AMERICAN TANNER FOUST TAKES FIRST EUROPEAN WIN IN PORTUGAL

Tanner Foust on course for victory in Portugal at the European Rallycross Championship. Photo by Jakub QBA Nitka (ERC24.com)



MONTALEGRE, Portugal (May 16, 2011) - It was a dominant weekend for Rockstar Energy Drink driver Tanner Foust, who became the first American ever to win an FIA European Rallycross Championship round in Portugal.

"Simply incredible!" said Foust, who earned his victory in front of a sell-out crowd at the race. "The team showed its potential this weekend, finishing one-two."

Foust was the driver to beat at the Pista Automóvel de Montalegre, setting a pair of fastest practice session times in his Rockstar Energy Drink Ford Fiesta on Saturday before scoring two out of three heat wins heading into Sunday's final round.

"This place is amazing," said Foust. "The fans are so into it that you can tell what's happening just by listening to the crowd; they scream when somebody passes and for a good lap. It's a really fun place to race."

Foust and teammate Andreas Eriksson lined up side-by-side to start the final race of the weekend and crossed the finish in first and second place, respectively.

The racing was not without its challenges for newcomer Foust, who finished his first heat of the weekend in sixth place after an error that led him into the Joker lap at an inopportune time and forced him to make an emergency change of direction mid-race.

"I had to reverse and do a 180 onto the regular lap to avoid getting a penalty," said Foust. "The crowd loved it, but I was kicking myself. It was a good reminder that I've still got a lot to learn about this sport."

Foust made his series debut at the Portugal round of the European Rallycross Championship last year, finishing in eighth-place overall. The driver ran select events in 2010 and is now undertaking his first full European championship season.

After two rounds in the championship, Foust sits in second place overall, just one point behind defending champion Sverre Isachsen. At Round 1 in the UK last month, Foust set strong practice times but suffered some bad luck that knocked him out of podium contention.

Foust is also contesting the Global RallyCross Championship in 2011, persevering through pain after dislocating his shoulder to take the win at the most recent round, Twin Peaks, held outside Seattle a month ago.

Rallycross is a blend of circuit racing, off-road racing and rally competition. It promises intense crowd-pleasing action in a fan-friendly track environment. As many as six drivers line up to start at once, piloting high-horsepower compact cars through race traffic over a challenging short course that features jumps, unbanked turns, hills and transitions between pavement and gravel.

In addition to rallycross competition in Europe and the United States, Foust's 2011 competition schedule also includes a return to X Games Rally Car Racing events this July. He will be back in Europe this coming weekend for the third round of the championship at Circuit des Ducs in Essay, France, May 21-22.

Global RallyCross Championship Twin Peaks airs Saturday at 4:30 on ESPN

West Hollywood, CA (May 13, 2011 | GLOBAL RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP) -Tune in to ESPN on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern as the excitement of the Global RallyCross Championship returns to television with the DiRT 3 Global RallyCross Championship: Twin Peaks, presented by Best Buy.

The Saturday broadcast features drivers from the top ranks of action sports and rallycross in the United States and Europe as they take on a second-round battle for the inaugural Global RallyCross Championship title - and a chance to earn an invitation to X Games 17 Rally competitions held in downtown Los Angeles this summer.

Top drivers including Tanner Foust, BMX and rally pro Dave Mirra, and Formula DRIFT drivers Rhys Millen and Stephan Verdier tear it up on the inventive industrial course near Seattle. Action includes a huge gap jump where cars fly 70-feet through the air - a feature seen only at X Games and Global RallyCross competition - and racing through an industrial warehouse, with the sound of high-power engines ricocheting off the walls.

The show will be rebroadcast Saturday evening at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2.

Rallycross combines the best aspects of circuit racing, off-road racing and rally competition to deliver intense action in a variety of fan-friendly environments. The series benefits from a multi-year programming relationship with ESPN. 

Competitors will next travel to Colorado at the Pikes Peak International Raceway for Round 3: Last Chance (June 17-18). Ticketing and other information will be available soon at http://www.global-rallycross.com/. Invitations for X Games 17 Rally events will be announced soon after the conclusion of the third round of the 2011 series.

