GotCone spent the last 2 weekends in Blytheville, AR for the National Tour (Southern States Championship) ProSolo. Both events had some very fast and exciting courses. The National Tour had over 300 competitors which helped provide some great action as drivers vied for the Southern States Championship in their class. The National Tour States’ Championship series is part of the Triad award (States Championship, Divisional Championship and National Championship).
Jeff Jacobs won the Super Challenge in his HS Mini at the Blytheville ProSolo
It looks like Discovery HD Theater decided to broadcast Rally New Zealand coverage after all. It was rumored that they were going to skip the coverage for this event and even inquiries to Discovery had resulted in confirmation of this fact. Luckily I had my DVR set to record the WRC coverage as Rally New Zealand was broadcast last weekend, so if you missed it this weekend, watch for replays over the next week or so on Discovery HD Theatre.
Rally Portugal opened with a Super Special Stage last week held in a local arena. One of the more interesting battles featured Ken Block in Monster World Rally Team Ford Focus RS vs. former Formula 1 Champion Kimi Raikkonen in his Redbull Citroen C4. The 2 World Rally Championship rookie drivers battled out 2 trips around the course and ended in a tie! A great start for Block in WRC Rally Portugal, unfortunately the rest of the event didn’t go so well for him.
Ken Block and Kimi Raikkonen race around a Super Special Stage at WRC Rally Portugal. Watch the video.
If you’ve played Dirt 2, you know what SuperRally is, although it is not called SuperRally in the game. SuperRally, also referred to as Rallycross in Europe, is very much like motocross, except with cars instead of motorcycles. It differentiates itself from the other X Games rally event by having multiple cars on the same course at the same time, which could lead to some crazy action.
Travis Pastrana competes in his Subaru STi at the 2009 X Games
Usually I wait to do a wrap up for the WRC event just before the coverage is shown on Discovery HD Theater, but it looks like the U.S. will not be getting any coverage of Rally New Zealand on television. Coverage for Rally New Zealand does not appear on this month’s Discovery HD Theater schedule and an inquiry for an air date resulted in a reply stating that Rally de Portugal would air in the middle of June. So it looks like Discovery HD Theater will not be airing Rally New Zealand at all. So, I might as well write my wrap up now..
Jari-Matti Latvala edged out Sebastien Ogier for victory at WRC Rally New Zealand
It was a good weekend if you were driving a Mitsubishi EVO at the Rally America Oregon Trail Rally held in The Dalles, OR and not such a great weekend if you weren’t. Three EVOs swept the podium with ACP (Andrew Comrie-Picard) taking 1st place in his NOS Energy Drink EVO, followed by William Bacon in 2nd and Rally America points leader Antoine L’Estage in 3rd.
ACP took the win at this year's Oregon Trail Rally
Discovery HD Theater has moved its coverage of the WRC to Saturday mornings, beginning at 8 AM Central. Rally of Turkey coverage will be shown this Saturday (5/8), with all 4 segments (preview, Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3) shown back-to-back.
Sebastien Loeb Flies his Citroen rally car to his 3rd victory of the year at Rally of Turkey
Travis Pastrana wrapped up his 2nd Rally America victory of the year at the Olympus Rally in Washington State. The Subaru Rally Team USA driver set the fastest time on 8 of the 13 stages to easily secure the victory over the Rockstar Energy Mitsubishi EVO X of Antoine L’Estage. Pastrana said, “This rally was hard from the start. It was definitely the most intense field that we’ve had, unfortunately a lot of guys went out on the first day. It was a really technical course, more so than we expected!”
Travis Pastrana wins the Rally America Olympus Rally in his Subaru Rally Team STi
The Ferrari 599XX recently set the record for production cars by posting a 6 minute 58 second lap time. Although i have a hard time with this being considered a ‘production’ car, it is amazing nonetheless. Enjoy the video of the record breaking lap time.
The long rumored BMW 1-Series M version was recently spotted being tested on the Nurburgring. It looks like the car may actually go into production sometime in the next year. It will be interesting to see what the specs for the final version of the car. Rumors have swirled of 350HP with a M suspension, fatter tires and bigger fender flares. Only time will tell what the car will actually be.
