After a week of heavy build up and much anticipation, Sunday saw the Pikes Peak hill climb finally get under way. The anticipation of the classic event was built up even more than usual with news that Marcus Gronholm would participate in an 800 hp rallycross derived Ford Fiesta. Suzuki had their usual pit bull Suzuki Sport XL7 in top form as the battle was set to take place. Once the event got under way however, Gronholm would quickly find that Pikes Peak is a different breed. One that is…
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Rally – LDR Blog for NEFR Event!
Before I post the actual content of the blog from John on to the site, I want to tell him and all the folks over at Last Ditch Racing how awesome it was that we were able to chronicle their trip through the New Englan Forest Rally. This is the home event for LDR and I am very happy that they were able to send us updates between autograph sessions, recce, and the event. I want to personally thank John and the team for a great blog and hope that…
Read MoreRally – LDR 16 July Blog
Recce took us about 12 hours today. One pass recce on organizer supplied JEMBA notes. Some new stages, but most are familiar. More rocks poking up than usual. Grip will be an issue on some stages that are sandy and some others that are covered with coarse, loose gravel. As we’re running further down the order, hopefully the front runners will sweep the stages clean for us and not rut things up too much. 🙂 We had an interesting time coming down a mountain transiting to the last stage. The…
Read MoreRally – LDR Daily Blog for 15 July
Last Ditch Racing at the New England Forest Rally Wednesday night and the short tow(3 hours) to our home rally is done and we’ve enjoyed a nice dinner with friends at the local brew pub. I imagine that rallying is like a lot of other sports whose championships cover large geographic areas. We see our rally friends in the context of rallies, but often in the most remote areas of the country. I’m not sure we’d recognize each other if we passed in a shopping mall! War stories are told,…
Read MoreRally – Last Ditch Racing Exclusive Content!
This weekend will see our friends in the Rally America series head to New England for the New England Forest Rally. Last Ditch Racing whom will be competeing in the Open Class has provided us a drivers blog exclusive to Open Paddock that will fully document an event in America’s premier rally championship. You will be able to visit openpaddock.net all weekend long for exclusive updates on how the team is performing and just exactly what it takes to be a rally driver. Last Ditch Racing is based out of…
Read MoreRally – America Finally Gets WRC Back
In news that has brought tears to my eyes and joy to thousands, the U.S. will finally get the WRC back on the television and it is going to be in HD. It has been a few years since Sebastian Loeb and Marcus Gronholm graced the speed channel and now the WRC’s promoting body the ISC will bring the series back to millions in the U.S. Discovery Channel has picked up the tab for the series and will show coverage on the HD Theatre channel which is one of the…
Read MoreRally – Gronholm to Compete in Rallysprint
Marcus Gronholm will be behind the wheel in Finland after his run at the Pikes Peak event. Gronholm has confirmed he will compete in Finland, but not for the WRC event. Instead, Gronholm will be running a rallysprint knockout competition that takes place at the end of day two of the Rally Finland. It will be in a super special stage setting in which two cars will go head to head and eventually knockout until there is only one remaining. Gronholm will be running a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX for…
Read MoreRally – Solberg to Drive a C4?
With Rally Finland still some time off, former WRC champion has been offered a chance to pilot a Citroen C4 that is set up with 2008 specifications. This car would be nearly identical to those used by the Citroen Junior’s team but issues have come to light. At this moment, the ride would be rented for Finland and the price is a little stiff for the Norweigian to pay. While he has recieved sponsorship from Shell, it is really only enough to keep him around for this year and next…
Read MoreRally – Kimi to Make WRC Debut
2007 Formula 1 World Campion will make his WRC debut at his home rally in Finland. The rally which takes place at the end of July will be the Finns first rally on a gravel surface. The current Ferrari champion has said he will eventually make a switch between F1 and the WRC; it was just a matter of when. It looked as though that could have been a real possibility for the next season, however a deal that saved the championship and Formula 1 altogether was reached and the…
Read MoreRally – Solberg to S2000 Abarth?
Rallybuzz.com has recently ran a story that indicates there is a chance that we could see Petter Solberg in a Fiat Abarth S2000 next year in the WRC. He would be the first to announce his entry into the WRC Cup that has been implemented into next years regulations. While there is nothing concrete at the moment, Solberg did express hiss desire to be back in a factory car and on the the development curve once again. Solberg says that he has made no commitment for next year and a…
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