Riding in a 600 HP Red Bull GRC Beast

By Matt Kalish of Matt Kalish Photography   Red Bull Global Rallycross is in LA this weekend and that means two things for for the Long Beach waterfront – fast cars and fast driving. But just how fast is fast? I got to find out last month at Red Bull GRC’s Washington D.C. round.   I was just a lowly photographer planning on going to the D.C. GRC round to scavenge some work and wax poetically on the nature of burning dinosaurs for sport. Is that writing too heavy handed?…

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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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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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Episode 244 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadOpenpaddock.net Podcast Episode 244 for Tuesday, August 12th, 2014 Preview UMMM – the sad tragedy that befell Kevin Ward Jr, and more info on Formula E events IndyCar – 2015 testing changes, more info on aerokits, the end of national guard as a sponsor, and milwaukee preview MRTI – 8star jumps on the 2015 lights bandwagon Rally – Gronholm to join VW as a test driver & L’Estage drives in RallycrossRX UMMMM – Unintelligible ‘malgamation of mixed motorsports musings Kevin Ward Jr. Marshal Pruett…

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GRC – Overseas Recap

The Global Rallycross Championship returned to the United States this weekend.  Before I get into the drama of New Hampshire, here’s a quick recap of what happened overseas. First of all, I have been quite critical of the GRC organizers and their track designs, at least until now.  The first event was at X-Games Brazil, and the track consisted of 90% clay dirt and a single concrete slab used as the start / finish.  In Brazil the dust was a huge issue, so to combat that they added water to…

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Exclusive: Colin Clark Talks Rally!

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe were fortunate enough today to speak with Colin Clark and pick his brain on all things rally related! Colin was generous enough to allow us an hour of his time to talk about Promoting the WRC, VW and Sebastien Ogier’s 2013 domination, as well as Hyundai and much much more! We would like to thank Colin for his time and applaud his continued efforts to spread the passion of rally to our North American fans and fans around the world!

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Global Rallycross Championship Round 2 – Epic Fail!

Well this quickly became the GRC event that wasn’t.  After spending a bit of time this morning writing up a somewhat lengthy intro for the GRC X-Games Barcelona event, I sat down in front of the TV to watch the action unfold.  What greeted me wasn’t roaring 600HP rally cars, but instead a rain delay. Excuse me?  Did they really just say that?  Rally cars were sidelined because of rain?  Okay, even a rally stage can be cancelled because rain can be so heavy that emergency crews wouldn’t be as…

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Vodafone Rally de Portugal – Preview

Beginning tomorrow is WRC event number two without Sebastien Loeb, however his legacy seems to live on with the success of the other French Sebastien. That of course would be VW Motorsports driver Sebastien Ogier, who has dominated the season so far. Of course Ogier hates being compared to Loeb but it is hard not to at least compare the results. It seems that the only thing that can slow down Ogier is illness. Ogier apparently caught a virus while down in Mexico (some bad tequila?), and missed out on the…

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Rally – VW Ready for Mexico Altitude

The World Rally Championship visits Mexico this weekend with many teams taking part in recce today. Mexico proves a tricky challenge not only for the drivers, but the engineers as well. For those who are new to the WRC, Rally Mexico pushes the teams to altitudes they do not experience anywhere else on the schedule. This has a major impact on the engine and how it performs. The official WRC page put up a great story here that detail how Volkswagen prepared for the tricky altitude conditions. “On the one…

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