Archives for November 2015

The SEMA 2015 Run-Down

November 20, 2015 by ponycargirl Leave a Comment

SEMA 2015 has come, and after exhaustively walking around and around and around the Las Vegas Convention Center while not having even seen a quarter of it, it has gone. Dealers, builders, salespeople, OEMs, racing teams, equipment manufacturers, grease monkeys, designers, inventors – and of course, the media – converge in the brightly lit oasis of vice in the middle of the desert the first week of November. If there was a theme this year, it was most definitely trucks. Between the smoke from Vaughn Gittin Jr. drifting around Ford Out Front and the equally voluminous plumes emitted from the lungs of posing vapers, it was all about the trucks. Even the DUBB section of outside lot was conspicuously devoid of quantities of low riders, donks, and the blinged-out tuners its known for, instead full of lifted and accessorized pickups.

Chevrolet kicked off the reveals Monday night with a slew of beefy Camaros including the Gen Six COPO Camaro introduced by NHRA Camaro Funny Car driver Courtney Force. The piece de resistance was the Silverado 3500HD Kid Rock Concept, with none other than Kid Rock himself on hand to talk about how he collaborated with Chevy on the over-the-top 4WD dually.

Toyota was all about Back to the Future, but also had the still-dirty RAV4 rally car on the floor driven by Ryan Millen.

Acura was a surprise on the show floor this year, with their sensational reveal of a fully-restored 1993 Legend – the beloved car of rapper Ludacris.

Friday’s drive-out was led by legendary Chip Foose driving the 1965 Chevrolet Impala Impostor. Impostor, because it’s a meticulous build of an Impala-like body on a C6 Corvette. Cars cruised out to a lot across Paradise Road for the SEMA Ignited afterparty.

In its sophomore year, Friday Night’s SEMA Ignited was much more pulled-together this year. Gone was the tedious center-stage viewing of the awkward take-and-re-take of Builder’s War hosts, replaced by a better organized car show, a greater number of food truck vendors, and a larger track that kept a busier shedule. With Jerod DeAnda of Formula D and Red Bull Global Rallycross MC-ing, SEMA had a stable of Formula Drift drivers – Odi Bakchis, Ryan Tuerck, Michael Essa, Robbie Nishida, Dean Kearney, Daigo Sato, and Vaughn Gittin Jr. to name a few – out every hour for drifting demos.

On the half hour, ride-alongs were available in some of the tuned Mustangs from Ford Out Front, making SEMA Ignited a great bookend to the car girl or guy’s dream week to the massive trade show in Vegas.

Seed 9 Rally 2015

November 15, 2015 by ponycargirl Leave a Comment

It was bright and sunny but unseasonably cold at the dawn of the 2015 Seed 9 Rally; cold enough to avoid rattlesnakes and desert tortoises. Held annually the weekend after SEMA in Jean, Nevada – thirty or so miles southwest of Nevada – the off-road stage rally was founded in 2003. This year’s entry list was pared down a bit from last year’s entries that included names such as David Sterckx and George Plsek, but the event didn’t suffer for it. The point of this rally isn’t the names, it’s… rally. For the pure love of it.

However, one entry that stood out after covering Formula D this year was 21-year-old Matt Coffman, currently ranking 30th in the Formula Drift 2015 Pro Championship standings. After focusing heavily on drifting for a few years, he got back in a Subaru STI (Super Pro) rally car for Seed 9 with co-driver Blake Lind, who he had only met days before at SEMA.

M Coffman, Formula Drift Long Beach 2015

Based at the Gold Strike Casino in Jean – a crossroads on Route 15 to California with two gas stations as neighbors – the rally boasts twisting, rocky roads through the scenic desert near Red Rock National Canyon, no artificial light, and no transit between stages. The day stages are out-and-back with the Miner’s Dash power stage on the fourth stage. This year marked the return of the Double or Nothing / Nothing or Double night stages that couldn’t be run last year due to bad conditions.

