(Insert stupid Blog name here)

I think you can buy access to EuroSport's live streams. Maybe that helps.

 

BTW: Did you watch the Dakar?

I followed Robby Gordon via the Dakar web standings & his forums. Unfortunately it appears again he had some bad luck in the equipment department. It remains to be seen whether he can ever go from winning stages to winning the race.

The TV coverage of the Dakar was pretty anemic here. It consisted of a half-hour per day of highlights (minus 10 minutes of commercials), so you didn't get so much race coverage, as you got a recap of what the standings were, plus a handful of sound-bite interviews. I only discovered the coverage after the third or fourth day because it was on an obscure cable channel.

 

They did show a lot of footage of Robby Gordon complaining though.

 

I'll look into EuroSport's website some more - thanks for the tip.

Interesting - the main WRC site is being updated with rally results again. Some of the pages are still not updated (or working), but they've got stage times and news articles posted for Monte Carlo. I'm wondering if this is still North One Sport, or some part of FIA that's doing the updates. No video there though, and I can't watch anything from EuroSport in the U.S.

 

 

Maybe something will get posted up on YouTube.

Free advertising for the Subaru BRZ/Scion FR-S/Toyota GT 86. "The car brakes really well."

Wish I could've watched this weekend's Rally Sweden. Looked like a good one. It loses something when you can only read the results online. There's still no sponsorship deal in place for the rest of the season, so each rally organizer has to come up with their own TV coverage (translation: we'll never get to see any of this in the U.S.).

 

In other not-so-great news, between Monte Carlo and Sweden, BMW decided that despite how well ProDrive had done building and fielding their WRC spec Minis, to go with a different manufacturer as the "official" Mini team, leaving ProDrive now just as an independent "factory supported" team. Class move, there, BMW. I was really hoping for Daniel Sordo (ProDrive's driver) to pull out a win in Sweden, just to spite them. He was doing really well at the outset, but then his radiator got plugged up after hitting a snow bank, which caused his engine to fail, knocking him out of the rally.

 

Jarri-Matti Latvala ended up winning Sweden, which he really needed to do, since he crashed out of Monte Carlo, earning zero points (and they don't allow restarting in Monte Carlo). Mads Ostberg (who came in second last year in Sweden) pulled out third place, with (now Citroën driver and last year's winner) Mikko Hirvonen taking second. Petter Solberg came in fourth due to a couple of punctures, but he's in good shape so far this season, having taken third in Monte Carlo. Sebastien Loeb had problems in Sweden, managing only sixth, but picking up 3 extra points by winning the Power Stage.

 

Next up, another rally someplace, which I won't get to watch either.

Now, I'm not saying that they should be the sole reason the WRC should be back on TV... but really, would it hurt to have a little more coverage of some of the PWRC drivers? Like this one and this one?

 

I think not.

 

Worked for Danica Patrick and NASCAR. Or IndyCar racing. Or whatever she's doing this week.

Another rally has come and gone, and despite it actually taking place in the same hemisphere I live in - still no TV coverage.

 

No big surprises, but another disappointment as Latvala crashed out (after having led at one point) and Loeb eventually won (again). Petter Solberg took 3rd, which solidifies his 3rd place in the championship standings, and given this is the second rally that Latvala scored zero points in (dropping him to fifth), I wonder if Ford will change their plans and back Solberg as their lead driver?

 

Well, we shouldn't have to wait long - the next rally starts in Portugal in just a few weeks - March 29th.

Ah yes... idiots. Ya' gotta love 'em. Who would we make fun of if it weren't for colossally stupid people, doing colossally stupid things?

 

Case in point. Here's a story (with video) of some guy in Japan, who decided to videotape himself speeding in his Ferrari 458 Italia. He then posted it to the internet, apparently not realizing that this sort of thing has

, with predictable results.

 

Seriously... how stupid do you have to be to videotape yourself breaking the law and then post it to the internet?

 

So the guy gets busted and now faces a massive fine and all that.

