Interview: Jeff Ward Discusses His 2016 GRC Season

Jeff Ward took Red Bull Global Rallycross on as his latest challenge, and the veteran competitor told Beyond the Flag how he saw his 2016 GRC season.

Jeff Ward has competed all across motorsports for years. He’s driven in NASCAR, IndyCar, and most recently he’s taken on Red Bull Global Rallycross.

Ward substituted for Brian Deegan in select GRC races this year, before coming into the 2016 season with SH Rallycross. The Newport Beach-based driver recently spoke with Beyond the Flag about this year’s GRC campaign and what attracted him to the sport to begin with.

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“I looked at [Rallycross] a long time ago when it was in the X Games,” Ward recalled, “and I was real interested in trying to get into it. It was just really difficult, with car count and everything like that.

“The opportunity happened last year with another team [Chip Ganassi Racing] that had availability for a couple races,” he continued, “so I jumped in and liked it and did well, and just pursued trying to get a full ride which I did here with SH Rallycross.”

He explained that he was particularly able to bring skills from his motocross experience – in which he earned two X Games gold medals and two AMA Supermoto championships – to GRC.

“You have to know your surroundings, and so you just adapt real well coming from a motocross background into cars where everything kind of transitions over,” Ward told us.

“Knowing the guy behind you, knowing the guy in front of you, just all that. The hardest part is learning the what the car wants and what it does and getting speed time. This is kind of up my alley, because it’s got dirt in it.”

He earned GRC’s first Rallycross pole last year at Daytona:

In his three starts filling in for Deegan, Ward won all three of his heats but just missed any Supercar podium finishes. Five races across 2016 has seen him with a best finish of fifth and he’s clear that he’s not going to be happy until he can get into that top three.

“We haven’t been on the podium,” he said, adding, “We’re going to get there and I’m super-excited. We want to win races and I think everyone wants to win races in here and there’s only one guy that’s happy at the end of the weekend.”

So with a new race team and a new car, has 2016 felt like a rookie year for him?

“For sure,” Ward reflected. “I’m starting up a full season for the championship and that’s a different mindset than coming in for a couple races knowing you’re not going in for longer.

“Then you kind of tiptoe around; you don’t want to take someone out that’s in the championship when you’re just coming in. Now that you’re in the full season, everyone looks at you differently.

“It’s definitely my rookie season, putting the full deal together. Tracks are really different this year so really it’s the same for everybody.”

“The Volkswagens, those things go well everywhere so they’re the guys to beat,” he continued, referring to championship leaders Tanner Foust and Scott Speed. “Definitely the Volkswagens have been at the top of the game right now.”

“Everyone else is kind of a level playing field depending on qualifying and starts and everything that goes on,” he added. “We need to pick it up and get up there, and I think we’re getting closer.”

Whatever happens in the remainder of the GRC season Ward is just happy to be back in his natural element of competitive motorsports.

“I’ve raced my whole life. I’ve been racing since I was 5 years old,” he told us, “so it’s kind of the normal for me to be at the racetrack and racing something.

“I like the camaraderie of working together and figuring out stuff out, I love traveling. It’s just what I do,” he concluded, “so it’s not like it’s different for me. It’s the normal.”

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