Press Release: Inaugural Rally Car event a Success!

As usual, my good friends at Live Sockets Entertainment provides me with great news about rally! I found this press release about Rally car and I figured I’d share this with you guys!

First American Rallycross Event A Success!

Millville, NJ (August 29, 2010) — RallyCar’s inaugural U.S. Rallycross held at the New Jersey Motorsports Park was a successful event where the competition was fierce and thousands of fans cheered the intense action. Rallycross racing has finally arrived and made a lasting impression!

The highlight of the Rallycross event was the dramatic A Main Final, where Rockstar Energy Drink’s Tanner Foust driving a 2010 Ford Fiesta won the inaugural event in the 4WD Class. Josh Wimpey hailing from Steeles Tavern, VA won the 2WD Class in a 1987 Volkswagen GTi rally car.

Foust was challenged by Ramana Lagemann (2008 Ford Fiesta), the Subaru Rally Team USA duo of Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra, NOS Energy Drink’s Andrew Comrie-Picard (ACP), and 2010 Rally America 2WD champion Chris Duplessis (2004 Subaru STI). During the A Main, Travis Pastrana lost control of his car and almost flipped it by running over water barriers in front of spectators on the first lap. Pastrana’s incident caused the final race to get red flagged, forcing an A Main restart. Pastrana was allowed to restart the A Main, but was positioned in the back of the grid and fought to win second place overall. Dave Mirra secured third place after battling with both Pastrana and ACP. Chris Duplessis did not finish the race after he spun during the restart and bent his car’s steering rack.

Foust’s win follows a string of victories, including winning gold medals in both Rally Car Racing and the SuperRally at this year’s X Games 16. Foust now lays claim to winning America’s first-ever Rallycross. “The American event was great!” exclaimed Tanner Foust, “The Ford Fiesta was built specifically for Rallycross and it performed extremely well.”

In the 2WD Class A Main final, Josh Wimpey built a significant lead over second place winner Wyatt Knox and third place finisher Randy Zimmer. 18 year-old and 2009 Rally America 2WD National Champion, Dillon Van Way, looked strong in his first three heat races leading up to the final event, but he made hard contact in the dirt with Knox and spun out at the end of the straightaway after breaking a wheel shaft.The weekend was bittersweet for newly crowned 2010 Rally America “Rookie of the Year” Joseph Burke, who suffered a broken gear shift cable and slid off the course in Heat 2, furthering his frustrations with weekend-long brake problems. Burke was towed off the course and had to retire from the Rallycross with a blown turbo.

Ex-factory Subaru Rally Team USA driver, Ramana Lagemann, showed remarkable promise on this weekend’s event behind the wheel of an MSE Olsbergs prepared Rallycross 2008 Ford Fiesta. It was Lagemann’s first outing in this car with no prior testing, so you can expect he will become a regular threat in the Main events in RallyCar’s upcoming events.

The first event of RallyCar’s 2010 U.S. Rallycross Championship goes down as a significant moment in American motorsports history. Spectators, competitors, the track, and sponsors were pleased with how this first Rallycross unfolded and the exciting outcome of the weekend.

“This is an excellent racing format and I see so many excited spectators,” said NOS Energy Drink’s Andrew Comrie-Picard, “and the cool thing is seeing so many excited drivers. You could see it when Dave Mirra and I immediately caught up with each after our Heat race to discuss what happened out there!”

Travis Pastrana acknowledged the enthusiasm the crowd’s intense enthusiasm, “I could literally hear the fans cheering from inside my car!”

Over the weekend, a total of 23 Rally and racecar drivers from various disciplines challenged the 1.3 mile Lightning Racetrack, modified to include three dirt sections and “Joker” lap section. Each car must take a “Joker” lap once at some point during their Heat races. A Joker Lap is a small detour – normally over a jump – that adds a level of unpredictability to the heat’s outcome by changing a driver’s strategy in an instant.

RallyCar’s U.S. Rallycross Championship returns to the New Jersey Motorsports Park for the second round of three events in 2010. Join us in Millville to witness this new, exciting, and highly unpredictable form of racing on October 2-3 and again on November 6-7. Tickets are available at:http://store.njmp.com/store/category/9/157/

Throughout the weekend RallyCar distributed exclusive driver interviews and action videos. You can review the videos at: http://www.rally-america.com/events/2010/NJMPRC1/gallery/

Heat and Main event results can be found at: http://www.rally-america.com/events/2010/NJMPRC1/news/

About RallyCar, Inc.

Based in Golden Valley, Minn., RallyCar sanctions the premier performance rally series in the United States, the Rally America National Championship Series. In 2010, RallyCar is conducting six National Championship events at venues across the country, from Olympia, Washington to Newry, Maine. RallyCar competitors reach speeds of well over 100 mph in modified street cars on natural-terrain courses consisting of gravel, dirt or snow. Additionally, through a partnership with ESPN, qualifying RallyCar drivers are invited to compete in ESPN’s Summer X Games 16, the annual leading action-sports event that’s broadcast live on ESPN. For more information, be sure to visitwww.rally-america.com.