 

Personally, I hope they take away his toys, lock him up, and throw away the key. He's an idiot that shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel of a car. If you watch the latter half of the video where he's driving next to the sea, he's all over the road, into the oncoming lane, dodging parked cars, and ripping around blind corners.

 

However, that's not the reason I posted this.

 

The reason I posted this, is because in his video, at about the 2:07 mark, he gets his doors blown off by a Porsche, and spends most of the rest of the video in a futile attempt to try and catch him.

 

Now that's funny.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oot0pyN-SnA

Last week, there was rally Portugal.

 

And a lot of interesting stuff happened.

 

But I've decided it's easier just to post a link to the official wrap-up, than write one from scratch.

 

So... enjoy!

And again. This time from Argentina. Frustrating week for Petter Solberg. If he hadn't had a steering arm break, he could very well be in the lead for the championship. Jarri-Mati Latvala broke his collarbone skiing, so he couldn't compete at all. He's effectively out of the championship running for the season, so I expect him to be asked to support Solberg now.

 

I was stumbling through the channels the other night (4:30 AM, since it's that time of year at work again), and completely by accident ran across TV coverage of the WRC on Speed! From this season! And actually from this rally! Now, every couple of weeks I'll do a search for "Rally" on my DVR, and nothing pops up. It turns out this was a last-minute thing, which is why I never saw it in advance. They change the name of the coverage each year too, so getting it to automatically record each year just doesn't work.

 

Anyway, I recorded most of it but have yet to find the time to watch it. If I hadn't already read the results, I would've made the time by now. Still, it appears that this will continue on for the next several rallies, with their sister channel Speed2 offering even more coverage. I'm really looking forward to it - it's been hard to get into each race when I couldn't see any of it unfold.

 

Now then... how do I get AT&T to carry Speed2? (The don't even carry BBC America in HD yet. I'm starting to consider going back to cable.)

I watched the Rally: Greece highlights last night. Yes... actually watched them, and managed to stay off of the website during the rally so it wasn't spoiled.

 

However, it was spoiled anyway, because Solberg crashed out on the last day within mere seconds of the lead. A lead that Loeb would have relinquished when he picked up a puncture. So Solberg gets squat for the weekend's efforts instead of a win, and falls down the Championship leader board. Maybe not out of contention, but certainly in a much more difficult position than before.

 

It was nice to finally have TV coverage of it, and better still - have it on the same weekend as the rally. It's only an hour of coverage, but beggars can't be choosers.

 

Here's WRC.com's wrap-up.

In lesser rallying news, Global Rallycross season is underway again. My DVR has recorded both rounds so far (the second of which aired tonight), and both times the coverage has gone past the scheduled time, cutting off the final rounds. How completely useless is that? I suppose I either have to change my DVR settings, or try to be sure and watch the coverage when it airs.

 

On the plus side, this season's final episode of Top Gear (which aired last Monday) featured the hosts doing Rallycross themselves on the cheap, and their final round wasn't cut off.

So last weekend brought Rally New Zealand. And in a completely shocking turn of events, Loeb won, Ford had problems, and the whole rally was completely predictable.

 

Oh wait... that happens a lot.

 

The TV coverage (while welcomed) is pretty anemic. Just one hour to cover three days. And they barely cover any of the support classes (PWRC, SWRC, etc).

 

But they did show some footage of a couple of hot babes.

Not content to kick butt merely everywhere else in the world, Sebastien Loeb came to the U.S. and kicked our butts in Global Rallycross at the X-Games too.

 

No big surprise, really. Frankly, Loeb is one of the best drivers in the world. He would've had more competition, but Marcus Gronholm (who won both Rallycross rounds so far this year, and is a former WRC champion too) crashed out during practice, and wasn't able to race.

 

It was interesting watching the race though. Tanner Faust (co-host of the Americanized version of Top Gear) was his closest rival in a couple of heats, and you could clearly see the difference in how they drove. Loeb was tight and precise, and Faust was sloppy and all over the track. More show, than go. Loeb simply walked away from the pack. No drama, just rock-solid driving.

