2018 Nitro Rallycross Final _ FULL RACE.

Welcome back, everyone, to Nitro World Games and Nitro Rallycross. And this is it for all the marbles. We are moving into the final eight cars on track, six laps around this massive Utah Motorsports Campus track. The brainchild of Travis Pastrana and the most insane part of this Travis's brainchild is, of course, the 100 foot jump, which is our Ripley's believe it or not moment. And take a look at this. Travis Pastrana, Patrick Sandell floating ever so gently side by side in their team, Subaru's. And I think if you'd said, believe it or not, a couple of weeks ago, people would have said, well, probably not. And Travis Pastrana manages to chip it to. Oh, you can really see it there. Actually, that front two is left here in Utah, the state of sport for posterity. Timmy Hansen is going to have the pole position, but I don't think this is going to be quite as easy a start for Timmy as the ones have been before, Andrew. No, certainly not. You know, eight cars into one basic down at turn one. It's a tiny left hand with that hop jump on the inside. Hansen there was having one of the technicians just make a final adjustment to the mirrors. The mirrors on these cars are tiny and they tend to vibrate a lot with the amount of power they're putting out. So not always that useful, but you'll get a flash of color. So you might see red in the left or in the right. And you go, that's Scott. I know where he is, you know, so he's ready. And speaking of vibrating, this entire venue right now feels like it's vibrating. So many people leaning against every possible fence and rail. They're so excited to see this because we've seen three cars on track. We've seen four cars on track. And now it's just like we are all in eight cars. Let's double it, shall we, to eight cars. You know, let's do that. Eight cars down into the first corner. So let's take a look at our Red Bull track conditions. 82 degrees. The wind, though, has picked up again. It's 16 miles an hour. I've seen gusts in the 20s. So again, dries this track out, which means there's dust in the air. It gets hard to see. You get dust in the car. And it affects the way the cars fly as well. So Travis had said, I think they'd hit the jump, but with wind speeds of more than 20 miles per hour. And depending on whether it's coming from the left or the right depends on which way the nose dips. So you heard the guys down there talking earlier on about how Hansen's car was landing on the one wheel when he was taking it in practice this morning. That was because the wind was coming down the valley in one direction. And normally in the afternoon, it switches and goes back the other way. But we've seen them all flying it. You know, yeah, they might land a bit on a slight angle. But it's nothing these cars can't handle. Faust in the background, look, with a tyre cleaning, tyre warming exercise. Ekstrom looking like he's got stickers on the car. You can see, if you have a look at the tyre walls, you'll see on the you can see the Yokohama logo is really clear and clean, bright white on all the cars that are on the grid so far already. And that suggests to me, Tessa, all these guys have saved a brand new set of boots ready for the final. Well, Sandell, we saw him pull off the grid a little earlier. For more on that, let's drop down to Christy Lee. Yeah, that's right, guys. He's missing out there right now, but he will be back very soon. Just found out from his crew he had a bent wheel. Just went back to the pits real quick to swap that out. Should be ready to go for race time, guys. Oh, thanks on that, Christy. And obviously, Patrick, you see him there trying to get ready. He DNF'd in his challenger race. He DNF'd, he did not finish in his semifinal. So he is hoping to get to the back of this grid and make a statement. And what you're saying here, I think, Andrew, was the fact that look at that. Yeah, because that's what I mean by a set of stickers. I would put on a fresh new set of Yokohamas for this, because why not get the maximum amount of your tyres for all six laps of this race? You want the car to be perfect, you know. Yeah, Sandell's popped back and got a new rim on there. That's probably just bent either from contact or a heavy landing earlier on. You can see them heading up, looking a little bit of left foot braking to warm things up. The grid's forming up, and now you can start to get an idea of why it's important to be where you want to be on the grid. Yeah, all weekend, they've been fighting for the chance to choose a grid slot. The two guys are in the prime positions. Timmy Hansen at the front of the grid there in the grey coloured Peugeot 208 supercar, next to him, the Volkswagen Andretti Beetle of Scott Speed. They're in the prime position. For me, you need to look out on the second row, the Audi of Ekstrom. And on the outside, look, the Beetle of Faust. Those guys have got the choice of that option line test that we've been talking about, where you miss the jump on the inside, send it. Get on the handbrake, see if you could tighten it up at the apex and get a hole shot in front of the two guys on the front row. So Patrick Sandell rolling up to join them. Timmy Hansen and Scott Speed on the front row. It goes two, three, three. And then you have Chris Atkinson, Matthias Ekstrom, Tanner Faust on the second row, Faust with clean air right now. Look, he's over at the front row and his teammate, Scott Speed, in that red, white and green car. We've seen people, though, remember, swerve from the inside of the grid to the outside if they've