GRC: Block takes MCAS New River victory

Ken Block took a thrilling victory in Sunday’s inaugural Red Bull Global Rallycross MCAS New River, the fourth race of the season. Block, who also won the season opener in Fort Lauderdale, held off the rest of the 10-car field for the victory.

“I’m very lucky to have two out of four wins,” Block said. “Today was crazy up and down, so I’m really lucky to be here on top. I’d like to say thanks to everyone who came out – it was great to see everybody and sign autographs last night, and it’s great interacting with the military.”

The event, which marked the first time that a racing series has ever competed on an active military base, saw the largest course in Red Bull GRC history at 0.993 of a mile. The seven-turn layout produced one of the most compelling events in series history, with ten different drivers winning the ten heats contested over the Supercar and GRC Lites classes.

In the Supercar main event, Sandell appeared to be headed to a clean victory off the initial start when an incident with Brian Deegan across the start-finish line necessitated a full restart. In the resulting four-lap shootout, Block grabbed the lead and took the fifth victory of his Supercar career, elevating him to the points lead.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing rookie Alex Keyes won the GRC Lites main event, the first of his career, over Olsbergs MSE’s Oliver Eriksson and DirtFish Motorsports’ Tanner Whitten. Whitten now leads a tight championship battle, with only 14 points separating the top four drivers in the standings.

The next Red Bull Global Rallycross event will take place at Belle Isle in Detroit on July 25-26. Tickets for Red Bull Global Rallycross Detroit are available at http://www.redbullglobalrallycross.com/tickets. The event will be shown live on Saturday, July 25 at 2PM ET and Sunday, July 26 at 4:30PM ET, with both telecasts taking place on NBC.