| CHARLOTTE, NC (September 23, 2013) — Tanner Foust had an unlucky Global Rallycross championship race in Charlotte this weekend, recovering from a rollover only to find himself at the center of a pile-up that ended his day early. “I’m usually the guy preaching to everybody about driving a cleaner race so of course I feel terrible,” said Foust, who suffered a rare mechanical failure that sent him on a wild ride during the Last Chance Qualifier. Foust entered the second-last round of the 2013 season this weekend with a plan to extend his two-round podium streak in the Rockstar Energy Drink Ford Fiesta ST. Instead, he found himself among the many drivers who faced adversity on the dirt track in Charlotte. After setting a top-three qualifying time Sunday, the driver looked positioned for a strong race. Foust bolted off the front row in his first race and checked out early to easily win the heat. The victory earned him a championship point and the all-important lane selection advantage for the next race of the day. During the scramble for the critical first-corner holeshot during his second race, brief contact slid Foust off-line and flipped the car onto its roof — wedged between trackside safety barriers. Unharmed, he cut the power to the engine and waited for safety crews to right the vehicle. Damage at first appeared minimal. “As soon as we touched, I went into the soft stuff and those tire barriers were the perfect shape to put it up onto its roof,” said Foust. “The roll was very gentle and the damage didn’t look too bad.” Once back on his wheels, Foust returned to the pits for a safety inspection and a mechanical once-over before the Last Chance Qualifier. In the LCQ, Foust again got a promising start but, as he hit the brakes coming off the bank of the first fast turn, he discovered his throttle was stuck wide open — an unexpected consequence of the rollover. The driver’s experience showed as he picked a slim line through the pack while fighting to bring the car under control. Even so, he knocked into several rivals before finally crashing to a stop. “It’s not an ideal situation when that happens and I’m glad everyone is OK,” said Foust. “When the throttle sticks, it happens so fast and so unexpectedly that it’s hard to react fast enough.” Foust’s day was over. He immediately apologized to his fellow competitors for the incident and remains contrite. “That was a crazy situation and I feel badly about how it affected the race.” The result leaves Foust positioned for a top-three championship finish with one round remaining. The two-time defending Global Rallycross champion is ready for some luck when the series resumes November 7 in Las Vegas. 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 10 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 running an ambitious international campaign in 2013 that includes select European Rallycross Championship rounds, the International X Games events and the Global Rallycross championship. 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, national championships and world records. He is a three-time U.S. rallycross champion (2012, 2011, 2010) who has also won four X Games gold medals for rally (2013, 2010, 2007), and two Formula Drift championships (2008, 2007). He has also held multiple world records including for last summer’s astonishing Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare, when he drove a car through a 66-foot loop-the-loop. He also scored the indoor speed record for TV’s Top Gear USA, and set a distance jump record with Hot Wheels when he made a 332′ ramp-to-ramp leap in a truck at the Indy 500. His varied race experience includes multiple years of open wheel competition, the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, rally racing, various types of sports car racing and the SCORE Baja. He has represented the USA in the annual Race of Champions three times, teaming with NASCAR star Carl Edwards in 2008, Travis Pastrana in 2009, and Mick Doohan in 2010. A year after making his overseas debut in the European Rallycross Championship in 2010 with a select campaign, Foust became the first American driver to win a round of that championship and finished both 2011 and 2012 ranked in the top three. The sport was first introduced to the United States in 2010, and Foust has swept the domestic championship titles since then. When he isn’t racing, the professional driver also performs in films and on television. He is an on-air host for the U.S. version of the seminal BBC auto show Top Gear, produced by BBC Worldwide Productions and airing on the HISTORY channel. The second season of his YouTube documentary series, Life in the Foust Lane, is on now with new episodes uploaded every other Thursday to http://www.youtube.com/RockstarEvents. Foust is also one of the stars of Ford Racing’s Octane Academy, which aired its second season in 2013. He handles stunt driving in numerous popular films, TV shows and commercials and is featured as a stunt driver in major releases including Need 4 Speed, Bourne Legacy, Bourne Ultimatum, Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, Dukes of Hazzard, Red Dawn and Iron Man 2. TANNER FOUST’S RALLYCROSS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE BY: Rockstar Energy Drink (www.RockstarEnergy.com); Ford Racing (www.ford.com); ENEOS Motor Oil (www.eneos.us); Motegi Racing (www.motegiracing.com), ODYSSEY Battery (www.odysseybattery.com); Illest (www.illestbrand.com); and Horizon Hobby (www.horizonhobby.com) MORE INFORMATION: www.tannerfoust.com To arrange interviews, contact Fred Chang from Tanner Foust’s management team. E-mail: fred@beyondmg.com Office: 949.660.7972 x. 29 EFAX: 949.480.0638 Mobile: 714.623.1995 www.beyondmg.com |
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