got a good start to avoid that little jump and try and block it. Yeah. Sandell, Arpin and Travis Pastrana on the back row. Sandell and Arpin have not finished the race yet. Travis Pastrana, yeah, he is kind of tucked in there because he's got a little bit of air. He sees the back of Timmy Hansen's Peugeot from where he's sitting. And if Chris Atkinson goes and drifts across right. Ten second board is up. Look, they're going through the start procedures now, switching on the anti-lag. The cars will be in gear, handbrake on, full throttle, revs up. And the reds come on when they go out. We are racing at green. This is Nitro Rallycross Final. Epic start from Ekstrom, but he's going to have to move across to the inside, try and defend. Timmy Hansen's going to take the hot jump. Scott Speed gone for the alternate line on the outside. The Peugeot, two sideways, Hansen's run wide. He's going to drop at least to fourth on the inside. Ekstrom's gone through. He's going to have to take the jump. Four cars into jump contact. Spun Speed around. This is what we were talking about. And now Timmy Hansen gets the lead going into the jump with Tanner Faust next to him. And Scott Speed has pulled off. Speed's out. I thought he was going to have to take the option line there, Tess, and maybe take the tunnel for the first time this weekend, because if you get a nudge on the ground after the jump, you can't fly. He has a carnage at the start. And I don't know if I missed this. Pastrana's out too. And Speed's gone over to maybe have a word with Pastrana. Ekstrom, I think, took the bottom line, and he's ahead of Timmy Hansen at the moment. All kinds of chaos, which is kind of what we expected at the start of this final. It was. Hansen got hot into turn one and managed to get the car just a little bit too sideways. He got a nudge there. So this is going to be a serious race now. Remember the action we saw yesterday? And he beat between Ekstrom and Hansen. It was one of the moments of the weekend. Of course, Ekstrom got that award for hard charging basic yesterday. Pastrana might have got that earlier on today, but a fantastic racing prospect here. Faust as well as Atco up there. So we've got four different vehicle manufacturers in the top four. Audi, Peugeot, Volkswagen and Subaru. Fantastic to see the fight between them. But the two World Rallycross contenders, Ekstrom and Hansen. And as you've said through this, they have got some history. They're being chased down by Tanner Faust. Watch them go. Wow, it's like they're launching out of a machine gun. Incredible. Look at the roost that Faust is facing in P3. Faust in tyre front bumper missing as well. In terms of Joker lap tactics now, Tess, it's difficult here. Hansen would maybe like to Joker get himself some clean air, but if he goes now, he'll end up in the dust. And Atco's front right tyre has just come off the rim. You pretty much saw that happen. So Atco's going to drop back here. He's rolled the tyre off the rim. And Hansen's all over the back of Ekstrom. Like I say, he can't Joker now because he'll drop back into the dust behind Faust. So a fight now between the Swedes, Ekstrom and Hansen at this. It's only lap two. This is what I'm looking forward to. So I say these guys have got a little bit of history in the World Championship. They've barred each other off a few times. You know, they're both Swedish, both Red Bull drivers. So rival manufacturers competing in the World Championship this year. You know, Hansen will remember how hard he was raced yesterday, Tess. It could be payback time. OK, these two are fighting Tanner Faust right behind them. And pieces are flying off Tanner Faust's car. Look at Timmy Hansen working all over the back of Matthias Ekstrom. He's going to have to give him a little bit of space. They get over this jump. Faust behind him again. I don't think it's going to take long for Hansen to get past. He's really making some moves. He's going wide. Trying the alternate line around the outside. He'll be on the inside into the left. Hansen gives Ekstrom a little nudge. Hooks the wheel up over the berm. That's going to push him wide. Hansen goes low. He's going to avoid the jumps. Ekstrom on the outside. Now look for a move up the inside. Not enough time. So, you know, he's got to look at a joker. He's maybe going to have to look at slipping into the Oklahoma joker because he can't seem to find a way past on course. Does he go left now? Is he going to carry on on the standard lap? Hansen goes left. He's gone joker. Oh, Faust has gone with him. So now Hansen is hoping that Ekstrom will stay out because he seems to be quicker on the standard lap. He'll bang in a couple of quick laps to try and get in front of him. Ekstrom is highly likely to respond immediately. And it looked like both Hansen and Faust got out ahead of the rest of the field. So Ekstrom got some clean air right now. It's his chance to really try and put the gap on himself. And Timmy Hansen. There's Hansen. Faust right behind him. In the background, Arpin and Sandell are now up into P4 and P5 thanks to Atco's puncture. So Arpin, who started at the back of the green in the Focus RS RX. There he is. Look, he's made it up into P4. Great to see reward for these two guys who suffered the retirements earlier on. But the real fight is out at the front. And it's going to be about whether Ekstrom decides to go Joker on this lap or not. Arpin over the standard, smaller jump. So this is it. Watching the gap between these two. I think Ekstrom will Joker now because he knows the Peugeot seems to be