I knew he was good on tarmac but his gravel performance was a surprise to me this year - consistently good through all the stages, just not as fast as Petter.

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0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

i think that his gravel skills caught pretty much everyone except for Guy Frequelin off guard. i don't think that Gronholm, Burns, Solberg etc. expected a rookie tarmac expert to be able to run with them in places like Australia and Finland.

the way the championship works is kinda interesting. you can be a gravel wizard, and still get beaten badly by a tarmac ninja who can drive fairly well on gravel. as Burns is proving, there is a lot to be lost if you can't make it into the top eight on sealed surfaces, even if you're rarely out of the top three or four on gravel.

 

The wife likes Loeb for the Ex-gymest thing BIG TIME. Plus he takes defeat well, when and if it happens. Unlike some others.

Martin, also my pick as most improved.

 

yeah, i've never seen Loeb throw a McRae-esque hissy fit after crashing out of a stage, or having a mechanical. i'm not surprised that the wife is big on the whole ex-gymnast thing.

 

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dropkick_muppet. the north bay guys and i are going tomorrow morning on the work/rally thing up to Humboldt. Pete says Saturday will be a 12 hour drive up there along the back back roads. Just so sorry you could'nt make it.

 

damnit! ugh. i gotta find a way to get out from under the g/f's thumb more often...

 

Pete says on the way up is seperated into 12 direrent stages. 5 of which will be in dirt roads. Man is my beautiful car going to be rally filthy.

I'll tell ya all about it when i get back.

 

I've been putting off bringing this up, because i can't remember the name of it but... I was watching SPEED a few weeks ago and, do you know that "english" classic car meet they have every year when past and current racers drive the cars on this road past all the on-lookers? I feel like a fool not remembering the name. Anyway, they had cars from the early 1900's up to new F1 cars running one at a time along the road to the finish line. David Coulthard drove an F1 car from the 40-50 etc... But at the end of the day our own Petter Solberg gets out there in a Subaru rally car and begins tearing though the stage. Doing 180 after 180 donuts the whole way up. All the time waving to the onlookers.

Before his drive the guy putting on this yearly event told him to not loose control because the car he was driving is SO expensive. Petter said "Don't worry this is my car and will do what i want."

once again sorry i can't remember the name. But i hope someone else saw this.

 

unless i'm completely mistaken, you're talking about the Godwood or Goodwood festival of speed, right? i think that's what it's called. i didn't get it recorded this year for some reason or another, but i know what you're talking about.

oh, and good for Petter, it's always nice to throw a little swing into some of those really stiff and uptight classic car events.

 

Dude im back from the greatest driving i've ever experienced in my life. The gravel roads were epic. One was over a mountain and down the other side. It must have been over 35 miles in length. We were on it for over 2 hours. Another was about 9 miles. With areas that allowed you to get the car up to 50+ mph before breaking for the next hairpin turn. The tarmac was equally as impressive. Too much to even get into. but WOW!!!

The drive took 12 hours before we made it to camp.

dropkick_muppet. here is the good news. The fellas and i (reeally Pete) said we should do this every year. And everyone agreed. So maybe next Oct you'll be able to make it.

 

i can't even tell you how jealous i am...

 

Pete is putting something together in the month of Feb. for any and all rally nutz out there. It'll be held in Death Valley. I'll keep you posted.

Rally XS this friday everybody. can't wait.

 

Hey, we're also putting together a little 3 - 4 hour run / work rally this coming November 2, Sunday. It'll be held somewhere in the bay area. But would be something to look i to doing with us before driving somewhere far away like Death Valley etc...

So far the people thinking of going are myself, psoper, huck, daredevil and gotwrx.

 

death valley in February? oooh, that could be really interesting. i'll have to keep that in mind. any details on the Nov. 2nd work/rally deal? i thought that the 2nd was a saturday, but i'm pretty sure that my g/f is going to be out of town that weekend, so i'd probably be free.

 

No real details just yet. It's just starting to be talked about. I'll keep you posted. I really hope you can make it.