I rode in a friend’s Ferrari (1978 308) recently and while I love how it sounds… I often can not get enough of the turbocharged sound. So if you love the sound of turbochargers doing work here you go:
Link for you RSS peeps.
It may be an older video of ours, but I love it and cannot get enough.
Update: Apparently I decided to post this exactly two years after uploading it to YouTube. Odd.
The WRC brought in a new event this year: Rally Poland. It really wasn’t a new event, but the last time WRC cars ran in the event was 2003. It was, in fact, a really really old event that was first held in 1921 and was included in the WRC’s opening season (1973). The only older Rally being Monte Carlo (1911, if you were curious). It’s cool to see some history coming back into the scope with the WRC.
The footage from the race and the results lead me to believe it would’ve been awesome to spectate. Loeb CRASHED! Although, it was not a race ending crash, just a bad off. Still kept him off the podium but he ended up with 2 points. This lack of points dropped him into 2nd place in the overall championship standings. Loeb is right on the tails of Mikkkkkkkkko Hirvonen (only 1 point separating them).
So, some results: MIKKKKKKKKKOOOOOOO grabbed the 1st spot and earned himself 10 points. Sordo, Loeb’s teammate, stole second (and it’s 8 points) from Henning Solberg. Henning’s earning totaled 6 points which pushed himself ahead of YANNI MATTIE (Jani Mati Latvala) for 4th place in the series. Petter Solberg, one of my favorite drivers to watch, drove his privateered Citroen Xsara to 4th place. The points for Petter tied him with YANNI MATTIE. It’s the Solbergs v Latvala for the 4th place in the Championship. Side Note: I’m biased but I’m also pretty sure Petter is the fastest driver of a Xsara ever.
With 160 points left up for grab in the last 4 races (40 max), this could shape up to be an exciting end of season. I cannot wait for Rally Finland, which is coming right at the end of this month (July 31st, 2009).
Luckily, Jari-Matti Latvala is still around to talk about how crappy his Rally Portugal was. After rolling down a really steep hill/mountain he escaped without serious injury (along with his co-driver). Here is a video with portuguese commentating of the crash:
Link for you RSS peeps. It was even Latvala’s birthday! Speaking of birthdays, today is TwoGuysRally’s first birthday! We’re one year old today (April 6th, 2009).
It is the first time in a long time that a private (not really factory supported) team has podiumed in the WRC’s top class. While we’re stuck with two manufacturers, there are still plenty of teams. One of my favorite teams is Petter Solberg’s self run rally team and he happened to finish 3rd in Rally Cyprus. That really is indicative of the talent Petter Solberg has and it really makes me wonder about Subaru. Maybe there really was something wrong with how Prodrive was making the Subaru WRC car.
In usual fashion Sebastien Loeb finished first. I don’t know how he keeps that up. Many people would lose focus after winning as much as he has. He keeps getting faster too. It really is quite amazing.
Mikko Hirvonen, Ford’s favorite for the WRC pulled out a 2nd place finish. He’s now only 8 points behind Loeb in the championship standings and with 75% of the season’s points still up for grabs he has plenty of hope to be the World Rally Champion.
The next WRC race is April 2nd, 2009 and it is Rally Portugal.
Rally Norway took place this past weekend and the results were not far from expected. Loeb (Citroen) took the top of the podium with Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) close behind with Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) rounding out the podium.
Petter Solberg had an outstanding performance for his first competition in a Citroen. He placed 6th grabbing 3 points for himself. He was squeaked out of fifth by Daniel Sordo (Citroen). Ford had a strong presence in the top eight(5 out of 8), but then again there are only two manufacturers in the competition so they should be split pretty evenly.
Link for you RSS peeps.
The WRC’s Rally Ireland opener for the 2009 season took place this weekend. No surprise that the dominating force Citroen took 1st and 2nd place (Loeb and Sordo respectively). But that’s not the interesting part of Rally Ireland. What is more interesting is that there are only 2 manufacturers placing. While it is technically considered 4 manufacturers (for points) it is only Citroen and Ford.
What the hell? I know the global economy is in shambles but only two manufacturers in the premiere Rally racing league? It is good to see that Chris Atkinson tranistioned into a Citroen succesfully (and Solberg will be showing up in a Xsara in Norway), but it is sad to see such homogeneity in what used to be one of the most diverse racing leagues ever.
Maybe the P-WRC will be the league to watch for diversity’s sake. Subaru hinted that it might stick around for some P-WRC action. Redbull just confirmed a Skoda for their 2009 P-WRC team. I imagine you’ll see some Puegeot S2000s kicking around too.
Or better yet, 2009 could be the year the US Rally viewership approaches that of Europe (we can hope).
It turns out that Petter will be racing in a Citroen Xsara in the upcoming Rally Norway. That’s some pretty exciting news, since it will be the first non Subaru he has competed in since the year 2000. Almost a decade ago.
Citroen Xsaras were fast a few years ago, and I wonder if Petter will be able to claw out a decent position in a non-factory supported car. However, for all we know he could be factory supported by Citroen, but I doubt it if he is running a Xsara.
I’m real excited to see Petter back for another year.
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?
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.
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 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.
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