November, 2010.  Quantum Rally Sport driver Josh Wimpey went all-in for the first ever European RallyCross held in August at NJMP in Millville NJ and just kept on going for the whole season!

Having promised to bring his A-game at the first round, Wimpey proved that he was serious by earning a front row grid position in the main event on October 10th and repeating that feat again at each of the remaining main events held on November 7th and November 8th respectively.  Consistency paid off and finishing on the podium at all four races earned the team the first ever United States RallyCross Championship title.  While the first round win came rather easily, the competition made sure that wouldn’t be the case in the next three.

“The start is the most important part with such short races so if you don’t get into the lead right away, you really have to scrap it out and do everything you can to get to the front” exclaimed driver Josh Wimpey as he discussed the strategy he would employ in the second round of racing.  Other drivers surely had the same feelings, and Matt Johnson capitalized on the power and traction of his rwd machine to make sure Quantum Rally Sport’s VW GTI wouldn’t make it to turn one first.  Just before the main event, the sky let loose a nasty rain that drenched the course and left the teams scrambling to figure out how to turn tarmac slicks into rain and mud tires in 15 minutes or less.  Josh struggled to find traction and finished in 3rd place but retained a small lead in the championship.

Rounds three and four were part of a double-header weekend that included a newly designed course.  With the help of New German Performance Quantum Rally Sport embarked on a few notable upgrades to the car including removing about 25lbs from the chassis, adding some lightweight race wheels, and upgrading the performance with a set of 288 cams from Techtonics Tuning.  The work NGP and Diebold Autosport did to the car really made the car come to life and the new-found banshee-sound of the car made it a crowd favorite.  With sights set on taking home the championship, the team was looking for a strong finish to both of the final rounds.  ”We knew that we had too have two good days of racing to win the championship so the plan was to go out and qualify at the front then go run clean, smart races.  If I didn’t finish a race or tore the car up to bad to even start a race, it would have surely cost us the championship” recalled Josh after limping the car through the final race of the day with a broken motor mount from one of the earlier heat races.

Mathematically, the championship came down to the final round.  There were three or four drivers who made it into the main who had a chance of winning the championship if things went the right way in the race.  ”Fortunately, we were in a position points-wise where we could still win the championship if we finished well. For other teams to win, things would have had to go badly for one or more other teams including us, and I definitely didn’t want that to happen!”

The team is thrilled with the first season.  What could be better than winning the first ever championship!  Congratulation are also in order for Tanner Foust who won the 4wd championship.

Series Results Recap:

Round 1: 1st place

Round 2: 3rd place

Round 3: 3rd place

Round 4: 2nd place

Quantum Rally Sport would like to thank their partners and sponsors: NGP Racing, Delta-V Motorsports, Diebold Autosport, USRT and Rallispec.

Round 4 Heat Race #2 (Miata Crash)

Round 3 Heat Race #1 (rear facing camera)

Round 2 A-Main Mud Fest (rear facing camera)

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