Fans can also find the series on Facebook (www.facebook.com/GlobalRallyCross) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/GlobalRallyX) to sign up for a chance to win tickets and other prizes.

The RallyCar organization sanctions the Global RallyCross Championship events. 

The Rally America Championship Returns to the Northwest for the 2011 Olympus Rally



Dave Mirra will be hoping to keep his streak of podium finishes alive at Olympus Rally this weekend.
Photo Neil McDaid /OLY 2010



April 30, 2011: Ocean Shores WA.  Round #3 of the 2011 Rally America Championship gets underway today in South Bend WA. This is a change over previous years where the southern loops of stages were run on day two of the Rally.

Team Subaru USA will debut their latest car at Olympus, and will as always be on a mission to capture the top step on the podium, getting them there lays firmly on the shoulders of David Higgins.

Off the front in AWD, we expect to see Higgins set the early pace; he cannot let the Canadians Antoine L’Estage or Pat Richard open any gap before the rally turns to the more technical stages in the afternoon and on day two.

The opening stages today, Palix, Smith Creek and of course the infamous Brooklyn stage are all very fast smooth flowing tests, and should suit the more powerfully car of Team Subaru USA. 

As with Higgins, Antoine L’Estage will no doubt be on the early pace, but we expect Antoine may not be at 10 tenth on the opening stages and may make his move later in the day over the more technical twisty Pico stage.  Despite running first on the road we would not rule Antoine out for a stage victory on say, the second pass on Palix or on Brooklyn West. 
Making his annual pilgrimage across the border from Canada Pat Richard is always the wild card at Olympus, and he can never be ruled out as a contender for the overall podium. Running third on the road Richard is in perfect position to be the spoiler for the Championship contenders.

We feel that dispite the introduction of the new car from Subaru, and his gravel clearing duties on day one, we still  give the edge to L’Estage for the overall victory.

The second of the two Team Subaru USA cars will be driven by Dave Mirra, who’s just coming off a few epic rounds at The Global RallyCross Championship; Mirra will need to quickly adjust back to taking instruction from his navigator Marshall Clarke to be in the hunt.  We expect that Mirra will be felling the heat from some of the SP cars running behind him in the top ten.  

In SP Class, look for Ramana Lagemann to charge hard right from the get go, Ramana has some good history at this rally, he took the overall victory at Olympus in 2007.  We expect to see a more conservative run from the current overall Rally America and SP Class point’s leader Travis Hanson as he sets his focused on the 2011 SP championship.

It’s shaping up to be a great 2WD battle, both on the national level and also in the chase for those precious Max Attack dollars.

Point’s leader Dillon Van Way finally gets some more grunt under the hood of his 2011 2WD Ford Fiesta. The Van Way Racing Team added a turbo since their last outing at 100aw. Fitted with a front mounted intercooler, the car will also be popping with the tune of it new  anti lag system.  The Fiesta is now reported to be putting out somewhere in the ballpark of 260 bhp, a lot of power from a  1.6 Motor, let’s hope it holds. In addition the car has been fitted with a new sequential 6 speed box; assuming  everything performs as planned, we expect to see big things from Van Way this weekend.

Canadian Andrew Comrie-Picard makes a return to stage rally in above all things, a 2WD Scion XD. Andrew [ACP] has called on the services of English co-driver Robbie Durant to call the notes, ACP and Durant have teamed up many times in the past, and have seen some great results. The Scion that ACP will drive is the same car that Chris Duplessis drove in 2010 with the addition of few go faster bits, it will be interesting to see what ACP can do with the Scion, if it holds up?.

Last but not least, we expect to see Wyatt Knox in the Team O’ Neil - MazdaSpeed3 running in the front 2WD pack.  Both Dillon Van Way and ACP have past experience at Olympus which will work to their advantage.   For Knox this is his first visit to Olympus, Wyatt will have to put a lot of trust in the experience of his co-driver Ole Holter to stay in the hunt. Wyatt may be best advised to ease into this unfamiliar rally as the reliability of both the Fiesta and the Scion is still in question.

