It’s Monday again and that means you should read about things that you may or may not be interested in. I’m not going to complain about the weather today either even though I don’t think it is snowing enough. Today we have Drifting, Rally, Formula 1 and an ugly concept car. Let’s begin……
We will start this morning off by pumping up Chris Gonzalez’s tires some more. I don’t think we do it enough. For those of you that don’t know, Chris is the man behind Gonzo Drift. This is the guy that used to drive 6-hours to Regina from Winnipeg just for Friday night Drift Practice. This is the same guy that competed in the Midwest Drift Union series last year and would drive 20-hours just to get there. This guy reeks of dedication and he is planning on doing it all again next year. From what I understand, Chris will be taking part in both Midwest Drift Union events and Some XDC events as well. You are probably asking yourself how you can help this crazy Drifter out? Easy. Travel to Winnipeg next May Long weekend and party with the man himself. Chris is hosting a ‘social’ to help raise money to support his drifting career. All the info you need is on Facebook HERE.
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Not much going on in the competitive drifting world on this continent at least. That doesn’t mean FD drivers won’t be taking part in drifting events in other parts of the world though. Ken Gushi and Robbie Nishida competed in the Indonesian leg of the Formula Drift Asian Series a couple of weeks ago. Matt Powers and company have been back and forth to China lately taking part in the World Drift Series. Walker Wilkerson is guest judging an event in the Dominican Republic this weekend.
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The second last race of the 2011 Formula 1 schedule took place at the wicked Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
Podium Results:
1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Fernando Alonso
3. Jenson Button
Only one more round of this years championship and that takes place in Sao Paulo, Brazil in two weeks time.
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The 2011 World Rally Championship has come to a conclusion with the final round being held in Great Britain this past weekend. Sebastien Loeb wasn’t able to finish the rally due to a head on collision with a non-competitor car on a public road while travelling between stages. No one was injured but their Citroen was beyond repair. That left the door open for Jari-Matti Latvala to step up and win this year’s Great Britain event.
Ken Block managed to finish 9th overall and just over 16 minutes behind Latvala. While he may not be winning any stages yet, he is putting on a good show.
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Even though Loeb retired from this weekend’s rally he still managed to hang on to the championship title thanks in part to Mikko Hirvonen also retiring this weekend
The final 2010 WRC championship standings look like this:
| 1. |  |
S. LOEB | 222 | |||||||||||||
| 2. |  |
M. HIRVONEN | 214 | |||||||||||||
| 3. | |
S. OGIER | 196 | |||||||||||||
| 4. | |
J. LATVALA | 172 | |||||||||||||
| 5. |  |
P. SOLBERG | 110 | |||||||||||||
| 6. | |
M. OSTBERG | 88 | |||||||||||||
| 7. |  |
M. WILSON | 63 | |||||||||||||
| 8. |  |
D. SORDO | 59 | |||||||||||||
| 9. | |
H. SOLBERG | 59 | |||||||||||||
| 10. | |
K. RAIKKONEN | 34 |
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The 2012 Dakar Rally is less than two months away. Not only is the Dakar a treat to watch, but it makes for some good winter filler while all the major motorsports series are in their off-seasons.
Volkswagen has been the dominant force with their Touareg platform the last several rally’s and it sounds like they would rather focus on their entry into the 2013 WRC Championship than waste time playing in the sand dunes of South America.
Word on the internet tells me that the VAG still wants to be a part of Dakar in one form or another so why not use Bentley as a manufacturer? It seems that Bentley has been working on an SUV type vehicle for their line-up and what better way to prove it’s worth than in the Dakar? Bentley’s SUV is even supposedly based on the VAG PL71 platform that is used for the VW Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne. Should be simple enough to slap a Bentley body on one of the old Touaregs right? 🙂
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Scion has proven itself to be a pretty successful branch of Toyota. Now there is word that even with the much-hyped release of the FR-S just around the corner, Scion is already looking to expand the brand in other directions. Scion is rumoured to be in talks with Diahatsu to jointly create a mini-truck for the Scion line-up. For those of you not familiar with Diahatsu they are known to build, for the most part, kei-cars. The Scion xB is already a shared platform with Diahatsu. Subaru also happens to sell their own version of the second generation bB/xB known as the Subaru Dex in Japan.
So it seems that Scion is going to keep pushing out Diahatsu/Toyota/Subaru bred vehicles for the foreseeable future.
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Hey look! Suzuki has named a Concept vehicle after the city that many of us call home.
Too bad it is ugly as sin. Maybe it should be called the Saskatoon Toronto instead?