Many of you have already likely seen the World Baseball Classic game from Saturday which saw Canada and Mexico in a bench clearing brawl. Well, if you haven’t go ahead and check this out as it is really is quite the spectacle.
On a related note, last weekend’s Rally Mexico is one of the toughest races on the WRC‘s annual schedule given the high altitude geography of the course. French Volkswagen driver and Team Red Bull member Sebastien Ogier won the event by more than three minutes to take his second straight WRC victory.
Volkswagen Motorsport chief Jost Capito dedicated the team’s victory to the team’s engine builder after the Polo R WRC took the checkered flag. Capito was quoted ironically “To win with that engine in the neighbourhood of the country’s Volkswagen plant makes us very proud people”.
Guerlain Chicherit pulled off the stunt yesterday in the winter sports resort of Tignes in his native France using a MINI JCW Countryman. No word yet on what modifications were made to the vehicle.
Chicherit is a four times freestyle skiing world champion, he has also won the French rally championship on two occasions and is a veteran of the X-raid Team.
January 5th saw the start of the 2013 edition of the Dakar Rally. This famous rally pushes both drivers and their vehicles to the limit along a 8,000 km route which is known for its harsh conditions. The race is also unique in that amatures mix with professionals and make up over three quarters of the participants.
HISTORY
The race was founded as the Paris to Dakar rally in December 1978 by Thierry Sabine and involved just under 200 competitors, over a 10,000 km route that year. Over the next 30 years the race grew in popularity and the course itself changed, but maintained its presence in Africa until 2008. In 2008, the rally left the African and European continents when the event was cancelled due to security concerns around potential terrorist attacks.
Since 2009, the newly named ‘Dakar Rally’ has been run in South America. The 2013 edition will start in Lima, Peru enter Argentina mid way through the route and end in Santiago, Chile on January 19th.
VEHICLES
There are four major competitive groups in the rally, motorcycle class, quad class, car class and the truck class along with associated subclasses within each.
Motorcycle Class (Courtesy Dakar.com)
Quad Class (Courtesy Dakar.com)
Car Class (Courtesy Dakar.com)
Truck Class (Courtesy Dakar.com)
The vehicles themselves are largely purpose built or heavily modified versions of existing models, nonetheless the rally provides a good testing ground due to it’s extreme conditions. Many manufacturers over the years have sponsored and tested their vehicles or parts and technology during the rally.
DAKAR 2013
The following are some interesting figures from this year’s event:
53: the number of nationalities represented on the 2013 Dakar. It is a total record since the
rally’s creation in 1978.
40: the number of quad bikes entered, a record.
19: the age of rally’s youngest competitor, Robert Van Pelt Jr (The Netherlands,
Motorcycle).
71: the age of rally’s oldest competitor, Francisco Claudio Regunaschi (Argentina, car)
1,700: the total number of competitors expected in the rally, the race or the assistance
teams.
In addition, it is expected that there will be 1 billion viewers of the event this year along with 4.5 million spectators along the route, making it a truly global event.
Overall rankings at stage 4 are:
Bike – Olivier PAIN (FRA) Quad – Marcos PATRONELLI (ARG) Car – Stéphane PETERHANSEL (FRA) Truck – Ales LOPRAIS (CZE)
…and the following provides a summary of all the action during stage 4 of the Dakar.
Follow live coverage of the Dakar Rally from your browser, or download the smart phone app for iOS or Android.
Rolls Royce is the epitome of a luxury vehicle. From its wood interior, rear coach doors, hand stitched leather seats and even a hidden umbrella, the vehicle exudes class. It will take you to your corporate meeting or Learjet in style and elegance.
Now check out this video from Europe of a Rolls Royce Phantom driver taking his vehicle off road for a little impromptu rally car action. Not exactly what this $400k+ vehicle is intended for, but you got to admire the drifting in this beast of a car!
We’d hate to see the repair bill after this little jaunt in the country!
In part two of our coverage of the Rally of the Tall Pines from Bancroft, Ontario we move out of the service area to cover the action happening on the course.
For rally fans, one of the favourite daytime spectator locations is the Iron Bridge. Rally cars pass through this area throughout the day and the course allows the drivers to get into a good rhythm. The narrow bridge itself challenges the drivers coming off a long straight away into a hard right turn and provides excitement for the fans.
Iron Bridge Spectator Area at the Rally of the Tall Pines
1978 Datsun 280Z
Patrick Marcoux and co-driver Chantal Villeneuve
Further down the course is where the bulk of the spectators watch the action. At this point the drivers are coming off a long downward slope into a right turn, providing the opportunity for some power sliding.
The final results of this year’s Rally of the Tall Pines were as follows:
Patrick Richard from Squamish, BC and co-driver Alan Ockwell from Toronto, ON driving their 2008 Subaru WRX STI placed first with a time of 1:46:18. This is despite suffering two flat tires and brake damage that caused a fire.
This was closely followed by Antoine L’Estage from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC and Nathalie Richard from Halifax, NS in their 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X in a time of 1:50:56.1. Antoine and Natalie were also crowned overall Canadian Rally Champions having won four out of the six rallies in 2012.
Finally, Ugo Desgreniers from Orford, QC and co-driver Erik Kirby from Sherbrooke, QC rounded out the top three with a time of 1:52:39.1.