The Rally will move north of Ocean Shores for day two.

Check back for updates and you can also check in with www.rally-america.com for the latest updates.

STRONG START TO EUROPEAN SEASON FOR TANNER FOUST

LONDON, England (April 26, 2011) -- Rockstar Energy Drink driver Tanner Foust had a strong start to the European Rallycross Championship season this weekend in southeast England at the 2011 season opener.
"I think our times this weekend show how well the team and the car can work," said Foust, who is contesting his full season in the championship after making a successful series debut in select events in 2010. "It shows great promise for the championship this year."
Foust was competitive from the start in the Rockstar Energy Drink Ford Fiesta, consistently setting top times on the challenging Lydden Hill rallycross track. He achieved the second-fastest overall time during the official timed practice session on Saturday, finishing only one-tenth of a second off of defending champion Sverre Isachsen.
But while Foust demonstrated that he had the speed on the track, some bad luck knocked him out of podium contention. After two days of competitive, door-to-door action, he finished in eighth place overall.
"Sometimes luck just isn't with you on the track," said Foust. "When everything was working 100 per cent, we were consistently in the top three. Unfortunately, that doesn't get you championship points, but it does show that the potential is there."
The Ford Fiesta rallycross car, prepared by the Olsbergs MSE team, is running a new engine set-up for 2011. While the vehicle performed well at the start of the weekend, an issue emerged that saw both team vehicles sporadically down on power as the racing progressed.
Even so, there was no question that newcomer Foust and veteran teammate Andreas Eriksson won the hearts and minds of the thousands of spectators that packed the race circuit under warm and sunny skies Sunday and Monday. The two battled through several races door-to-door in their nearly identical, top-spec cars, delighting fans with tandem slides through corners and multiple passes.
The event was Foust's second rallycross competition this month. He took the win a week earlier in the nascent Global RallyCross Championship series in the United States - even after dislocating his shoulder during tough racing.
Rallycross is a blend of circuit racing, off-road racing and rally competition. It promises intense crowd-pleasing action in a fan-friendly track environment. As many as six drivers line up to start at once, piloting high-horsepower compact cars through race traffic over a challenging short course that features jumps, unbanked turns, hills and transitions between pavement and gravel. Foust is the first American to compete in the European Rallycross Championship.
In addition to rallycross competition in Europe and the United States, Foust's 2011 competition schedule also includes a return to X Games Rally Car Racing events this July. His next contest takes place May 14 and 15 at the Pista Automóvel de Montalegre, in Montalegre, Portugal.
ABOUT TANNER FOUST Tanner Foust is a versatile and multi-talented driver known for his supreme car control and a proven track record of podium placements and national championships.
He is a three-time X Games gold medalist (2007, 2010), and two-time Formula Drift champion (2007, 2008). He has twice represented Team USA in the annual Race of Champions, teaming with NASCAR star Carl Edwards in 2008 and Travis Pastrana in 2009. He returned to the event in 2010 as teammate to Mick Doohan on the All Star Team.
His varied race experience also includes multiple years of open wheel competition, the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, rally racing, various types of sports car racing and the SCORE Baja.
When he isn't racing, the professional driver also performs in films and on television. He is an on-air host for the US version of the seminal BBC auto show, Top Gear, on HISTORY.
His stunt driving includes performing as a lead driver in the Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, Bourne Ultimatum, Dukes of Hazzard, Red Dawn and Iron Man 2 movies, and also handles stunt driving in numerous popular TV shows and commercials.
TANNER FOUST'S RALLYCROSS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Rockstar Energy Drink (www.rockstar69.com); Ford Racing (www.ford.com); Etnies (www.etnies.com) and Motegi (www.motegiracing.com)
FOR MORE INFORMATION visit http://www.tannerfoust.com/.

Photo/ Neil McDaid

In-car video of Irish Junior Rally Sensation Amy Cox on The 2011 Circuit of Ireland Rally

17 Year old Amy Cox with co-driver Emmet Sherry - Circuit of Ireland 2011 - Stage 12 - Ford Escort G3