While at X Games 17 this weekend we went out of our way to annoy Top Gear USA Tanner Foust until he agreed to grant us a short interview. During which we got him to weigh in on the possibility of Rally Cross becoming more popular than drifting. He also surprised us at the end by mentioning that he is putting fourth an effort to make it into an Indy Car race before the end of the season. Some digging was done after the interview and it looks like he may be trying to put together a one-off drive for the Las Vegas Indy Car race. Scroll down to check out the full interview.
We finally have our X Games 17 Rally coverage up and running! Yay for us! Ok so in case you are in the rare position of not being at X Games 17 or not catching it on TV or any of the TV repeats then you are in luck because we will give you the break down. Things kicked off on Saturday with Super Rally racing. Super Rally is the timed head-to-head event with two cars racing each other at a time and each car needing to take one “Joker Lap” per heat. Many were expecting the big budget Ford Fiestas to dominate on that day but it was actually Monster Energy Driver Liam Doran in his flat black Citroen. Before the weekend most of us have never heard of Liam but he is actually Tanner Foust’s main rival in the European Rally Cross series over seas so it was no surprise that he had no fear of the golden child on American Soil.
The next day was the main event that we were all waiting for: Rally Cross. Rally Cross is the 4 car at a time mayhem that we saw last year for the first time in the LA Colosseum. This year things were changed up a bit as in the final heat there were 8 cars total in the final heat instead of 4. Each winner of the round 1 heats were lined up in the front row while the top four from the “Last Chance Qualifier” (AKA “LCQ”) lined up in the back row, then all of them were let loose on the streets of Los Angeles. Tanner Foust, Marcus Gronholm, Brian Deegan, Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, and Liam Doran were all among the final 8 to do battle. Note that Travis Pastrana is on that list. Despite breaking his throttle foot the Friday before during the Moto X best trick Pastrana made his way into the race with the help of his team engineering a set of hand controls ala Alex Zanardi. Although despite his best effort Travis was not able to come out on top. So, who won the epic battle? It was none other than Brian Deegan, general of the “Metal Mulisha” that ran away from the pack and took his first Rally X Games gold. You can check out highlights from both events below and check out some of our official galleries via the links below as well.
ESPN blew some minds earlier this year when they revealed that instead of returning to the LA Colosseum, all rally events would take place on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. From that point imaginations were running wild trying to contemplate what streets around the Staples Center would be used, where the jump would be, the ins and outs, etc. Well today ESPN has answered all questions by finally releasing hard details about the street course including a basic rendering of the layout. The X Games officials have created a 3,100 foot course (or 6/10ths of a mile for you math geeks) with six turns. Building the course will require 5 MILLION pounds of concrete barriers, 700 feet of dirt (which includes the 70ft jump for the joker lap), and about 1,000 hours of build time to complete the course. The course will also require shutting down three streets including Figueroa. To accommodate the spectators, bleachers will be erected outside of the Staples Center. We would venture to guess that there will likely be a video screen erected as well to make sure none of the action is missed. Despite the fact that construction of the course is slated to start soon, drivers will not be able to test the course until the day before competition!
If you want to see a rendering of the course layout, click the thumbnail below for an image that we blew up slightly. You may have to squint a bit but you can see all the turns and joker lap path, as well as the course’s position in relation to other land marks such as the halfpipe, etc.
I first heard this as a rumor at the first round of Global RallyX and I wish I had reported it because it turned out to be true! It was announced today that the RallyX events for Summer X Games 2011 will literally take place in the streets of downtown Los Angeles! The exact course details haven’t been released but expect the drivers to go through portions of the Staples Center then outside into LA Live and back into the the Staples Center. It should make for some pretty interesting pictures! I can’t wait!
Enduro X Discipline to Make its Debut; Rally Disciplines Move to Downtown Street Circuit
ESPN will kick off its 17th annual action sports competition to be held in Los Angeles July 28 – 31 and will debut the new discipline of Enduro X, as well as the first-ever rally street circuit running through the downtown area. In its ninth year in Los Angeles, X Games 17 will feature more than 200 athletes at competition venues and event spaces including STAPLES Center and Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE in an effort to further consolidate events to one area and better enable fans to catch all the X Games action from downtown Los Angeles.
Enduro X will feature both men’s and women’s disciplines, showcasing riders’ talent on an all-terrain obstacle course. Riders will race through sand, mud, logs, rocks and other terrain features in a blend of motocross racing and traditional Enduro, battling not only each other but also the challenging course for their shot at X Games gold. The new addition will be one of eight Moto X competitions taking place inside STAPLES Center, while the downtown Los Angeles street circuit will offer a unique and exciting setting for the disciplines of Rally Car Racing on Saturday and RallyCross on Sunday.