RallyCar is proudly supported by Subaru of America, Inc., BFGoodrich Tires, the Team O’Neil Rally School, Able Planet, Hawk Performance Brakes, Rally-Tire.com, RaceWatches.com, Exedy Racing Clutches, RECARO, Mazda and the Danza del Sol Winery.

About New Jersey Motorsports Park

Sitting on more than 500 acres in Millville, N.J., New Jersey Motorsports Park is nestled snugly in a beautifully forested region surrounded by scenic rivers and nearby Delaware Bay. Directly adjacent to Millville Municipal Airport, NJMP is conveniently located close to Philadelphia, the Jersey Shore, New York and Baltimore, offering diverse and dynamic motorsports attractions.

The well landscaped park includes two world-class road courses (Thunderbolt and Lightning), a motorsports country club known as the Drivers Club with the Finish Line Pub and Breighton Room Restaurant, which are open to the general public, and F1 New Jersey, one of the top karting facilities in America. Entering its third race season, NJMP hosts a number of professional motorsports events and countless club events and track and facility rentals.

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Pictures from Rally Car in New Jersey during the Exhibition Day

I’ve been doing a lot of snooping around on the interwebs as of late… especially Facebook and found these pretty sweet photos of the Subaru Rally Team in action during the first round of the Rally Car events in New Jersey Motorsports Park… in New Jersey (duh).

Dave and Travis killing it on one of the dirt portions of the track. I love how much dirt is being kicked up!

You can see in this picture of Travis Pastrana how the track surface changes from a tarmac to dirt a the track itself!

Do I need to say anything about this photo? Nope… it’s just plain cool.

Dave Mirra’s 2011 STi down one of the straights. You can see that he was among some tough company in the hot pit lanes in the background including Tanner Foust.

Dave Mirra showing a little bit of understeer… it’s okay, he’ll just flick the car into the next turn!

Here’s Dave Mirra catching some air.

I love this shot! Just perfect.

Dave Mirra smiling for the camera.

Here’s Travis Pastrana with his pretty sweet shades.

The Subaru paddock area where the teams come in after their sessions. They have great crew members there that fixes and maintains the STi’s. From what I remember, they carry enough spare parts that give them the ability to build another car completely if needed. That’s insanity!

I’ll round out the post wit this photo. If you want to check out more photos, make sure you add Subaru of America to your facebook “likes” and they’ll have it on their albums!

Source: Subaru of America

Video: Round 1 of Rally Car in New Jersey. Some Raw video for your eyes.

Seems like the Rally Car events are pretty potent with excitement, action, and of course, Subarus. Check out this recent in car videos from this past weekend of the action.

Let’s hope these events make their way closer to us on the West Coast!

Video: Stephan Verdier’s crash at Formula Drift

I swear, the more I see how Stephan Verdier is busting his butt in his Subaru as a privateer the more I admire his racing spirit. Just last weekend, he was in the Las Vegas heat competing in the Formula Drift competition. This track has been notorious for killing drift cars because of its high speed entry. Well, it claimed another victim and Stephan Verdier shows how it happened:

Now the damage as pretty crazy according to Stephan as he posted up on his facebook account:

I don’t think the term “It will buff right out” would really apply to Stephan’s accident. He took a rear quarter panel from another Subaru and had his body shop graft that on to the body.

Oh yeah… MUCH Better! Glad to see Stephan back to business and we can’t wait to see him in action again!

Video: Zenkai Motorsports’ Thomas Smith vs. Ken Block

The guys at Zenkai Motorsports / Subaru of Las Vegas posted up this pretty sweet video about their Gymkhana Grid experience!

News: The Subaru Legacy B4 GT300 race car wins at Super GT Round 6!

I love hitting up our friends at Live Sockets Entertainment and their series of websites, including Apartment 107! They always have fresh info and news there. I saw that they put up an article about the recent Super GT Races in Japan and that Subaru came in with a win with their new Legacy B4 GT300 race car!

In the GT300 class the R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 (Tetsuya Yamano/ Kota Sasaki) emerged the winner. Starting from 11th position on the GT300 class grid, the team worked up steadily through the pack to and finally took the lead on a faster pit time in the last pit stop. This is a team that made its GT debut part way through last season and skipped round four of this season to make some major changes in the machine that led to this victory. For the team, its first podium finish of the season turned to be a victory.

It’s awesome that some time off and more R&D that this pretty crazy Legacy has been able to pull off an impressive win! More info on this car later!

Source: Apartment107

Subie-Life SpoCom Show Subaru Coverage… yeah, a month later.

