Scott Speed reigns the ARX Championship after the 2nd round held at Circuit Of The Americas in Austin Texas. It was the first formal ARX weekend in Americ and the first official use of the new track in Austin for this kind of event in preparation for receiving the World RX in late September. Ken Block finished 2nd in his Ford Fiesta ahead of Tanner Foust in the second Beetle.
For most North-Americans, this kind of event is unknown, but it is pretty exciting as this powerful rally-like cars run in a asphalt/dirt track that usually includes jumps (as you can see in the picture above) and a lot of car bruising takes place since it’s so tight to pass. It’s not a single loop track, it has what is called a Joker, which consists of a separate loop, like a pit lane, except you go flat out and takes longer to complete than a normal lap. Driver’s must complete one Joker lap from the 6 lap race and that’s when strategy comes into play as the teams have a guy called a Spotter who basically makes real time calculations and according to position tells his driver when to take the Joker, for example, a bad start would probably be compensated by taking it on the first lap and a good start at the end… It all depends on the race circumstances and the Spotter will play a very important role as bad timing for a Joker lap would destroy the chances of any driver.
It’s pure excitement from start to finish, qualifying rounds are held and each driver must complete at least two and make a time good enough to be in the semi-finals where position takes the top finishers to the final. They start from a standstill position so the reaction must be good as well, not to mention the top of the line drivers that will really put on a show.
In Europe the World RX is a big thing, with drivers like Mathias Ekstrom winner of the Touring Car Championship in Germany (DTM), 9-time World Rally Championship Sebastien Loeb, and the driver who established the parameters from the start of the Series, Petter Solberg, also World Rally Championship winner. In the US, ex-Formula 1 driver Scott Speed, Fast and Furious and TV showman/stuntman, drifter at heart, Tanner Foust, both competing for Andretti in a couple of VW Beetles.. ex-Subaru World Rally driver Chris Atkinson, the famous X-Gamer Travis Pastrana, Patrick Sandell all racing for Subaru.. Hoonigan’s representative in the likes of Ken Block..
This event is for fans to go watch and enjoy at the track, excellent drivers in a super competitive environment with truly beautiful super cars giving it all!
This first race at COTA also marked the first race for ARX2 competitors, young guns in equal machines! Conner Martell managed to recover from a clutch problem in one of the qualifying runs to win the extremely fought race behind him with Christian Brooks and Cole Keatts in second and third. Next round will take place August 4-5 in Canada.
