt detour that each driver must
take during the race, and cruised to the win.
Mikael
Eriksson took second place 3 seconds behind, and Peter Farrell from Manassas
Park, VA rounded out the podium in third place.
Local
Southampton, NJ driver Collin Wooding improved his previous U.S. Rallycross
Series second place finish by winning the 2WD Limited Class in dominant
fashion. Wooding beat Rafal Wrobiewski from Elmwood Park, NJ by 15 seconds and
Rich Bodmer from Westfield, NJ by another 5.6 seconds.
Wooding immediately shot off the start line in the Main Event putting distance over the others and almost lapped the last car in the group. Wooding mentioned that the team made improvements to their BMW 318ti with a larger 2.8 liter engine since the first rallycross event. The improvements were enough to get him over the hump and into the top spot.