 

Props go to Ken Block for taking second place in the final though - with a flat tire. I think his WRC experience is starting to pay off. A little. Needs more work though.

 

Elsewhere...

 

Motortrend posted a couple of interesting articles here and here speculating about the next generation of the Subaru WRX - which will apparently be an all-new platform, and not a variant of the Impreza anymore. Supposedly they're targeting something along the lines of a Ford Fiesta or Citroën DS3, with a 1.6 liter turbo-charged engine, and an eye toward competitive motor sport events.

 

You know... the WRC specs require a 1.6 liter turbocharged engine...

 

Motortrend posted their concept of what the new WRX might look like...

 

 

Not bad at all. Could use a little embellishment though...

 

 

Ah yes. Much better.

I was going to ask what the roof scoop is for, then I found http://jalopnik.com/5893014/this-is-why-rally-cars-have-roof-scoops which indicates it provides some fresh air and, more importantly, raises the air pressure in the cabin to keep out dust.

Yeah... poor Evgeny. He's had a string of bad luck, although some of it has been the direct result of just not paying attention.

 

Elsewhere, it looks like Toyota may be returning to the WRC in 2014.

 

That's interesting for a couple of reasons:

1) Subaru is also rumored to be entertaining the idea of returning to the WRC with the aforementioned new WRX which is slated to drop in 2014.

2) Subaru and Toyota partnered on the extremely successful BRZ/FRS. It stands to reason that maybe they'd collaborate on another project. Even though Toyota is planning to use the (ick) Yaris platform for their WRC car, two years is a long time, and Toyota could tap into Subie's rally experience in prepping the car and engine (since Subaru is still rallying, just not in the WRC class).

 

With Mini (despite their internal problems) being competitive, and VW joining the WRC again next year, hopefully this bodes well for the sport.

Ken Block's day job:

 

 

Bet the neighbors loved that.

Rally-prepped BRZ.

 

I'll take two, please.

 

And so last weekend brought Rally Finland. The nice thing about the WRC being back on the Speed network, is they air the highlights immediately after the conclusion of the rally. Very cool.

 

That said, it was all-too-predictable as Sebastien Loeb won again.

 

Really, it's kind of like back when Tiger Woods was playing golf well, and while you respected the fact that he was so much better than everyone else, it made it rather boring to watch when no challengers were able to step up to his level and give him a run for his money.

 

However, now that the rest of the golf world has effectively caught up to Tiger, it has made golf much more interesting to watch. Hopefully, the same thing can happen in the WRC.

 

Not that I'm suggesting that Sebastien Loeb starts hooking up with random skanky groupies, flushes his marriage and career down the toilet, and gets chased out of his house by his furious golf-club-wielding wife. Although if that did happen, I bet she'd have a much harder time catching up with his car than Tiger's ex-wife did.

Rally Germany.

 

Loeb won.

 

Solberg crashed out.

 

It's a little like watching re-runs.

 

But hey, this happened:

 

 

Driver and co-driver were unhurt.

 

Meanwhile, it looks like Toyota will be returning to rallying.

 

With the Yaris.

 

Umm...

 

Really? Couldn't they have found a less embarrassing car?

Okay... so remember all of those pictures of the BRZ prototypes I posted last year?

 

No?

 

Really? Not even a little?

 

Wow.

 

Well... I guess to each their own.

 

Um... so that makes this post a little pointless, but hey, it's my blog, I'll do what I like.

 

So... Autoblog (and other sites) just posted pics of a WRX version of the current Impreza, testing out in the middle of the desert.

 

Which all-but-confirms the rumors of a new WRX for 2014. What's not clear, is if this is just a mule, or if they're actually basing it off the Impreza platform.

 

I'm hoping for a little of both. An all-new hot-hatch WRX for rallying and other motorsports, and a turbo version of the Impreza (like Subaru did with the Legacy 2.5 GT for awhile).

