Red Bull GRC: Scott Speed on adapting to rallycross

0 Comments

Scott Speed’s career has taken him to very different worlds, but it’s clear that he’s found a home in rallycross.

The ex-Formula One and NASCAR racer has taken to this new discipline rather nicely. In his first Red Bull Global Rallycross outing last year at X Games Brazil, he won the gold medal driving the series’ Star Car.

He would go on to claim another win at Charlotte and finish fifth in the GRC standings despite also committing himself to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series duties with the small Leavine Family Racing team.

This year, his full focus is on GRC and so far, he’s the early frontrunner after back-to-back wins at Barbados and X Games Austin.

So how does this compare to his exploits in F1 and NASCAR?

In a recent interview with Complex Magazine, Speed said that regardless of the car, racing is all about finding the fastest way back to start/finish.

However, GRC does have one key difference.

“The only real difference is four-wheel drive, which makes GRC quite a bit different,” he said. “The four-wheel drive allows you to drive as hard as you want and it fixes a lot of mistakes. You can basically overcome a lot of different problems and keep a car in control that looks like it’s out of control.

“You can basically just point the where where you want and the car will just go there. That’s why those World Rally guys look so impressive going through the trees all sideways.”

As for adapting to the rallycross tracks themselves – compact courses with an array of different surfaces to contend with – Speed says that with the four-wheel drive at his disposal, dirt and tarmac drive relatively similar.

It’s the gravel that makes for, in his words, “kind of an unnatural feel.” Having been brought up in a proper racing background where going forward sideways usually means lost time, Speed has had to learn that going sideways in the gravel is actually a good thing in this form of racing.

“”I’d say that my style out there, if you compare me to a guy like [Andretti Autosport teammate] Tanner [Foust] or Ken Block, is a lot more tidy and looks more in control, which is, I think, better on the dirt and the tarmac,” he said.

“But in the gravel, you actually need to have the car as sideways as you can because the sidewall of the tire digs into the gravel; you’re gaining more grip by adding yaw.”

It may not be what he’s used to, but Speed’s certainly gotten the hang of it as his early-season results can attest.

You can see if Speed goes three-for-three to start the 2014 Red Bull Global Rallycross championship by watching Volkswagen Rallycross DC this Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC and NBC Sports Live Extra.

IndyCar disappointed by delay of video game but aiming to launch at start of 2024

IndyCar video game 2024
IndyCar
0 Comments

An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”