After a year’s absence Monster World Rally Team driver Ken Block made his return to Rally America and what a return it was! On Friday Block and his Ford Fiesta jumped out to the lead early winning 5 of the 6 stages for the day. The second stage was his only set back where he spun twice and only had the 9th fastest stage time, giving up the lead momentarily to Subaru Rally Team driver David Higgins. But by the end of the day Block had claimed the lead back.

The first day of competition claimed last year’s winner, Antoine L’Estage who had to retire after stage 4 due to transmission failure. Crazy Leo (Leonid Urlichich) suffered a puncture early on stage 1 which put him out of the running, but had made his way back up to 4th spot, behind Krzysztof Holowczyc. But the battle would be between Higgins and Block on day 2. More…

Just days remain before the deadline for manufacturers to sign up for the 2012 WRC season. Some speculation was swirling whether Ford would compete in 2012, but that speculation has been put to rest as Ford has signed on for at least 2 more years. They also have announced that Petter Solberg will be Jari Matti Latvala’s teammate for the 2012 season. This comes just days after Petter announced he would not be driving a Citroen in 2012, as he could not continue as a privateer any longer. More…

Ken Block shed some light on his plans for 2012 recently and it appears he will be cutting back on his WRC appearances. Although he wouldn’t to commit to much of anything, he did make it clear he will be participating in as many Global RallyCross events as possible and will be limiting the time he spends on the WRC. This is somewhat sad news as he seemed to be making big strides scoring points in 2 WRC events near the end of the 2011 season, but it really doesn’t surprise me too much. I have speculated that Ken might be done with WRC altogether, but it does appear he will make at least a couple appearances next year. More…

This is becoming a yearly thing. Last year I posted up some of the photos I thought were the best from 2010 and I wanted to do it again this year. I decided to try and pick photos with a story behind them, but I also picked some that were just fun photos. The year began with a trip to Rally America 100 Acre Wood and continued through to the RallyCross National Championships in Tulsa, with stops along the way at a lot of SCCA events and Pikes Peak. It was a busy year for sure!

I hope you enjoy the selections I made and I may add a few more if I run across some that deserve to be here. As always leave your comments and suggestions below.

Click an image to view them as a slideshow and to download the much larger resolution versions.

Travis Pastrana made an unexpected appearance at Rally America's Rally in the 100 Acre Wood after wrecking his Nascar Nationwide series car the previous day. It turned into quite an expensive weekend as Pastrana rolled the rented former Colin McRae Subaru STi on just the 2nd stage of the rally.

Kimi Raikkonen will be returning to Formula 1 for the 2012 season after inking a deal with Lotus Renault GP. The former Formula 1 World Champion has spent the last 2 years driving a Citroen in the WRC. In 2010, Kimi drove for the Citroen Junior Team and then took on the 2011 season as a privateer in the new Citroen DS3 WRC cars.
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Volkswagen Motorsports chief Kris Nissen announced today that Sebastien Ogier has been officially signed to drive one of the VW Skoda Fabias in the 2012 WRC season. Ogier will also be participating in world-wide testing of the VW Polo R car throughout 2012. This testing will include an altitude test in Mexico. Nissen said the “misunderstandings with Citroen” this season led to Ogier becoming available and it was Ogier’s decision to approach VW to join the team.

VW called on 2 time world champion Carlos Sainz to close the deal. Sainz was instrumental in VW signing Ogier to head its 2013 WRC campaign. “For me, Sebastien is one of the world’s three best drivers,” said Sainz.
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The updated PAX indexing factors have been release for the 2012 SCCA Solo/Autocross season. 2012 brings a few new classes (STF, STC & SSP) and some movement in other classes that should shake it up a bit. Full Solo PAX/RTP list below:

For historical PAX values visit Rick Ruth’s PAX/RTP page

The SCCA RallyCross National Championships were held in October in Tulsa, OK. This was the first time at Tulsa Raceway Park for the RallyCross National Championships and was a flying success. The event drew exactly 100 competitors the largest number to date, up almost 30% from the previous year. There was a lot of dirt flying all weekend and some great battles down the stretch. GotCone was there capturing all the excitement and even took some video (see below).

Photos from the event can be found in the 2011 SCCA RallyCross National Championships Photo Gallery.

As rumored earlier this week, Mikko Hirvonen will officially be joining 8 time World Champion Sebastien Loeb on the Citroen WRC team for the 2012 season. Hirvonen inked a 2 year deal with the Citroen works team, which will put the top 2 drivers from 2011 on the same team. This is a huge shake up for Citroen and Ford, as Ford will need to scramble to find another driver to replace their former #1 driver.

It is unclear as of now what is the fate of Loeb’s 2011 teammate and fellow countryman Sebastien Ogier. Citroen could move him to a ‘Junior’ team like they have run in the past or Ogier could be making the move to Ford as was originally rumored or possibly a seat on the newly formed Volkswagen team.
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It looks like Citroen and Ford may be making a trade of sorts for the 2012 WRC season. Apparently Sebastien Loeb, fresh off his 8th consecutive championship, mentioned to a journalist at WRC Rally GB that his teammate for 2012 could very well be Mikko Hirvonen. This could also move Loeb’s current teammate Sebastien Ogier to a Ford alongside Jari Matti Latvala. This would definitely be a big shake up in the WRC. It looks like we should be expecting an announcement from Citroen soon.

According to a note on Mikko Hirvonen’s Facebook Fan Page:
“The 2011 season of the WRC and Loeb has just finished celebrating his eighth title of the World Rally Championship. But, is not what we want to talk to you. As reported by Auto123 seems that Sebastien Loeb has revealed to journalists present at the Rally of Wales next year Mikko Hirvonen could be his Citroen teammate.
The exchange may be between Sebastien Ogier and Mikko Hirvonen, and Ogier, Ford and Hirvonen in a Citroen. The official announcement by Citroen should materialize in the coming days.”