 

The proto is a basic Impreza shell, with some visible tweaks. WRX wheels, quad exhausts, a six-speed manual...

 

 

But the most noticeable addition is the gaping scoop on the hood feeding air to the intercooler. This is definitely a hack-job, since you can see the welds showing through the tape they used to cover the seams.

 

 

So they're pretty early in the process... but it's good to see them road-testing. Can't wait to see what the final looks like. The BRZ sure hasn't failed to disappoint.

Last weekend was Rally Great Britain (Wales).

 

And guess who won!

 

Nope. Not Sebastian Loeb. Surprise!

 

Jari-Matti Latvala won, and in convincing fashion, too. Petter Solberg had a great showing, just missing out on second place by .9 seconds. Of course he lost out to Loeb, but at least someone else finally won a rally, and it was a solid, competitive race among the top three cars for pretty-much the whole weekend.

 

The problem is, even if Ford won everything else this year, Citroën would basically have to not even show up to not win the championship. But hopefully we'll at least get some more close racing out of the rest of the season.

So I mentioned that in previous rounds of the Global Rallycross (ironically named, since all rounds take place in the U.S.), that each time the start of the coverage was delayed, and my stupid DVR cut off the final heat.

 

And the same thing happened again last night. So I had to look up the winner on ESPN.com, where of course, they don't show the whole heat.

 

Utterly useless. Fortunately, Global Rallycross is utterly boring, so no big loss. And the WRC is back on next weekend anyway.

 

Oh, and Tanner Faust (co-host of the nearly equally useless and boring U.S. version of Top Gear) won.

 

Speaking of which, this "season" (six whole episodes) on U.S. Top Gear, they completely changed the format. Now they've moved just to "challenges", where each host "picks a vehicle" (has one assigned to them by the producers) and submits to a series of "challenges" (staged stunts with pre-determined outcomes) and the "winner" (pre-selected by the producers) then gets to drive some sort of performance car in a "race" (staged stunt with a pre-determined outcome) as a "reward". Basically, continuing to rip-off U.K. Top Gear, but without the entertainment value. And yes, pretty-much all TV is staged and set-up ahead of time, to some degree. But some people are better at it and more entertaining to watch than others. Mercifully though, they got rid of their "Big star, small car" segment which was unwatchable, so the series is actually better now.

 

That's not saying much though. It's sort of like saying, "Hey! I ate at McDonald's today - and didn't get botchalism!" It's all relative, right?

Wow... blink and you miss a whole bunch of news.

 

First, Sebastian Loeb has announced he'll be running a reduced schedule next season in the WRC, probably to start driving for a Citroën World Touring Car team. This is effectively a semi-retirement, and opens up the real possibility of a proper multi-driver battle for the WRC driver's championship. Certainly I don't see Mikko Hirvonen as being up to the same level of dominance as Loeb, so this could mean someone other than Citroën taking home the title.

 

Second, the WRC has finally acquired a new promoter! Since their previous years' promoter went bankrupt and Nokia backed out, the WRC has largely been adrift. Now they've got a sponsor in place with a multi-year commitment. The Sportsman Media Group and Red Bull Media House are taking on the mantle of promoting the sport, and are planning on increasing the exposure and live coverage of the WRC. Nice!

 

Third, there are some changes coming to the rules and structure within the WRC, which are designed to make it more affordable for more teams to compete. Hopefully opening up the competition more.

 

Fourth, the 2013 calendar has been announced.

 

Fifth, Hyundai is coming back to the WRC! They may be competing as early as next season, which would bring the number of manufacturers up to five! (Citroën, Ford, Mini, Volkswagen and Hyundai.) While it's not as cool as if Subaru were to come back, it's really encouraging to see more manufacturers lining up to participate, and hopefully this will encourage even more of them to get into the act.

 

All the way around, a really good week for WRC news! I'm psyched!