“Having RallyCross at last year’s X Games was a huge step for the sport, but racing through city streets is how motorsport began,” said three-time X Games rally gold medalist Tanner Foust. “Being in the car, ripping through streets, cranking the handbrake through intersections while door-to-door and jumping next to buildings is going to be truly epic! I can’t wait!”
ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will combine to telecast 25 hours of live X Games 17 competition. In addition to the 25 original hours in high definition, the Worldwide Leader in Action Sports will also televise 18 hours of X Games action on ESPN 3D. More than 25 hours will also be distributed on ESPN3.com. Outside the United States, X Games 17 will be seen in more than 121 countries and territories to more than 106 million homes, including live telecasts in Africa, Asia, Australia, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, Middle East, New Zealand and South America.
Tickets for X Games 17 will be available for purchase June 23 at all Ticketmaster locations and the box office at STAPLES Center.
Additional information on all X Games 17 events will be forthcoming on www.xgames.com
According to a tweet by Alyssa Roenigk who is an ESPN Senior Writer for Action Sports. Snowboard/Skateboard double threat Shaun White AKA ”The Flying Tomato” has signed a deal with BF Goodrich to compete in Rally Racing in a car built by Vermont Sports Car which further suggests that if this is true Shaun White’s other partner in this deal will be Subaru. This makes a whole lot of sense since Travis Pastrana parted ways with Suby a few months ago to compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. With Pastrana going in circles (literally) Subaru needs another action sports hero who is just as popular as Pastrana to stay a favorite among the X Games skater/snowboarder demographic.
Although, I should tell you that so far there is no official confirmation from White’s camp, Vermont Sports Car, Subaru, or any rally racing sanctioning body on this matter. Which means despite this move theoretically making a whole lot of sense, it could all just be talk. If we find out any new information we’ll let you know!
UPDATE: Alyssa Roenigk released a full article with the details of this story. According to the article Shaun’s camp is currently downplaying any notion that he is looking to enter rally racing professionaly. Shaun’s agent was quoted in the article as saying “Ninety nine percent no. The goal is not to compete, but if he takes to rally like a fish to water, who knows?” Shaun’s camp is stating that the deal with BF Goodrich is for a series of commercials featuring White practicing drifting and driving at an abandoned airport in Orange County (AKA El Toro, maybe the Top Gear USA track?). If Shaun does decide to go full-on into rally racing it could be a steep learning curve for him. Shaun himself admitted during the BF Goodrich announcement that “My brother sold me out and told BFGoodrich I couldn’t drive stick.”
It looks like Shaun and his agent would like us to believe that any professional or competition-focused effort in rally by Shaun is highly unlikely at this point. I guess we will just have to keep our eye on this to be sure of that.
UPDATE 2: It looks like BF Goodrich has launched a Shaun White micro-site that has several videos of his “driver’s training” one of which has Formula Drift driver Sam Hubinette showing Shaun how to drift in his Dodge Viper!
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.
In what some would call a pretty big upset Ford really took it to Subaru over the weekend during the X Games Rally. All three Ford entries made it into the semi finals and then sandwiched suby on the podium with Kenny Brack taking gold, Travis Pastrana taking silver, and Tanner Foust taking bronze. Check out the video below for the final battle between Pastrana and Brack. More on this story to come.
Last year NFL Films teamed up with Intersport and Audi’s LeMan’s series racing team to create “Truth In 24“. Truth In 24 documents Audi’s effort during the historic 24 Hours Of LeMan’s race as well as a few background pieces on individual members of the team and the cars. The sticking point for me is the beautiful cinematography used to capture endurance racing in a way that has never been attempted before. I could watch this trailer over and over again forever! The film’s producers recently signed a deal to have Truth In 24 air in primetime on ESPN at 8pm on March 20th, the day before the 12 hours of Sebring. Don’t make any plans! And if you do, then set your DVRs!
Towards the end of ’07 Rhys Millen got this crazy idea that he wanted to back flip a truck for new years eve. However, before he had a chance to make his attempt he badly injured himself during a practice run when the truck over shot the safety landing and hit cold hard concrete! After the injuries he sustained many thought he might have ended his career. But in typical Millen fashion not only did he recover he still remained a top contender for the 2008 Formula D title and won the Red Bull Drifting World Championship. That’s a pretty good year coming off such a major injury right? So, how does the Kiwi celebrate? By deciding to try the backflip again!
This time he avoided any practice mishaps and made it to the big moment. He almost made it too! Personally I feel like he pulled it off but technically since he didn’t stick the landing it doesn’t “count.” I guess that means we’re going to see this “one more ‘gain” at the end of 09! Check out the video below.
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