Le Mans – A Tale of Three Minutes and Two F’s

Or “How I learned to love Le Mans and hate the ACO.” I have a ritual for watching the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Of course, I watch as much pre-race as I can (usually through a bootleg internet stream) and through the start. My favorite times are the “golden hours” at sunset and sunrise. Watching sunset isn’t much of a challenge, but I usually fail to see the sunrise, as I invariably fall asleep about an hour before sunrise. None of our readers care about my sleep habits.  You…

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The Quick Recap – Rally in the 100 Acre Wood

A close battle at the front, massive accidents, and wide-spread attrition made the 2016 Rally in the 100 Acre Wood one to remember. It feels like someone snuck “Do a Barrel Roll (Press Z or R twice)” into the Jemba notes this year. A Red Cross came out twice this weekend, delaying stages, and even more drivers had offs, rolls, and skids. Thankfully, nobody was seriously injured in any of these instances. A side effect of the delays, stages traditionally run in the dark that we feared gone, thanks to…

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Welcome Back Gravel – Rally in the 100 Acre Wood Preview

The extended wait is finally over. After nearly two months the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood is finally here and it’s looking to be a fantastic event. Rally regulars, off-road specialists, and tarmac professionals will be competing against each other on the Missouri stage roads this weekend. In total, nearly 70 entries are slated to do their best Christopher Robin impressions, a great turnout for the second Rally America national event of the year. Why such a long time between rallies this year? After two of the last three runnings of the…

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Red Bull GRC – Season Kicks Off This Weekend in Ft. Lauderdale

The Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship kicks off this weekend on the streets of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  We’ve been excited about the new 2015 season for a couple of reasons.  For one, the finale last year was simply epic with the young Finn Joni Wiman (pronounced “yon-ee”  “Vee-man”) of Olsbergs MSE coming out as the champion narrowly beating out chief Hoonigan Ken Block.  The other reason is that the series showed remarkable improvement as the season went on with ever improving track designs and better racing between drivers.  If this season is…

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WRC – Liveries, Liveries, and More Liveries

You get a new livery, and you get a new livery, and you get a new livery….it’s that Oprah Winfrey Show time of year where all the major teams release their “New Look” for the 2015 season.  Since every car in the modern WRC has the exact same profile, the teams have to do something to stand out.  I have to tip my hat to both M-Sport and VW for the most dramatic of designs, however one must wonder whether the two teams somehow collaborated before coming up with their…

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RALLY – M-Sport Unveils 2015 Livery for Ford Fiesta RS WRC

  Today was the unveiling of the newest livery for M-Sport’s Fiesta RS WRC.  M-Sport stated that the design was inspired by Hannu Mikkola’s 1979 Ford Escort RS 1800 MKII and the later 1989 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth of Colin McRae, M-Sport’s new design reflects the Blue Oval’s long and prestigious standing within the sport; a modern twist bringing the colour scheme up-to-date for this year’s young and aspiring drivers. Team Principal Malcolm Wilson said: “When designing this year’s livery we were keen to produce something fresh and exciting whilst celebrating…

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Rally – Mikko Hirvonen Announces Retirement

Mikko Hirvonen is one of the fastest drivers and one of the most beloved personalities the World Rally Championship has ever seen. He broke the mold of how most westerners saw Finns, as Mikko was unafraid to show his raw emotions and talk in detail about his successes and failures to the media. He also has one heck of a sense of humor that was well displayed in his travel videos he did with co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen in their first season with Citroen.  By far Mikko’s  greatest successes came from the…

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Red Bull GRC at DirtFish Rally School – The Definition of What Rallycross Should Be

I can sum up in just a few words what Red Bull GRC Seattle at DirtFish Rally School was like.  DirtFish DEFINED rallycross.  Simple as that. Why?  Well, as you have heard me say time and time again, it is all about the track.  The grounds at DirtFish were a perfect venue for the sport.  The cars started on tarmac, switched to gravel around the long turn 1, then back to tarmac as they went into the covered planar building, then back to gravel into turn 10, then to a…

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Red Bull GRC – Power Rankings for LA

Last week I spoke with Chris Leone of the Red Bull GRC and we summarized the season so far as it heads to the west coast.  As the clock ticks down to this weekend’s double-header in LA, I came up with my opinion of where I think the drivers rank.  Note that this doesn’t exactly reflect the championship standings as this isn’t just where they finish, but about their consistent speed and potential.  I’ve jotted down a few comments about each driver, let me know if you agree or disagree with their…

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