Barbados winner Speed confident for Red Bull GRC return

Former Toro Rosso grand prix driver Scott Speed is heading for Bushy Park Barbados in confident mood for the penultimate rounds of the Red Bull Global Rallycross season this weekend (October 3/4). Winner of the inaugural Red Bull GRC event in the Caribbean last May, he has since become the first driver in series history to win both rounds of a double-header, in Los Angeles last month.

As Red Bull Global Rallycross confirms its entry list for rounds 10 and 11 of the 2015 campaign, featuring a mix of the sport’s biggest stars and some of its top young talent, Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross Beetle driver Speed is looking forward to his return. Thanks to sweeping the LA weekend, combined with Ken Block’s worst finishes of the year, Speed jumped from 99 points behind Block to 13, results which have Speed confident of a championship-winning season.

“All we needed to do was take care of the deficit that we dug ourselves into,” Speed said, referring to two missed finals and a dnf at Daytona and MCAS New River. “And we’ve taken care of that. At this point, if we do our job and just take care of our own thing, it’s our championship to win.”

Speed’s sixth and seventh career victories in LA moved him to the top of the all-time Supercar winners’ table ahead of Block, who had earned his sixth victory in the previous round in Detroit in July in his Hoonigan Racing Division Ford Fiesta ST. While Block has good memories of Barbados as a destination, he finished his weekend last year with a dramatic roll while fighting for the lead in the Final: “My trip to Barbados for the Top Gear Festival was ridiculously fun (well, besides that crash thing). Hung out with some great people, enjoyed the amazing beaches, and spent some quality time doing stuff like backflips off of a pier and free-diving shipwrecks.”

When the 2015 Red Bull GRC season expanded to 12 races from 10 last year, with four double-headers – in date order, Daytona, Detroit, Los Angeles and Barbados – it was clear that those double-headers might prove key to this year’s title fight. The maximum points a driver can earn in a double-header weekend is 112 - assuming each driver runs both points-paying heats and earns at least one point for participation, a driver can make up a maximum of 106 points over two days. It’s a large margin, but making it up isn’t completely unheard of: eight Supercar drivers, from Speed to ninth-place Austin Dyne, are within 106 points of Block heading into Barbados.

Featuring the Bushy Park debut of the GRC Lites class, the event’s entry list is one of the most exciting of the Red Bull GRC season so far. Of the 22 drivers - 12 in the Supercar class and 10 in Lites - exactly half, including Supercar championship contender Sebastian Eriksson and the entire Lites line-up, will be racing at Bushy Park for the first time. Additionally, two-time Supercar race winner Rhys Millen will be competing in a Red Bull GRC event for the first time since last season’s finale in Las Vegas.

Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship Rounds 10 & 11 - entry list

No Driver – Nat (team)

Supercar

00 Steve Arpin – USA (Chip Ganassi Racing Ford Fiesta ST)

07 Nelson Piquet Jr – BRA (SH Racing Rallycross Ford Fiesta ST)

11 Sverre Isachsen - NOR (Subaru Rally Team USA WRX STi)

14 Austin Dyne – USA (Bryan Herta Rallysport Ford Fiesta ST)

18 Patrik Sandell – SWE (Bryan Herta Rallysport Ford Fiesta ST)

31 Joni Wiman – FIN (Olsbergs MSE Ford Fiesta ST)

34 Tanner Foust – USA (Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross Beetle)

38 Brian Deegan – USA (Chip Ganassi Racing Ford Fiesta ST)

41 Scott Speed – USA (Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross Beetle)

43 Ken Block – USA (Hoonigan Racing Division Ford Fiesta ST)

67 Rhys Millen – USA (Rhys Millen Racing Hyundai Veloster)

93 Sebastian Eriksson (R) – SWE (Olsbergs MSE Ford Fiesta ST)

GRC Lites

07 Collete Davis (R) – USA (River Racing)

15 Tanner Whitten (R)  – USA (DirtFish Motorsports)

16 Oliver Eriksson - SWE (Olsbergs MSE)

24 Miles Maroney (R) – USA (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)

42 Nur Ali (R) – USA (AF Racing)

61 Alex Keyes (R) – USA (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)

77 Austin Cindric – USA (Olsbergs MSE)

88 Harry Cheung – USA (Rhys Millen Racing)

126 Alejandro Fernandez - COL (AF Racing)

tba tba – tba (Rhys Millen Racing)

Key to nationalities: BRA – Brazil; COL – Columbia; FIN – Finland; NOR – Norway; SWE – Sweden; USA – United States of America

Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship Rounds 10 & 11 – fan schedule

Friday, October 2

7.30pm – 10:00pm  Kick-Off Party & Driver Q & A Session

Saturday, October 3

9.00am Gates open

9.30am Driver Autograph Session (1 hour, first 100 fans guaranteed)

11.10am  Driver Introductions 

11.30am Aaron Colton Stunt Bike

11.50am Supercar Heats 2a & 2b

12.30pm  Lites Heats 1a & 1b

1.10pm  Supercar Semi-Finals A & B

1.40pm Aaron Colton Stunt Bike

1.50pm  Lites Heats 2a & 2b

2.30pm  Supercar Last Chance Qualifier

2.55pm  Lites Final

3.25pm Aaron Colton Stunt Bike

3.35pm  Supercar Final

4.10pm  Supercar & Lites Trophies

5.00pm  Lites Final Practice 

6.00pm  Pit Walk (1 hour, paddock open to fans)

Sunday, October 4

8.00am Gates open

8.00am  Supercar Final Practice

9.20am  Lites Final Practice

9.50am  Supercar Qualifying

10.45am  Lites Qualifying

11.20am Driver Introductions 

11.50pm Aaron Colton Stunt Bike

12.00pm  Supercar Heats 1a & 1b

12.40pm  Lites Heats 1a & 1b

1.20pm  Supercar Semi Finals A & B

1.50pm Aaron Colton Stunt Bike

2.00pm  Lites Heats 2a & 2b

2.25pm  Supercar Last Chance Qualifier

2.50pm  Lites Final

3.20pm Aaron Colton Stunt Bike

3.30pm  Supercar Final

4.00pm  Supercar & Lites Trophies 

5.00pm  Pit Walk (1 hour, paddock open to fans)