Two Guys Rally

Motorsports: A Sad State of Affairs [ December 18th, 2008 ] By:Mark Ozimek

The world of motorsports is in a sad state of affairs these days. I guess the economy is picking off teams left and right. The latest casualty is Subaru as they announced their withdrawal from the WRC. Oh we must really be in a recession when Subaru withdraws from the league that put them on the map.

But Subaru isn’t the only casualty, Suzuki withdrew from WRC also. Although for them it may have just been too big of an expense for too little of a return. However other leagues aren’t immune from this economic recession. Honda recently announced their withdrawal from Formula 1 AND the AMA(motorcylce racing). Porsche and Audi both widthrew from the American Le Mans Series.

While all this is sad and upsetting to the world of motorsports, there is a silver lining: it gives the amateurs a chance. While it may seem like amateurs and privateers get struck even harder by the recession, but their income is a little more stable than the advertising budgets of the factory teams. So there is hope for us all yet! It may just be a big enough shake up to make your way into the sport.

Do you know of any other teams/pillars of the sport that have been eaten by this economic recession?

Rally GB 08: Not Surprising [ December 9th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Sordo defended his 3rd place position for the season with a 3rd place position at Rally Great Britain. While there was little chance of him being depodiumed, I would’ve enjoyed to see it.

The “big” news regarding Rally GB is that Loeb finally won the Rally. While Loeb winning may not be that surprising, he has never won Rally GB before. I guess congrats are in order for Loeb. All of his winning makes me wonder: How does Loeb perceive a win? Is it as exciting/relieving as it used to be? Or does he just have to win in order to be happy with his performance? Hrmm…

Anyhoo, Valentino Rossi made it through the rally but didn’t score any points. Oh well! There’s always next season for the Doctor.

I Love YouTube:

Link for you RSS Peeps. Unfortunately the sound sucks on this video. Oh well.

Rally GB Fast Approaching [ December 3rd, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

The WRC’s final race of the season, Rally Great Britain, is right around the corner. The race is this weekend (Dec 5th-7th) but the recce has already started. Sebastian Loeb proved why recce cars should have roll cages by rolling his, get this, Mitsubishi recce car and ending up in a ditch.

Really? Loeb drives a Mitsubishi as a recce car? That seems weird considering a factory team could probably afford their own car as a recce car. I wonder why they do that. If you know why please enlighten me in comments or an email.

Anyhoo, regardless of troubles for the recce, the weather could be treacherous as temperatures are hovering around freezing (1 to 2 celcius lows predicted). Friday it is supposed to rain, which if the weather takes a turn for the worse it could be snow. Although Weather.com predicts that by Sunday everything will be clear and, at least, warmer than freezing. I don’t recall when it has snowed during Rally GB and that would sure be a neat sight (fingers crossed).

I’m quite excited to see the highlights from this rally, even though Loeb has secured the championship. The fight for the podium is still on, but most likely Sordo will secure 3rd (if he gets 2+ points). Latvala or Atkinson could prove to upset Sordo (especially if Sordo has an off or three) and steal the podium iff they steal the event’s first spot.

Richard Burns: We Still Miss You [ November 25th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Richard Burns was diagnosed with Astrocytoma in 2003, which is a form of brain cancer. Two years later on November 25th, 2005 the brain cancer finally won. Today is the third anniversary of his death and I still miss his driving. So let us remember this amazing WRC driver today. YouTube offers many tribute videos to Richard Burns’ Career such as this one:

Link to the video for you RSS peeps.

One reason he was so awesome, he drove mostly one handed for the beginning of his career. Tell me some more reasons in the comments below.

Sebastian Loeb Did It Again [ November 11th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Because of WRC Japan Loeb finalized his place as World Rally Champion for 2008!

Many congratulations are in order for, what some consider,  the best Rallyer of all time. This is his fifth championship win…in a row. He came close to winning in 2003 to make it 6 but was beat out by one of my favorites: Petter Solberg. 

What still has to be determined with the upcoming Rally Great Britain is who will come out on top in the Manufacturer’s Championship? Loeb’s Citroen or Hirvonen’s BP Ford? Being American I must root for…you were thinking Ford because it is American right? WRONG! Ford because it is the underdog in the competition. American’s always love the underdog, and Ford is behind in the standings (plus they have to go up against Loeb who will be competiting for the Manufacturer’s Championship). 