So, I’ve finally come around and get some SpoCom show Subaru coverage downloaded from my humble point and shoot (hopefully that will change soon) and I now introduce (yeah, a month later) the SpoCom show Subaru coveage!

My Subaru made an appearance with my friends from Team Hokori that helped us get in and score some pretty sweet spots at the show. I’m thinking of a pretty nice “Subie-Life.com” Graphics along with my title sponsor, Apollo Performance. Stay tuned about what will happen!

Speaking of Apollo Performance, here’s their race car driven by my friend Gino! Fully prepped Redline Time Attack Street Class spec with a fully built Outfront Motorsports 2.5 closed deck motor with a GT4088 Garrett Turbo. It put down 504whp with only 19psi of boost! During the tuning session, the famous Clark Turner mentioned that the wick could be turned up for easily 700whp but the sticky Bridgestone Potenza RE-11R that is used by us could only handle so much grip before letting loose on the Dyno! Can’t wait to see this beast in action again!

This is the other Apollo Performance demo car owned by their head mechanic, Danny. This car is amazing when it comes to quality of parts and performance. Voltex Wing, Zero Sports Body Kit, Volk Racing TE37’s, GT30R Turbo, Bride Seats, JDM Lighting, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! He did so well, that he won 2nd Place Best Subaru of Show! Congrats, Danny!

Our friend Ferdie from South Coast Subaru lined up next to our cars with his impressive ’08 STi! I don’t know where to begin with this amazing STi, he’s got a fully built motor, Cosworth goodies up the whazoo, an INGS+1 Body kit and INGS+1 Wheels, Suspension bits EVERYWHERE! You can’t miss this STi, it’s been in multiple magazines and if well known around the US! Ferdie snagged the 3rd place best Subaru of show!

This beautiful specimen is the 1st place / Best Subaru of Show winner. This WRX is full of high quality parts and it was quite overwhelming to take it all in. It has a full Zero Sports body kits, custom paint, HRE 18×10 wheels, STi motor swap, 5 speed straight cut gear set, GT4088 Turbo, Full cage, Process West V-Mount set up, and Stance suspension. As much as this car has all the go fast parts, I doubt it will ever see a track. It’s a shame, I know.

There were many cars from out of town including this WRX Wagon that was from Vegas. Pretty sweet with a sedan conversion front and a WRC Styled rear over fender. Custom paint as well! I couldn’t see what he had under the hood but we hope the exterior compliments its performance!

Is it me, or was the convention center hotter than usual? Nope, it’s just J.C. Meynet in his STi! This AQ Motorsports built STi competes in Time Attacks is amazing to see in person! J.C. and the crew from AQ Motorsports even met up with us after the show for some great Korean BBQ!

ARK Designs brought out their 08 STi and it’s an interesting body kit for the STi. The wheels look like they belong on a tarmac rally car!

Our friends at Sparco had an interesting set up with 4 Snap-On tool boxes holding up their EVO X Time Attack car. My daughter is underneath it to demonstrate how awesome it is. haha

Here’s probably the most extreme show Subaru at SpoCom. This WRX is from Autoconcept and it features extensive body enhancements including a custom wide body, shaved door handles, and custom paint. The interior has a show cage along with amps and monitors everywhere. It’s an extreme build!

Mizu Radiators were there displaying their WRX in their booth!

I saw this WRX on the way to the show’s roll in the day before on the 710 freeway! Clean and simple with Centerline wheels, an INGS+1 body kit, and a few bolt ons. Nice!

My daughter cheesing it up in my car! Well, that’s all folks! I’ll try to put up sooner than this post when it happens! See you guys at the next event!

Video: CNET reviews the 2011 WRX

Although we here at Subie-Life.com love the performance of the Subaru, CNET takes a different look at the technology of the WRX by diving into the high tech radio / navigation of the 2011 WRX and does some mild performance review. We were a little taken back when he called the transmission ‘low tech’. Although we found a few mistakes / misinformation throughout the video in regards to what this reviewer has said (including the hoodscoop being called a ‘cold air intake’) we are excited to see that this stouter WRX is making its way into the showroom floors relatively soon. Check it out.

AAA says that Forester is ideal for your pooch… we agree!

Most of us have a canine, puppy, or doggy and we want to make sure that they’re comfy when they go for a ride with us. AAA recently did a study that have taken multiple factors including comfort, safety, and ease of clean up (for those little oopsies). Here’s what AAA said about the Forester:

“Subaru Forester – This Forester offers roomy, comfortable accommodations for people and their pets. The ride is stable and comfortable, the handling is predictable, and the all-wheel drive delivers reassuring traction under all conditions. This wagon is even up for mild off-roading treks that can get the dogs into the country. The Forester’s cargo capacity with the rear seats folded is an impressive and inviting (for pets) 68 cubic feet. The floor, at just over 27 inches off the ground, also is lower than many sports utility vehicles making it easier for many dogs to get in and out. There are ample tie-down points to secure a kennel.”