faster, Tess. So if we take a look at this, we're looking at Matthias Ekstrom. Watch for him to rotate the car tight. Yeah, he should rotate the car tight left here if he's going to go Joker. And he doesn't. He goes standard lap. OK. So Ekstrom then thinks that he can hold him off. It's 3.3 was the gap previously. We need to see if Hansen can bring that gap down. If he can, it looks like he's going to get him when Ekstrom takes the Joker. There's a couple of laps still to go. He can do it on whatever lap he likes. But the gap was 3.3 the last time he crossed the line. We're coming up for that timing point now, Tess. So pieces of Tanner Faus's car being driven over there by Timmy Hansen. There is Patrick Sandell, Steve Arpin right behind him. Big credit to these two who both didn't get to finish the other races. The gap is down. The gap is 2.44 seconds. Hansen is hunting Ekstrom down here. Timmy Hansen looking to take the first ever win at Nitro World Games, Nitro Rallycross against his familiar competitor, Matthias Ekstrom. He's taken nearly a second off him on that last lap, Tess. So Ekstrom hard. Ekstrom's wide and deep now. And the Peugeot's eating him up. Ekstrom over Hansen and then Faus. That's your top three in Nitro Rallycross. Has Matthias Ekstrom left it too late to take the Joker as Timmy Hansen works himself behind Matthias Ekstrom? Remember, Hansen and Faus, second and third. They have taken the Joker. Ekstrom must take it. He's going to have to take it on the last lap. So Ekstrom decided not to take it on lap five. And by now, do you know what? He probably knows this game over unless Hansen makes a mistake. He can't go on this lap. He knows he'll drop behind him. He's hoping now for a mistake from Hansen on lap five. Give him the gap and the space he needs to be able to take it. But there you can see Atco's car parked at the side of the road. So Hansen chasing Ekstrom down the straight and the gap. Now he's 1.55. He's taken another nine tenths off the Audi on this lap. So great racing from Matthias Ekstrom. But Timmy Hansen, he crashed on this giant jump in practice and he really felt it. And now he is sailing this thing. He is coming closer and closer to Matthias Ekstrom, who is going to have to duck into the Joker and may have left it too late. Look at this. Hansen is already working on his back bumper. This is really great for Timmy Hansen, who made a little bit of a mistake there, but I don't think it was enough. He's lined the car up for the option line there. He's all over the back of Ekstrom here. So unless he has a problem in these last couple of corners, Hansen hasn't taken a win in the World Championship for two years. He lost one in Canada 2016. He'll love to take a win here at the Nitro Games. And he's got him. Here we go. Hansen now takes over first position. Matthias Ekstrom going as hard as he can. He gets out in front of Baus. But it's all about Timmy Hansen, the 26 year old Swede who is going to bring this Peugeot 208 over. This, it's the chequered flag for Timmy Hansen. What a fantastic win in the first ever Nitro Rallycross. Bang the car down the gears. Here we go. Celebratory donuts for Hansen up at turn one. He's spinning the car around 600 horsepower. Four wheel drive. His first win in two years with that enormous jump here. He'd never done a jump like that before he came. He's never seen a course with this much gravel. And look what it means to him. First win in more than two years. Yes, Timmy. Good lad. Great race. He hunted Ekstrom down, didn't he? He really did. He worked the back of Matthias Ekstrom and took advantage of the chaos that happened in those first two turns. And we talked about all the way through. Take a look at this. So watch for Hansen on the inside here. He comes over the hop-jump and he immediately, look, gets the car to sideways. He's hot. Couple of cars up the inside. Look, speed. Faust. Faust gets into Hansen. By now, he's P4. Atko's gone inside. Ekstrom's clever here because he spots this is going to be carnage. That contact there. Speed was out immediately. Pastrana goes out just a couple of seconds later. Ekstrom's taken the lead. And Timmy Hansen manages, look, to make it over the jump and get himself up into a decent place to fight. But wow, carnage. And really, when speed goes sideways here, Travis Pastrana ends up with nowhere to go. He runs into the side of Scott Speed, takes both of them out. And then look at this. Ekstrom sneaking underneath. And then they start going over the top. So great driving and great strategy from Matthias Ekstrom. But it really wasn't enough, because on the day, that great Peugeot of Timmy Hansen. It was all about a really well-run race on his marks the whole way through. Epic drive from him. Great tactics from his spotters. They wait until there was enough clear air behind them. When he jokered, he wouldn't find himself in a tricky situation. Ekstrom then, of course, he could just hunt him down. He took a nine tenths of him, another nine tenths. By the time we came to the last lap, he knew he'd get done on the joker lap and checkered flag for Hansen. And there it is, your results. Timmy Hansen over Matthias Ekstrom. And Steve Arpin takes third, which is a great result for the hard charger. And I don't know if that's right, because we think maybe Tanner Faust got it. We hope you enjoyed our Nitro Rally Cross Racing. We certainly had fun for Todd Richards, Chris Jacobs, Bucky Lassett, Christy Lee and Andrew Coley. I am Tess Sewell saying thank you very much for joining us. And be sure to come back to Nitro World Games.