Rally Great Britain starts on December 5th and is the final round of the WRC this season. One famous person from the motorcycling world who will continue his push into the WRC is, you guessed it…Wait! You thought I was going to say Travis Pastrana because I’m American didn’t you? WRONG! Valentino Rossi will be taking a go at the WRC once again. He has competed in the WRC before (against the likes of Colin McRae) and has had some good showings. ‘The Doctor’ is just one more reason to watch Rally Great Britain.

SO GET EXCITED, there is still much to be won in the WRC.

Useful Link: WRC TV [ October 28th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

The WRC has eagerly embraced the internet as a content distribution device. If you have Windows Media Player (sigh) you can watch tons and tons of videos and waste tons of time over at WRC TV. The downside is it used to crash Firefox often but Chrome handles it like a champ. 

If you don’t want to watch things in WMP then head over to the WRC’s YouTube channel. They have neat videos like this:

Link for you RSS peeps.

WRC Corsica 2008: Results [ October 14th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Rally France (Corsica) was this weekend. Results were not too surprising (with one exception). Sebastian Loeb continued his domination with a podium finish over the weekend. However his teammate Sordo decided to ruin Citroen’s chances of yet another 1-2 finish by crashing. Sordo took a corner not so correctly and ended up in a rock wall. Taking Sordo’s place was Mikko Hirvonen giving him much needed points in the race for the championship (14 points off of Loeb overall). However his second place was a team effort as Francois Duval checked into the time control early, on purpose, in order to take a 2 minute penalty to push Hirvonen into 2nd, while taking 3rd for himself. 

Petter Solberg, one of my favorite drivers, placed fifth in this event. He earned himself some much needed points to pull in Latvala for 5th overall (2 point difference). Here is a video of some of the highlights (wow they pump these videos out quick): 

Link for you RSS peeps.

Group B - Finally Getting Beat [ October 9th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Group B, introduced in 1982, was considered “Formula 1 cars with mudflaps” (Jeremy Clarkson). They are the most memorable rally cars in existance. This includes the iconic Audi Quattro, which resulted in Audi being banned by the FIA for an unfair advantage with the Quattro AWD system. 

They were known for their extreme power and monsterish sound, but before Group B was stopped (for killing too many people, it was really that dangerous) record times were set on stages. Some of those stages are still run today. However, only up until a few years ago did modern rally cars start beating the times set in the early to mid 80s. 

So in respect of Group B here is an amazing highlights video to sum up some of what Group B gave to the rally world:

Link for you RSS peeps.  
What an amazing set of rally cars.

Rally Catalunya (Spain) 2008 Results - Nothing Surprising [ October 8th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Rally Spain was this weekend. Apparently I guessed correctly. Loeb, Sordo and Hirvonen did not upset with a 1, 2, 3 finishes respectively.

Both Subaru’s main guys, Solberg and Atkinson, finished top 8 (5th and 7th respectively). They even had third entrant who managed to finish top 10: Brice Tirabassi. Who is he? He is a French dude who was the 2003 JWRC World Champion. From what I’ve figured out, he was signed for only two events: Rally Spain and Rally France (this coming weekend).

Just for fun here’s a video of highlights from Rally Spain that I found on YouTube. Link for you RSS Folks: 

 

WRC Rally Spain Is This Weekend [ October 1st, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

I’m excited about the rally this weekend. Rally Spain (aka Rally Catalunya) is always a neat rally: big sweeping tarmac stages with great views of the coast and most of all, close stage times. This year, however, the drivers will be much more cautious in the corners.

Why will they be more cautious? Because tire mousse that seals punctures was banned from the WRC. Tarmac tires are not known for being as puncture resistant as gravel tires, so we could see a ton of flats from some great drivers. Unfortunately that also means fewer sparks from the skid plates because of the lack of corner cutting.

Points wise it is not looking good for the other drivers. While Loeb is only 8 points ahead, he has won this rally the past three years. Albeit not by much, but Sordo is not a huge threat to Loeb points wise (he is the second favorite). I fully expect to see Loeb win with Sordo coming in second while reigning in Hirvonen for a 2nd place points race. 

Rally is Rally, and that means anything can happen. Combine the ban on tire mousse with a change in venue (back to Costa Brava) and it could result in a big upset for Loeb. I really am excited about this rally and will report back when I hear/see more.