The Rally of the Tall Pines is a well run event, with exciting action and the opportunity to get up close to the drivers and the vehicles in the Service Area. The town of Bancroft and its residents are wonderful hosts, which makes it a great stop on the Canadian Rally Championship circuit.
Team RedlineNorth looks forward to all of the CRC action in 2013 starting with the Rallye Perece-Neige Maniwaki, in Maniwaki Quebec on February 2nd, 2013
This past weekend, Team RedlineNorth headed to beautiful and tranquil Bancroft, Ontario, Canada to experience the sights and sounds of the annual Rally of the Tall Pines. As the official final stage in the Canadian Rally Championships, Rally of the Tall Pines is home to a very competitive atmosphere as race results are critical to winning the national championship.
Action from Rally of the Tall Pines
The Canadian Rally Championship is comprised of six events held nationwide in a season that extends from February to November. The series is presented by Subaru Canada, supported by Yokohama Tire Canada and officially sanctioned by the Canadian Association of Rallysport (CARS). The all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over closed-road courses that typically cover more than 150 kilometers of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.
Rallying is one of the most grueling and difficult of all the motorsports since it combines both driving ability and technical know how as teams must make repairs to the cars on the fly in between the various stages. To be successful, a team must have a skilled and fearless driver along with an experienced navigator who can read the maps and communicate instructions seamlessly to the driver. In addition, teams also need to have talented mechanics and technical support staff to be able to repair the vehicles in order to continue through the multiple stages. Here is a glimpse of the action from the service area after the first stage on Saturday.
And this year did not disappoint fans once again, as it was another close race that saw Patrick Richard and Alan Ockwell’s Subaru edge out Antoine L’Estage and Nathalie Richard’s Mitsubishi for the victory. However, the championship was not on the line since Antoine L’Estage and Nathalie Richard had officially been crowned the 2012 Canadian Rally Champions with their victory at the 2012 Pacific Forest Rally in BC in mid October. Nevertheless, the event was well attended by both local and regional fans along with rally enthusiasts from all over who come to Bancroft to experience Canadian rally racing in its finest form.
Be sure to keep reading the blog as we will be publishing a follow up story soon.
From November 23rd-24th the annual Rally of the Tall Pines will take place in Bancroft, Ontario about 2.5 hours North East of Toronto. The Rally of the Tall Pines is the sixth and final leg of the 2012 Canadian Rally Championship season. This year RedlineNorth will be covering the 42nd running of the rally and taking in all the twists and turns throughout the day.
News yesterday that MINI has pulled out of the World Rally Championship (WRC). Dr. Kay Segler, Senior Vice President MINI Business Coordination and Brand Management indicated:
“MINI will abandon its works involvement in the WRC at the end of the 2012 season. By the end of the season WRC Team MINI Portugal will have competed in every rally in 2012. As such, in accordance with FIA regulations, we will have achieved the WRC homologation for the MINI John Cooper Works. In doing so, we would have achieved the prerequisites to allow those interested to continue to run the car in the WRC on a customer rallying basis.”
While MINI is pulling out, that latter part of the statement indicates privateer racers, those that are not backed by an automaker, will be able to race in the MINI John Cooper Works. However, notable rally driver Ken Block has previously stated the World Rally Championship format hurts privateer drivers.
The absence of MINI in the 2013 season may not be a complete surprise. During the 2012 season the team garnered only 26 manufacturer points against 388 from the overall winner Citroen Total World Rally Team. With the absence of MINI, the 2013 WRC season will be left with four main manufacturer teams, Ford, Citroën, Hyundai and Volkswagen.
Yesterday, Sebastien Loeb won his home Rally of France clinching the World Rally Championship for a record ninth consecutive time. With two events still remaining, Sebastien’s lead in points was so large he won the title mathematically before the season is finished.
Sebastien Loeb wins big
The 38 year Frenchman’s first title came in 2004 and he has been crowned drivers’ champion every season since then. With over 75 victories since 2002, his domination is truly unmatched in the sport and he is one of the greatest rally drivers in history.
Sebastien drives the Citroen DS3 WRC which is based upon the Citroën DS3 road car. The DS3 WRC though is powered by a turbocharged 1.6-liter engine rather than the normally aspirated 2-liter engine found in most Super 2000 cars.
To see him in action check out this video – He truly is a magical driver.
Unfortunately for fans, Sebastien will not be defending his 9th championship next year in WRC as it has been announced he will be switching to the World Touring Car Championship. It will be interesting to see if he can make the transition and bring his unparalleled success to the new series in the future.
Pikes Peak is a fourteen thousand foot peak in the United States, located 10 miles (16 km) west of the city of Colorado Springs. It is also the location of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, an annual automobile and motorcycle hill climb to the summit. The elevation climbs from 4,720 ft (1,440 m) from the start to the finish at 14,110 ft (4,300 m), on grades averaging 7%. Of course what goes up must come down, as driver Jeremy Foley and his co-driver found out a couple of days ago around mile 16 in an area of the mountain known as Devil’s Playground.
Their Mitsubishi EVO VIII flipped numerous times as it rolled down the hill in what could be misconstrued as Hollywood stunt. Thankfully both were not seriously hurt in the crash.
RedlineNorth 