Ford World Rally Team recap of WRC 2011 Rally Acropolis.  Heartbreaking for Jari-Matti Latvala, but at least Mikko Hirvonen was able to score points for the driver’s title.

I pushed, everything I can. I’m still happy with my performance, with my driving, and the team did a good job. We couldn’t do more than this - it’s impossible. Private team is private team - it’s difficult. — Petter Solberg, upon completing WRC 2011 Rally Acropolis

Vicarious Weekend

What a weekend for motorsports!

WRC Rally Acropolis is tearing up the Greek countryside (in some cases the Greek countryside is tearing up the WRC competitors) and Formula Drift is running the Gauntlet at Wall, New Jersey.

It would be a perfect Father’s Day weekend if SCCA RallyCross were not happening on Sunday this month, as opposed to Saturday.  I won’t be able to get off on Sunday for quite a while, so I’ll have to miss out on RallyCross this month.

Looks like it’ll be a vicarious weekend.

Here’s the Ford WRC preview of Rally Acropolis.  Mikko Hirvonen was the last to win this rally back in 2009, and a win here would help his point standings in the drivers championship.  However, after day 1 Mikko has said that he’ll shoot for bringing home points as opposed to overreaching for the win.

Petter FTW!

End of day 1 at WRC Rally Acropolis has Petter Solberg 51.6 seconds ahead of Sebestien Loeb.  Read here for the official word from Petter Solberg’s website and here for the official day 1 recap from WRC.com.

Neil Cole explains the art of pacenotes by analyzing one corner through the notes of Ken Block, Mikko Hirvonen, and Sebestien Loeb.

In Memorium: Goodbye  to my Primitive Racing mudflaps; you have served me well, but it’s time to move on to something more durable and with more coverage.  We had a good run.

In Memorium: Goodbye to my Primitive Racing mudflaps; you have served me well, but it’s time to move on to something more durable and with more coverage. We had a good run.

WRC 2011 Rally Argentina Day 2 Part 2

WRC 2011 Rally Argentina Day 2 Part 1