I think that most of you are aware that rally is an X-Games event this year and many of you may catch some of the action on the TV coverage. I thought that I would put together some info for you to answer any questions you may have about the event. I know rally is not hugely popular here in Texas but this is what God intended your Evo for so it may be worth checking out.

First, a small bit of good news... Andrew Comrie-Picard of Canada has qualified so there will be an Evo IV in the field. Add in a Hyundai with a Mitsubishi drivetrain and then a Ford Escort Cosworth (no Mitsu content obviously but an enormously cool car) to combat the masses of STIs that most qualifiers are driving.

Now details on the event itself. The rally will be held in two parts, first on Wednesday there will be normal rally stages held NW of Los Angeles (Hungary Valley area). These will not be open to the public but will be recorded for broadcast later in the week (10 external cameras, 18 incars, and 2 helicopters!). This apparently will be used as a lead-in to the live coverage on ABC but I can't confirm that. The second part is the finale through and around the Home Depot Center in LA which will be broadcast live on ABC on Saturday Aug 5th at 4pm CST. Times from the earlier stages will be divided by 5 to make sure that the live finale has at least some impact on the final results.

What will the finale look like? Crazy, I'm sure. Here is a map of the course. Apparently this is used by motorcycles as well. Yes, the course goes around the outside and then up ramps and through the HDC and out the other side. Not very rally like but if it's a good show who cares? Just over 1 mile total length, gravel and dirt I'm told. 25 cameras plus 2 cable cams so the TV should be excellent.

One final note on the TV... I don't know how many people caught it but this past Saturday ESPN2 ran a show titled something like "X-Games Rally Qualifier" or something close to that which was basically a year (to date) in review of the US series which introduced all the 12 qualifiers. I hope some people saw this as there was much more Evo content as we'll probably see this weekend. Series regulars like Seamus Burke and Tom Lawless got coverage running their Evos, although neither will be at the X-Games. As a side note I was in the show for about 1/2 a second... in the background running one of the timing controls. I look quite good on TV.

I'll break this into 2 posts... in a little bit I'll post a list of competitors and talk a bit about them and what car they'll be running.

 

Here are the 12 drivers that qualified for the X-Games rally:

Colin McRae- You all probably know who McRae is from his videogames (I'm anxiously awaiting the new one due for Xbox 360 later this year) and you probably know he's a former WRC champion (1995). Truely one of the greatest ever in the sport, when he retired from factory-backed competition a few years ago he had the most WRC wins in history with 25 (since eclipsed). He's back together with his long-time co-driver Nicky Grist after a very public falling out a few years ago. Grist is the co-driver's voice you all know from the videogames. And yes he sounds just like that in real life, I met him once. McRae and Grist will be running a brand new STI which unfortunately has been painted a disgusting shade of "gold" due to his sponsor for the event, SoBe Gold.

Travis Pastrana- MotoX superstar and X-Games veteran who has been the lead driver for Subaru Rally Team USA for the past couple years. He'll be running another new STI. Watch one of his classic incidents here and here (incar).

Ken Block- Co-founder of DC Shoes and teammate to Pastrana on SRT USA. And yes, he'll have a new STI as well. All 3 of the above cars are being prepared by Vermont Sports Car. This is only Block's 2nd year rallying (and only Pastrana's 3rd).

Paul Choiniere- A 7-time US series champion he'll be driving a Hyundai Tiburon. He was the dominant driver in the series for a long time before the WRX and Evo parade started 4 or 5 years ago.

Rhys Millen- I'm sure most of you know Rhys, he's a big drift star now and not too long ago was a factory Mitsubishi rally driver here in the US series. He's switched over to the Subaru camp and will be running a STI for the X-Games.

Tanner Foust- Another big drift star who has a background in rally. Actually Tanner normal runs a PGT Subaru WRX (Production GT, or very limited allowed modifications) but for the X-Games he's picked up nice sponsorship (Rockstar) and will drive a new STI which should be much faster than his normal ride.

Andrew Pinker- Pinker is an Australian running the US series this year. He's been at it a long time, he won the world 2 liter championship 10 years ago. He's been driving a Subaru in the US this year and I assume he'll stay with that (at least that brand) although I think I saw that he was looking to rent something that might be a bit quicker than his regular car (2004 STI).

Matt Iorio- Another Subaru driver (2001 WRX). People are still talking about the sick jump he took at the Maine Forest Rally last weekend. Video here.

Lauchlin O'Sullivan- Another former factory Mitsubishi driver in the US series. He qualified in an '04 STI, I assume he'll drive that but I don't know for sure.

Pat Richard- A Canadian who was the Rally America 2005 champion overall. Pat is an amazing talent and a super nice guy as well. A few years ago he ran the Production Car world championship (Gp N in the WRC) and despite a bare bones effort actually scored a championship point, which may not seem like much but believe me for a North American competitor on a shoe string budget to win a point was a stunning result. He is a long-time Subaru driver, at one time driving for Subaru of Canada.

Andrew Comrie-Picard- ACP is another Canadian competitor who will be driving his trusty Evo IV. He's blogging about his trip to the X-Games here.

Ramana Lagemann- Ex-factory SRT USA driver who qualified in and will drive a Ford Escort Cosworth in the X-Games. Ramana has been out of the sport for a while but entered Maine Forest (the final qualifier) last weekend and won it overall and thus qualified to go to LA.

My picks? You'd be crazy not to think McRae will win. There's a huge difference between a good national-level driver and a world champion. McRae has few peers in this sport and none of them are entered in this rally. After that I'd go with Pat Richard, who has the kind of raw talent that not even the high dollar cars of some of his competitors can make up for. After that maybe Pastrana and Pinker, with Millen, Foust, and maybe Choiniere fighting for leftovers. But it's rally, some people will always break and it's likely there will be wrecks early in the week as well as because this event is so high profile a lot of guys will be pushing to the absolute limit.

 

Who's up for a little rally locally? Its gravel roads though so you will want to tape the crap out of the car beforehand.

 

Pictures of the recently completed STIs of McRae, Pastrana, Block, and Foust.

In the interest of equal time here are some pics of ACP's EVO IV from earlier this year.

Andrew Pinker has pulled out of the event for lack of funds to make a proper effort. He has been replaced by Wyeth Gubelmann in another Subaru. Almost had either another Hyundai or Evo but neither could get everything together (and make a cross-country tow) in time for tomorrow's start.

 

Regular news updates here:

http://www.rally-america.com/Update/day/day_index.html

-- DavidV

 

Mr Slappy, do you have some roads in mind in Denton County? I would be game for some dirt action....

 

Dirt roads are hard to find around here, at least ones that are longer than a 1/4 mile. There are some great gravel roads that provide some sliding fun but the paint will suffer.