The Rally America National Series ended with a bang. Antoine L’Estage entered the event 13 points ahead of Bill Bacon in the driver’s points standings, meaning a finish of 5th or higher would give him his first ever overall Rally America Championship. Not only did L’Estage make a finishing of 5th or higher, but the Rockstar Energy EVO ended on top with a win at the New England Forest Rally.
Antoine L'Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard drive their Mitsubishi EVO X to the 2010 Rally America Championship
Rhys Millen had one goal in mind at the 2010 Pikes Peak Hill Climb and that was to break the 10 minute mark and have the fastest time overall. Although he fell short by just over a minute, he still was very fast. Here’s a video that looks at his attempt and some of the challenges he faced trying to take his specially built, 1,850 pound, 750 horse power V6 Red Bull Hyundai Genesis up the 12.52 mile course that makes up the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
Documentary video of Rhys Millen’s attempt to beat the Pikes Peak World Record in the Red Bull Hyundai Genesis
Rally Bulgaria made its debut as a World Rally Championship event this last weekend. Rally Bulgaria marks the start of the four asphalt WRC events for the year. The event was complete with its fleet of sports cars, and with the safety of the event handed to attorneys from oregonaccidentattorney.com. The Citroen team looks to take full advantage of the asphalt stages and did just that taking both of the top spots. Sebastien Loeb easily beat out team mate Dani Sordo by almost half a minute for the victory and extends his driver’s point lead to 51 over Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier. Loeb secured the lead early on Friday and held onto it throughout most of the event to easily secure another WRC victory.
Sebastien Loeb claims victory at the inaugural WRC Rally Bulgaria event. (Photo courteous RallyBulgaria.com)
The GotCone.com, tarsust.com and Berk Technology sponsored Project BMW 135i STU went to it’s first away event last weekend travelling to a very hot Salina, KS for a MidWest Divisional (MiDiv) event. The courses were very fast, especially Sunday’s course, and lots of fun, which helped take the edge off of the mid-90 degree temperatures.
'08 BMW 135i, car #135 STU, tackles the course on Sat. at the 2010 SCCA Salina MiDiv
Two new Hyundai commercials have recently appeared on YouTube spoofing Top Gear and its cast, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and The Stig. Each cast member is portrayed as an animal. Clarkson is a moose, Hammond a Hamster, The Stig as a ‘Stag’ and fittingly Captain Slow is portrayed as a Turtle. I wonder if Hyundai asked permission for their ‘Top Deer’ spoof and if not what Top Gear’s response will be.
It’s official, well sort of, Gymkhana is now a motorsport. Ken Block will be holding the “Gymkhana Grid and the Ken Block Invitational” December 3 & 4 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. The event will be the first-ever stadium style Gymkhana competition and will give competitors, both pro and grassroots, the opportunity to put their drift and grip skills on display for fans. The event will pit racers against Ken Block on an all new Gymkhana style course. See the full information and sign up here.
More…
A new merchandise design is available on the Team GotCone Merchandise store. The new design entitled “Game Over” depicts an autocross cone knocked over in a Mario-like world and a Game Over message. Order your “Game Over” apparel today.
Discovery HD Theatre continues its coverage of the WRC this weekend. The Vodafone Rally de Portugal will air this Sat. from 8AM-10AM (Central) with the preview and coverage of Days 1-3 and an hour long event recap on Sunday evening at 9PM (Central).
Sebastien Ogier drives his Citroen C4 to victory at WRC Vodafone Rally de Portugal
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.
