This is The Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scat a little bit.

It was weird this week watching a replay of Tanner Foust finish second at the Long Beach Grand Prix Celebrity race.

I was reading about his successes at the European Rallycross round in Portugal as I watched him hop the curbs and slide over, under, around and through the opposition in Long Beach.

Seeing pictures from Portugal, much of the discipline looked just alike.

Tanner did have some success in Portugal.  He finished eighth overall after qualifying as high as sixth in one of the weekend heats.

He said: “It's hard to describe just how fast the Rockstar Energy Ford Fiesta is.  All the cars in the top rally cross class have twice the horsepower of a world rally car! I am just starting to come to grips with how to get this car around the track.”

Tanner is constantly described as a drifter and that’s fair.  It’s where his championships have emerged.

But we’ll see this year as he grows in the European Rallycross championship that he’s a driver period.

Hopefully he’ll get that respect as the season winds toward the Rally America rallycross events this fall in New Jersey.

Peace.