In recent years Sebastien Loeb has dominated on tarmac and Rallye Deutschland in Germany was no different. Loeb dominated from early on to claim his 8th win in Germany, a new record for most wins on one event. Loeb has not lost in Germany throughout his entire WRC career that began in 2002. The victory in Germany means that Loeb could wrap up his 7th world championship in Japan if Sebastien Ogier finishes 6th or worse. Fittingly, it is more likely that Loeb will wrap up the title in his home country in France at the following event.
Sebastien Loeb claimed a record 8th win at Rally Deutschland
Rally America unveiled SuperRally to the world, or at least the U.S. at X Games 16. No they are changing their name and the name of the event. Rally America has rebranded and will now be known as RallyCar. They are also unveiling for 2011 that there will be a Rallycross Championship. Yes, that’s right Rallycross will be much the same as SuperRally was at X Games 16, with cars on the same course at the same time, wheel to wheel.
Show your support for GotCone.com with a Team GotCone.com t-shirt. Custom shirts with your name (or car), car number, class and ‘sponsors’ are available by request. If you want a custom shirt send me an email at david @ evorticity.com with the info for your shirt and I will send you a link once it is ready. Order early as it can take up to 10 days for your shirt to ship it seems.
Generic shirt: http://gotcone.onlineshirtstores.com/shop/product/1351768
Sample Custom shirt: http://gotcone.onlineshirtstores.com/shop/product/1332983?ma=4
One word sums up the X Games 16 rally events, disaster! The rally car portion ended with only 3 match ups actually coming to a conclusion. The rest of the match ups ended either in an off-course being called or one car breaking before the finish. There was so much confusion with where the course was supposed to go that not only the drivers, but the spectators, the announcers and even the camera men seemed befuddled as to what was occurring. Even if there hadn’t been so much confusion, the courses were horribly designed. They were very tight with a few too many handbrake turn sections, giving a huge advantage to the smaller and lighter Ford Fiesta rally cars. There were 2 near-miss head on collisions as the crossover point was a blind intersection with one car emerging from under the jump into the high-speed straight section of the other car.
Tanner Foust took the gold in both the rally car and Super Rally competitions at X Games 16
After teammate Mikko Hirvonen surrendered his lead to Petter Solberg early on in the rally after crashing out, Jari-Matti Latvala pushed hard to grab the lead back for the Ford Team and after taking the lead after stage 7 held on to win in his home rally, Neste Oil Rally Finland. It is often said that the Finnish drivers have a home-field advantage in Finland and that seemed to ring true again this year. In winning, Latvala became the youngest driver to capture a victory in Finland. “It’s a dream and I can’t even imagine it yet! It’s something I’ve been dreaming of since I was a small boy!”, exclaimed Latvala after the event.
Jari-Matti Latvala drove his way to victory in his home rally in Finland
Don’t forget to set your DVRs for tomorrow for the X Games 16 Rally and Super Rally events. I’m guessing the Super Rally is going to bring some excitement and may be something worth watching a few times over. Just about anything can and will happen with 4 cars sliding and jumping together on the same course. Both events will feature some big names from Rally America and other motorsports.
Travis Pastrana tests out his 2011 Subaru STI Rally Car in preparation for X Games 16
A quick Rally Finland update. Day 2 is under way and Jari-Matti Latvala has just claimed slim lead over Petter Solberg, just 9 seconds behind. Citreon teammates Sebastien Ogier and Sebastien Loeb are currently sitting in 3rd and 4th, respectively, followed by Dani Sordo in 5th driving for the Citroen Junior Team. Mikko Hirvonen was looking to repeat his success at last year’s Rally Finland and to get back on track and score some points in the driver’s standings, but suffered a huge crash, rolling several times. Mikko was leading his home rally by just under 5 seconds, before rolling his car 5 times. Neither Mikko or his co-driver were injured in the crash, but Hirvonen’s Ford Focus RS suffered substantial damage and will not be able to continue.
Video (onboard and outside) of Mikko Hirvonen as he crashes out of Rally Finland in his Ford Focus RS.
A couple months back the amazing Ferrari 599XX broke the Nurburgring track record, well Pagani couldn’t let that go unchallenged. So Pagani brought out it’s answer the Pagani Zonda R and broke the 599XX’s record time, setting a new record of 6:47. Now you can argue that neither of these cars are actually road legal or would you drive either one of these on a daily commute, but the times and laps are amazing to say the least. Watch the Pagani Zonda R’s super fast lap of the Nurburgring below.
Video of the Pagani Zonda R setting the Nurburgring track record.
BMW announced that MINI will be returning to competition in the World Rally Championship starting at select events in 2011 and will compete in the entire 2012 season and ‘for many years’ to come after that. The MINI rally car will be based on the Clubman and will be developed in partnership with ProDrive, which was behind the Subaru Rally Team from 1989 – 2008. The Clubman will be fitted with a 1.6 Liter turbo charged 4 cylinder BMW Motorsport engine.
The 2011 MINI Countryman will serve as the base to the WRC rally car
The Project BMW 135i STU made a trip down to Kansas City to the SCCA Midwest Divisional event last weekend. The event was held at the MCC Performance Driving School in Independence, MO. The courses were set up on a section of the mini road course at the site. The GotCone.com Project BMW 135i STU car finished 6th in the STU class.
Project BMW 135i STU at 2010 Kansas City SCCA Midwest Divisional
