Grönholm cruises to Texas win

Marcus Grönholm won the second round of the Global Rallycross Championship, the ‘Hoon Kaboom’ at Texas Motor Speedway. Ford’s Finnish superstar completely dominated the event, fastest in practice and the winning both races before progressing to the final where he took another clear victory, adding to his round one win.

Grönholm took his second GRC win. © Grönholm/RallycrossWorld.com

“So, what a tough day,” said Grönholm after the final which was halted twice because of incidents. “I knew at the start of the week that Texas would be all different to Charlotte and it would take a whole lot more heart to win here. But we did it and it is a great, great feeling. The seeding and the heats seemed pretty straightforward, just keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble, but the final, well I knew with guys like Tanner and Brian that I’d need to find something special to stay ahead of them. I had a bad start first time round and maybe not a perfect start for the second time, so I guess I was fortunate that the flags came out twice. On the final start, it was perfect, we kept it all together and got over the line first. I must thank Best Buy and all the guys at OMSE, everyone has done a brilliant job this weekend. The only thing I reckon I want now is some physio – I am not the only one with a sore back after all the jumps today, but I hope it made a spectacular show for the fans.”

In the third start Grönholm took the shorter Joker Lap section in the first lap and never looked back as he raced away from Ford team mates Tanner Foust and Brian Deegan.

The final was halted twice, once when Sverre Isachsen crashed his Subaru on the jump and second time when Andy Scott’s Saab hit the tyre wall after the jump, the result of clash with team mate Samuel Hubinette that left Scott with broken steering in his car. Hubinette made it to the restart and ran second but had power steering problems and was then forced to stop when a propshaft broke after the jump. The jump caused problems for many drivers and cars; starting with Travis Pastrana who heavily damaged his Dodge Dart in Friday’s first practice. Dodge ran two cars in Texas, the second for Felipe Albuquerque but both ended the day in the ‘last chance race’, Pastrana spinning while in the lead and losing to Ken Block while Albuquerque went out with clutch problems.

After his crash in Hungary last weekend, Liam Doran drove in the event despite suffering a broken collar bone and worked his Citroën C4 into the last chance race and 13th place.

Result: 1 Marcus Grönholm (Ford Fiesta VII); 2 Tanner Foust (Ford Fiesta VII); 3 Brian Deegan (Ford Fiesta VII); 4 Rhus Millen (Hyundai Veloster); 5 David Binks (Ford Fiesta VII); 6 Stephan Verdier (Hyundai Veloster). Championship: 1 Grönholm 42; 2 Foust 36; 3 Verdier 26; 4 Millen 24; 5 Hubinette 23; 6 Binks 22.

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