Category: Rally

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Rally – Red Bull GRC Barbados, What Did We Learn?

Mike Shaw

By now most everyone already knows the results from last weekend’s GRC season opener in Barbados, and I won’t be getting into the results too much.  What I really wanted to focus on are the changes with the newly re-branded Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship as well as some of the more significant moments.  Here’s a run-down of what I observed (at least virtually since I wasn’t physically there and they didn’t have any live video streaming).   1.  Improved Track Design As many of you know, I’ve been very…

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Rally – Red Bull GRC Kicks off in Barbados

Mike Shaw

Although not televised until next weekend on NBC, you can follow all the happenings of the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship season opener at the Top Gear Festival in Barbados via social networking and their live timing web site.  Sure it isn’t quite the same as the live programming coming later this season, but unless you want to ignore your Twitter and Facebook for a week you might as well delve in.   Red Bull GRC’s Christopher Leone who was nice enough to take the time to be on our…

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PR – Everyone is Going Purple!

Mike Shaw

Royal Purple Synthetic Oil has been on a tear with partnerships lately.  First was the announcement at the Red Bull Global Rallycross Media Day that Royal Purple was renewing their partnership with the Red Bull GRC series and sponsoring an Olsbergs MSE Ford Fiesta GRC Supercar that will be driven by Steve Arpin.   Then last week Royal Purple announced a partnership with Subaru Rally Team USA.  The especially interesting point here is that Royal Purple is not just backing the SRT USA Global Rallycross Team, but also their Rally…

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TUSCC – Extreme Speed Motorsports Takes the Win at Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix

Josh Tons

Recent “Balance of Performance” made for two exciting races of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship this weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The pole-sitting No. 2 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b car driven the duo of Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown, earned the first Prototype win for both drivers and placed a P2 car atop the podium for the first time in four TUDOR Championship races. As Brown started the race, the Pro-Am driver fell more than 10 second back and was the first to pit, handing the car over to Overbeek at the 22-minute mark.…

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Rally – Cascadia IRC Launches at Oregon Trail

Mike Shaw

First of all, I must admit that I’m not the best at following the local/regional rally competitors here in the Pacific Northwest.  That will change this year though with the new Cascadia International Rally Championship having their first event at the Oregon Trail Rally.  As Dave Henderson of Suspect Motorsports told us in our interview a few weeks ago in podcast Episode 226  , the Cascadia IRC is a new “Championship within Championships” designed for regional teams in the Pacific Northwest to compete beyond just single events.  This means some…

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Rally – Oregon Trail 2014 Preview

Mike Shaw

Round three of the Rally America National Championship gets underway this week with the Oregon Trail Rally.  The only event on the calendar in the western United States, Oregon Trail is also the longest event spanning 3 days.   The Weather: Over the last week the Pacific Northwest has had some fairly heavy rain, however drying conditions are in the forecast with temperatures in the 70’s for Friday and Saturday with only a slight possibility of a few scattered showers on Sunday.  Their could be some dusty conditions on Saturday…

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PR – Royal Purple Renews Sponsorship with Red Bull GRC

Mike Shaw

  ROYAL PURPLE RENEWS SPONSORSHIP AGREEMENT WITH RED BULL GLOBAL RALLYCROSS   Porter, TX (April 22, 2014) — Premium synthetic lubricant manufacturer Royal Purple announced today that it will serve as the exclusive oil and lubricants sponsor for the Red Bull Global Rallycross Supercar and Lites series through 2015.  The multi-year agreement is an extension of the successful partnership established in 2013, and includes an option for renewal through 2016.   “Our partnership with the Red Bull Global Rallycross allows us to tap into the fastest growing broadcast and spectator fan base in the industry. Most…

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RALLY – ESPR, America’s Only Full Tarmac Rally

Mike Shaw

Recently I was contacted by Alvin Fong, driver for the Black Box Rally Team based out of Danbury, Connecticut.  Black Box is a privateer team that competes in the Super Production class of the NASA Atlantic Rally Cup and Rally America’s Eastern Regional Championship.  I’m going to get Alvin on one of our Inside The Helmet interviews soon to discuss east coast rallying, but until then he offered to give us a special preview of one of the most unique rallies in America, the Empire State Performance Rally.  ESPR is…

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WRC coming to the USA? … Well, Kind of

Mike Shaw

Okay, so we aren’t getting a WRC round anytime soon.  But on the plus side we are getting a special visitor to USA rallying.  The world renowned “Voice of Rally”, Colin Clark of WRC Live Radio, is making his first visit to a rally in the United States next week for the Oregon Trail Rally.  The event is thankfully a somewhat convenient stop on his way to the next WRC round in Argentina, and we Oregonians are honored to have him as our special guest!  If you don’t already know Colin…

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Rally – Red Bull Global Rallycross Media Day

Mike Shaw

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWow, what an incredible day.  I got the amazing opportunity to represent OpenPaddock.net at the launch of the newly re-branded Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship at their Media Day in Los Angeles, California.  The location for this media event was at the Port of LA, where after passing by mile after mile of shipping containers my route diverted me to a more scenic drive lined with palm trees and even passing by the historic USS Iowa battleship.  Finally at the end of the road…

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