Global RallyCross X Games Munich Sunday Report
No rain today for the competitors, its sunshine and a dry track to run on.
Heat 1 contained Steve Arpin and Toomas Heikkinen in Ford Fiesta ST’s, Anton Marklund in a VW Polo and Guiga Spinelli in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
Read our full report after the jump
Heikkinen takes the lead going into the first corner after a clean start by all drivers.
Heikkinen opens up early lead to 4.5secs after 3 laps over Arpin. Markland broke his steering after contact with Arpin and went off into the wall on lap 4 ending his run.
Heikkinen goes on to take the win by 8.1sec over Arpin, both progresses to the final.
Heat 2 features Sverre Isachsen & Bucky Lasek in Subaru WRX STi’s, Mattias Ekstrom in a VW Polo
It is a clean start by all away from the line, the two Subaru’s both start very well and are straight into the mix with the other two cars. The Subaru team have said that they had issues with their launch control yesterday and that was causing issues with getaway with from the start line.
Ekstrom leads into the first corner and takes an early lead over the two Subaru’s.
Isachsen & Lasek have a great battle for second and third between themselves, the Subaru’s look totally different today they seemed so much faster.
Ekstrom goes on to take the win by 3.6 secs back Isachsen.
Heat 3 features Patrik Sandell, Scott Speed and Ken Block in Ford Fiesta ST’s, Dave Mirra in the Subaru WRX STi and Liam Doran Mini Cooper.
Clean start by all away from the line, Doran does a fantastic great big slide into the first corner to take lead. Doran leads after the first lap from Block and Sansdell
On lap 2 Block challenges Doran But Doran manages to keep the lead. On the third lap Block slides wide coming on the start/finish line at the beginning of the thirds lap and looses time to Doran.
Doran goes on to take the win from Block by 1.8sec. Both proceed to the Final.
Heat 4 had Tanner Foust, Brian Deegan and Townsend Bell all in Ford Fiesta’s and Timur Timerzyano in a Dodge Dart.
In the lead up to the heat Deegan changed the gearbox in the car, when he came to the line to start the heat he warmed up his tyres by doing a small burnout which is not allowed in this event so he was penalised and was forced to start from the third row.
But this was not going to stop him from going all out, he has a great start but Foust beats him into the first corner. A few corners later Deegan pushes thru a few corners in and went on to open up a great lead.
Deegan is fired up after his penalty and just runs away from Foust.
Foust was struggling due to his suspension damage from yesterday final and his car was not at 100%.
Timerzyano was struggling with suspension damage, the cars chassis was out of alignment by over a foot and had to be stretched between two containers to try and fix.
Deegan is unchallenged and takes an easy win over Foust.
The LCQ (Last Chance qualifier) field was again a big group and featured Sandell, Timerzyano, Lasek, Spinelli, Marklund, Menzies, Bell, Mirra and Speed.
It was a tight group that went into the first corner, Menzies hit a water barrier and was then hit from behind by Mirra who was then stuck on course causing the heat to be red flagged. Mirra’s car was too damaged and was unable to restart.
On the restart Speed charged down the inside and collided with Marklund and then Marklund is hit again by Sandell.
Timerzyano took the lead and was followed by Bell but the race was red flagged due to Speed and Marklund’s cars are stopped on the middle of the course.
Scott Speed & Anton have words after their coming together during the LCQ
Only four cars take the restart.
On the restart Lasek struggles to get off the line, Timerzyano gets away and is first into the corner and takes the lead but blows a Turbo and last only half a lap more before coming to a stop.
Bell takes the win followed by Spinelli.
Onto the final with Bell, Spinelli, Deegan, Foust, Doran, Block, Ekstrom, Isachseb, Apin and Heikkinen
Block jumps the start and is penalised and is forced to make a stop/go in the penalty box, the following lap.
Going in to the first corner Doran charges from the far side of the course and takes the lead, but Heikkinen was close behind and was right up on Doran at every turn trying to edge pass him and takes over the lead just before the jump.
Just after the start of lap two Deegan slows with broken front suspension. Heikkinen charges away in the lead from Doran and Foust.
Halfway through the race Heikkinen leads has grown to 3secs to Doran.
Heikkinen went on to take the win, and the Gold medal, unchallenged by Doran who took the Silver with Foust third who took out Bronze.
Heikkinen seems to have redeemed himself after the massive accident in the LA X Games last year, he won a Silver medal in Brazil earlier this year, he won a Bronze in Saturday’s event and then the Gold today. He will be one to watch this year.
The next round on the championship is in Loudon, New Hampshire on the 11th of July.
Sunday’s Final Video
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GCJgLjnblg&w=560&h=315]
Sunday recap Video
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pulV51u3e3s&w=560&h=315]
Timelapse video of action and service work
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ3ZSmjaNBk&w=560&h=315]
Hotlap with Bucky Lasek
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFaxdA9ywWg&w=560&h=315]