American Racers Win Against Formula One Stars
Sunday December 15th, London, UK — This weekend Rockstar Energy Drink racer, Tanner Foust, earned a spot competing at the Race Of Champions at Wembley Stadium as the alternate to extreme sports star, Travis Pastrana, the 2008 Rally America Champion and X Games Rally gold medalist. Unfortunately, Pastrana had to withdraw due to injuries sustained filming his Nitro Circus TV Show for MTV earlier in the week. Foust joined this year’s most winning NASCAR racer, Carl Edwards, to represent Team USA for the event.
In his first trip to the legendary Race of Champions, 2007/8 Formula Drift champion and this year’s X Games Rally silver medalist, Foust, in front of fifty thousand plus spectators and millions of live TV viewers, beat Formula One star, Jensen Button, in a tight head-to-head race. Foust moved on to the event’s quarter-finals but was beaten by another F1 star, David Coulthard, while racing KTM X Bows. Coulthard was the event’s runner up, and was undefeated racing the X Bows even against 2008 ROC Champion Sebastien Loeb.
Foust’s win against Button, was vindication after his disappointing Race of Nations first round earlier in the day–he stalled a WRC Ford Focus on the line and was knocked out of the competition by Touring Car champ Andy Priaux, Foust’s stall was caused by a fault with the launch control on the Focus—the same problem eliminated last year’s ROC winner, Mattias Ekstrom in a race also against Priaux later on that day.
Foust’s teammate, Carl Edwards, also had a good showing at the Race of Champions beating out Formula One’s winningest racer of all time, Michael Schumacher, during the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, in the semi-finals racing KTM X Bows also, Edwards was beaten too by Coulthard who was clearly out to prove a point in probably his last professional race outing,
Foust said of his experience, “This weekend I felt a lot like a ten year old trying to take in Disneyland in forty five minutes. There was so much to experience and very little time to absorb it. The ROC organizers were spectacular, seamlessly pulling off a year’s worth of planning in just five hours. The cars and the track were a driver’s playground, but the highlight of the trip was the camaraderie and competition with some of my driving heroes.”
Overall it was a great showing for Foust who despite beating hometown boy, Button, became a crowd favorite with his tail-out drift driving antics. The invite to the Race of Champions has thrust Tanner Foust to the highest levels in the world of motorsports and he showed he has the skill to compete at this top level on the world stage.
The Race of Champions is an annual event that pits champions from Formula One, World Rally Championship, NASCAR, Le Mans, Touring Car Racing and other motorsports from around the world against each other in a series of head to head races in an assortment of race cars. The drivers compete both individually in the Race of Champions and as teams representing their countries for the Race of Nations Cup. The ROC is a gathering of the world’s motorsport elite. The event drew fifty thousand plus live spectators and millions of live TV viewers worldwide. This is the twenty first year of the Race of Champions. ROC will air on Discovery HD early in the New Year.