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Steve Arpin Strikes Silver at 2015 Summer X Games in Austin




While motorsports fail to gain the respect to be included with the Olympics, Commonwealth or Pan-Am Games, the maverick athletic spirit of the X Games has given representation to motorized warriors. For this year's Summer X Games in Austin, Texas, Competitors on motorcycles or riding inside Stadium Super Trucks and RallyCross cars get the opportunity to claim a top-three medal in a chosen event. In RallyCross, drivers from the Red Bull Rallycross series suited-up for the 2015 edition of the Summer X Games. Just a week after their official 2015 season started, the X Games event provided no points towards the Red Bull Rallycross' championship but was heavily battled. After Saturday's finals, Canada has a reason proudly celebrate the results.

Fort Frances, Ontario's Steve Arpin drove to a silver medal in the RallyCross final round on the .562-mile track within the Circuit of the America's complex. Having to aggressively fight his way through a Last Chance Qualifying heat to enter the main event, the Chip Ganassi Racing-owned Ford Fiesta ST in the Canadian driver's hands stayed out of trouble to cross the line in second place. Being the driver's first X Games podium, Arpin's in delivered the first medal performance by a Canadian in the RallyCross competition of the X Games in Austin, Texas this past weekend.

Steve Arpin finished within a second of gold medal winner Scott Speed's Volkswagen Beetle. For Speed and Andretti RallyCross, they defended their gold medal performance of last year's X Games. Following the Gold medal performance, Speed responded, “The final race was the most gratifying of my career from the fact that it took so much work, not just from myself, but from the entire Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross team,”. Claiming the Bronze medal honours, Swedish driver Sebastian Eriksson fought hard by soldiering to the finish on a flat left-rear tire. For Eriksson's race team Olsbergs MSE, it is the organization's 23rd medal in X Games competition.    

For Chip Ganassi Racing in their first X Games RallyCross competition, the result was impressive for a debut. In addition to Steve Arpin's Silver medal, Brian Deegan made his debut in the team's second Ford Fiesta ST and finished fourth in the final round. In another part of Texas during the same weekend, superteam owner Chip Ganassi watched as his IndyCar driver Scott Dixon went to victory in the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The 2015 Red Rull Rallycross season resumes competition on June 20th at Daytona International Speedway. 


Photo Credit: Olsbergs MSE
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