After his magnificant crash at the WRC Rally Of Portugal, Ken Block decided to hop on a red-eye flight back to the states to spectate at the first round of Global RallyCross at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale. I caught up with him to get his thoughts on the event and ask him about his 2011 plans which include welcoming a new hooigan into the world.

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The wait time is winding down for the new DiRT3 game by Codemasters and to get us drooling over it again they’ve released the first video of the Gymkhana mode that many of us suspected the game would have after watching the first trailer.  Check out the hoontastic-ness below!

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[YouTube via Autoblog]

To help warm up the crowd before the main competition at Ken Block’s Gymkhana GRID event the organizers decided to invite all the cars who were already knocked out of competition to go head to head with each other in a “freestyle burnout” contest.  In this contest the participants were encouraged not only to do the biggest, smokiest burnout possible but to do that in the most “creative” way they could.

Netherlands native Kevin Abbrings took this challenge to heart.  When he was up to bat he started off in his bio-methanol fueled Nissan 350Z with a few short burnouts in reverse and would then get out of his car and gesture for the crowd to get louder.  He did this twice and right after the second time his entire entourage and crew ran out onto the track in a Dutch stampede.  It was at this point that Kevin did big smoky burnouts around his entire crew as they jumped up and down in the middle still attempting to get the crowd hyped up.

This was a “creative” burnout indeed.  In fact, it was so creative that you could say it was improv.  Which, is only because they didn’t pre-approve their little stunt with Toyota Speedway track safety crew.  Needless to say there were more than a few furious officials.  They continued to vent their anger even after two more cars had their turn. 

They actually got so angry that they threw the hammer down and forced the Gymkhana GRID crew to cancel the rest of the burnout competition.  That really sucked because up next in the queue was the BMI Racing 4 Rotor Mazda RX-8! 

Check out the Dutch donuts AKA colossal legal liability below.

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There has been a lot of mystery around Ken Block’s next Gymkhana video for the last few months and Part 1 (released a week ago) raised even more questions and garnered mixed reviews.  However, one media outlet was chosen to get an inside look at the film and what we can expect when part 2 comes out.  Click the red to read EVO’s first hand account of the Gymkhana 3 top secret film location.

The first part of Gymkhana 3 is here!  In an unexpected move the first installment of what many are expecting to be an epic trilogy of hoonage is a music video featuring “The Cool Kids“.  Just like part 2 they’re coming at us again from the “infomerical” angle but somehow the way they do it just works!  Check out the music video below!

I caught up with Ken Block as the X Games 16 Super Rally day was drawing to a close to get some more insight about his mechanical incident in the “Last Chance Qualifier”.  In the process I got him to spill a few small tidbits about Gymkhana 3!  Check it out.

X Games is back in town and the entire local automotive culture has gone Rally crazy.  There are a few big changes to the Rally event this year versus previous years.  The biggest change is the new “Super Rally Cross” format.  Before the X Games used a “Super Stage” style in which two cars would run at the same time but on their own set course trying to beat their rival’s time to move on to the next battle.  The “Super Rally Cross” format takes the old style but shakes it up by having 4 cars run at the same time…on the same course!  Yet they’re still racing the clock more than each other.

However, they have to battle each other for the fastest line through a corner.  If that wasn’t crazy enough, they’ve also introduced the “Joker Lane”  The Joker Lane is a longer route around the track but it also includes the infamous “gap jump”.  Now, a driver can use any lap of the race to take the Joker lane but each driver MUST use the lane at least once per race.  This adds a whole new level of excitement as well as strategy for the drivers.  Will they get the Joker lane out of the way early? Or will they save it for the last lap?

Tune into the X Games on ESPN and ESPN HD TODAY to watch the action.  You can also stay tuned to Xgames.com or right here on MotorworldHype.com as well as our twitter page @MotorworldHype to stay updated on the action.  Check out some practice pictures from Friday below and even more pictures in our gallery.

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DC Shoes has done a bit of pre-summer cleaning and redesigned the “Auto” section of their website (dcshoes.com/auto).  The team page has been re-done and stuffed full of new photos and even some video.  There is also a section to keep up with where each of their sponsored drivers are in the rally standings.  Good stuff!

Ken Block has had so much fun doing his Gymkhana videos and as a result has gained massive cred as the ultimate hoon.  It appears that he wants to let other people in on the Gymkhana fun now since I’ve gotten word that Ken Block is planning a Gymkhana invitational event called “Gymkhana Grid“.

Not too much is known so far besides the fact that the event will be in December 3rd and 4th at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, CA AKA “House Of Drift”.  There is also a good chance that the Gymkhana course will be designed by Ken Block himself. 

It all sounds pretty exciting to us!  We’ll try to dig up a press release to get more info on this for you.

It doesn’t take a genius to assume that after the huge success of his first two Gymkhana videos Ken Block would be inclined to make a third.  Especially now that he has a new ride in a rally spec Ford Fiesta.  This time around Mr. Block decided to launch a blog specifically centered on the creation of the next Gymkhana video.  He’s also decided to hold a contest in which the grand prize winner will get to visit the set of Gymkhana 3 and get a ride along in Block’s Gymkhana Ford Fiesta.  The details are in the video below.