The Washington DC round of the 2015 Red Bull Global Rallycross season really was a weekend of two halves for Steve Arpin. After a tough first day, the Canadian turned it around to take a strong fourth placed finish in the final, battling past two-time champion Tanner Foust in the process.Steve Arpin Interview
Dominik Wilde: You say you were a lot happier on race day than you were yesterday, why is that?
Steve Arpin: Yesterday I wasn't sure if I even knew how to drive anymore! We struggled yesterday. It's the second or third time it's happened to us this year but we sat down after the day and really just dissected the car and what was happening and they completely started over, tore the entire thing apart, worked through the night last night and it was a remarkable difference. It was like black and white, the difference in that car today...so to just to give me the opportunity to go out there and race today was so much fun. We were competitive, the car was awesome. Instead of driving on the defence we were able to drive on the offence and really push and I think if I could have got by Tanner Foust better or sooner I think we would have had a shot at the top three, definitely could have got a third but it was fun.
Dominik Wilde: So what do you attribute the big overnight change to?
Steve Arpin: The setup. We completely changed the car, just lots of little things. The thing is with this series now, everyone's so close, the competition level is raised. Like the bar was here (gestures), now it's here (gestures), and everyone's up to it. So it doesn't take much to be way off. It was a number of small things and it literally completely changed the race car for us today, it was perfect.
Dominik Wilde: The track here in Washington DC is quite unique in the sense that no two inches on the track are the same as any other. It's so varied; it's so diverse so how do you set up a car to go quick around here without compromising anything?
Steve Arpin: You have smart engineers and mechanics like we've got over here. We have a really neutral baseline setup, we just didn't come here with it this weekend, and you just tune from there. The biggest thing is there are some places where you need to be good and there are some places where you have to sacrifice because you're not going to be good everywhere and you just have to figure out where you think you'll have the opportunity to pass, where it's most important, most crucial that you're good and that you're powerful throughout that area so that's the kind of way we go about it.
Dominik Wilde: So with this weekend now in the bag, you've still got a good chunk of the year to go. How does the team go forward now? What are your thoughts going through the rest of the season?
Steve Arpin: My goal for the rest of the season is to stop starting from behind. We've been struggling the first day and we just get behind. We qualify bad, we just get behind and come back out and overhaul everything, make some big changes and go back out and we're strong. We're strong in the finals, we're strong in the semi-finals so now we just need to figure out how to show up at the race track with the right piece and at the same time get me there too. I need to push a little harder in practice.
Image: Dominik Wilde for Red Bull Global Rallycross
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