Dramatic “Finnish”: Toomas Heikkenen Scores Global RallyCross Win At New Hampshire Motor Speedway

LOUDON, N.H. – In Global RallyCross action, you’re only as good as your last obstacle, something Tanner Foust showed to be true Thursday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Toomas Heikkenen celebrates his Global RallyCross win Thursday t New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Photo: New Hampshire Motor Speedway)

Foust saw what looked like sure victory slip from his grasp in the final turn Thursday as Toomas Heikkenen overtook him late in the event and won the Sylvania SilverStar zXe Global RallyCross event at NHMS.

With a seemingly insurmountable lead, Foust’s car caught a patch of gravel on the final elevated hairpin turn and slid hard into a barrier, allowing Heikkenen to grab the lead and the victory.

“The rains and weather from earlier made the course difficult for everyone,” Heikkenen said. “Tanner made a little mistake there – I didn’t expect that mistake from him. It was good to get the win, I will take it.”

Heikkenen was followd to the checkered by fellow Finnish driver Patrik Sandell. Brian Deegan was third, followd by Foust.

“It was a tough way to end the race, obviously,” Foust said. “I felt the pressure from those guys all race and I tried to protect the turn. It was certainly a wild ride, not to mention I had Brian coming straight at me at 100 miles per hour.”

NASCAR Nationwide Series regular Travis Pastrana, who won the Global RallyCross inaugural event last year at NHMS, was seventh.