To read more, click HERE!

First Rallycross to set stage in NJ!

Well, for some of you that went to XGames or watched XGames on TV, had a sample (a huge one) of what Rally Cross is all about. It’s huge in Europe and other parts of the globe but it seems that the US has had only bits of it. I’m glad that Rally America has seen that an arena style venue is where its at especially the “instant gratification” US population. Enough jibber-jabber from me, read on!

America’s first Rallycross to make history

Top racers set to attend August’s New Jersey race

GOLDEN VALLEY, MN (August 11, 2010) – In a game-changer for American motorsport, RallyCar is set to bring the excitement of door-to-door rallycross racing to the New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) on August 28-29th, 2010.

The event is the first in a series of three rallycross events to take place at NJMP this year, and will be broadcast on ESPN2. The events will provide an exciting preview of a full, national season set for 2011. The sport debuted in America to huge raves at the 2010 X Games in Los Angeles, where it was carried live on ESPN.

Rallycross is a blend of circuit racing, off-road racing and rally competition. The sport promises intense crowd-pleasing action in a fan-friendly track environment. Five drivers line up to start at once, piloting high-horsepower compact cars through race traffic over a challenging short course that features jumps, unbanked turns, hills and transitions between pavement and gravel.

Each car must also take a “Joker” lap at some point during their heat. A Joker Lap is a small detour – often over a jump – that adds a level of unpredictability to the heat’s outcome by changing a driver’s strategy in an instant.

Rallycross at NJMP will be the ultimate display of driving talent with a slew of high profile personalities scheduled to attend:

• Subaru Rally Team’s Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra are scheduled to arrive with newly built rallycross cars. Both are perennial X Games megastars having just competed at X Games 16.

• Newly crowned X Games 16 gold medal winner Tanner Foust is also starting his first Rallycross event in New Jersey. Foust has been gaining valuable seat time as the first American to compete in the European Rallycross Series and looks to use his experience against his U.S. rivals.

• Monster World Rally Team’s Ken Block is expected to arrive in his 2010 Ford Fiesta. Block built a name for himself as the co-founder of DC Shoes before entering rally racing. He popularized himself even further with a series of “Gymkhana” videos that has garnered over 22 million views!

• Pro drifters Rhys Millen and Stephan Verdier both had a rally competition background before moving into the judged sport of drifting and both will no doubt be favorites in competition against the clock.

• Another pro drifter, Sam Hübinette, will again team up with teammate Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard. Both competed at X Games 16 and each earned a bronze medal in their respective races.

Although a new racing format in America, the sport draws capacity crowds and a diverse and loyal fan base in Europe. Fans get close to the action with trackside viewing of aggressive door-to-door action and the sliding and jumping that makes rally car events unique among motorsport.

There will be two classes of cars in this initial year of Rallycross competition. The faster, all-wheel-drive cars will resemble those used in current, Open class rally competition. The other category will be two-wheel-drive and include various body styles from manufacturers such as Dodge and Honda boasting 450+ horsepower, highly modified engines and rally-style suspension.

More information, including competition format, can be found at http://rally-america.com/rallycross.php.

Rallycross tickets are on sale at www.NJMP.com.

About RallyCar, Inc.

RallyCar, Inc. (formerly known as Rally America) is based in Golden Valley, Minn., and sanctions the premier performance rally series in the United States, the Rally America National Championship Series. Additionally, through a partnership with ESPN, qualifying RallyCar drivers are invited to compete in ESPN’s Summer X Games, the annual leading action-sports event that’s broadcast live on ESPN. New for 2010, RallyCar is sanctioning the three Rallycross events at NJMP (August 27-29, October 1-3, and November 5). A new 2011 Rallycross Championship will see a full series of events in the eastern and western regions of the United States. For more information, visit http://www.rally-america.com.

RallyCar is proudly supported by Subaru of America, Inc., BFGoodrich Tires, the Team O’Neil Rally School, Able Planet, Hawk Performance Brakes, Rally-Tire.com, RaceWatches.com, Exedy Racing Clutches, RECARO, Mazda and the Danza del Sol Winery.

About New Jersey Motorsports Park

Sitting on more than 500 acres in Millville, N.J., New Jersey Motorsports Park is nestled snugly in a beautifully forested region surrounded by scenic rivers and nearby Delaware Bay. Directly adjacent to Millville Municipal Airport, NJMP is conveniently located close to Philadelphia, the Jersey Shore, New York and Baltimore, offering diverse and dynamic motorsports attractions.

The 2010 spectator schedule includes return visits by the AMA Superbike Championship, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX, SCCA Pro Racing with the return of the Trans-Am series, and the Ferrari Challenge, plus RallyCar’s three inaugural Rallycross events.