While an annual meeting of Elvis impersonators carries on inside, the rally meetings and service take place in a separated lot by the casino entrance. Because of the forbidding, rural location, there aren’t really any spectator areas set up, but this year two adventurous rally fans from Boston braved the elements to watch from a windy hill.

This year’s rally was fortunately not one of attrition; of the twelve entries, ten finished. Coffman/Lind won overall with a time of 35:25.1, with John Coyne/Doug Nagy about a minute behind (36:33.2) in second, and Brent Lee/John Dillon third overall (45:25.6). Complete results and full gallery below.

Results from Seed 9 Rally https://www.facebook.com/Seed9Rally/?ref=br_rs

Las Vegas – The 2015 Red Bull GRC Championship

November 12, 2015 by ponycargirl Leave a Comment

No one expected rain in the desert, but rain on the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada it did. Running concurrent with SEMA, the huge automotive aftermarket convention held the first week of November annually, GRC kicked off with an autograph session Monday night at the SLS Casino. Tuesday’s energetic practice on the 1.31 kilometer (.814 mile) track in the bright sun was the opposite of the muddy carnage that would occur the following day. After Steve Arpin and Brian Deegan’s fastest lap times in practice, Steve Arpin won his first GRC pole.

Returning to the site of the 2013 championship with the pyramid and sphinx of the Luxor Casino across Las Vegas Boulevard as a backdrop, the roughly 80% pavement / 20% dirt track circled its way around and in on itself, winding around a decrepit mid-century motel. For the season-ender, the signature dirt jump was bypassed by the Kobalt Tools Joker Lap, shortening the track by 235 feet (71.63 meters.) The Joker Lap can only be taken once by each driver after the first lap is completed.

The usual suspects were competing in the Supercars class, with the 2015 Rally America champion David Higgins joining the Subaru team in a third car. The familiar face of Pat Moro also joined for his 2nd race of the 2015 season with some upgrades to his Chevrolet Sonic. There were a few new names in Lites: Augie Lerch debuted the new Buhl Sport Detroit team, and another woman – Sandra Hultgren – came along to compete with Olsberg MSE. One unexpected entry in GRC Lites was none other than Stephan Verdier. After competing in Supercars in previous years, he took Harry Cheung’s place as a last-minute substitute for Rhys Millen Racing.

On the morning of race day, weather reports said 50% chance of rain. However Las Vegas is a gambling town, and the odds were not in GRC’s favor. A late afternoon thunderstorm that reportedly brought hail to SEMA at the opposite end of the Strip blew in, prompting a temporary evacuation of the track and the stands. Rallycross is rough and tumble as it is, but the unseasonably cold temperatures, slick track and resulting mud rendered the semi-finals and Last Chance Qualifiers absolutely brutal. Cars slid into walls and each other above and beyond the usual door-banging, leaving Sverre Isachsen, Ken Block and David Higgins all with DNF’s in the semi-finals due to crippling damage. Ken Block did make it to the final.

Scott Speed was in front at the beginning of the final as teammate Tanner Foust spun and tangled with several other cars on the first turn. Last year’s season champion Joni Wiman sped past and stayed in front, ultimately winning the race. His Red Bull Olsbergs MSE teammate Sebastian Eriksson placed second, while Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross’s Speed took the third spot on the podium as well as winning the 2015 Driver and Team Championship.

Alex Keyes placed first in GRC Lites, and echoing the Supercar podium, Oliver Eriksson placed third in the race while winning the season championship. Andreas Wernersson, another new face with OMSE, took second.

At the GRC awards ceremony, Patrik Sandell took home the KMC Sportsman Award, and Ford won the Manufacturer award. The Royal Purple Fan Favorites were Tanner Foust (Supercars) and Alejandro Fernandez (Lites), and after his first year of competing in GRC Lites, Miles Maroney was named the Sylvania Rising Star.

And so begins Silly Season. The very next day at SEMA’s Ford Out Front, Brian Deegan’s daughter Hailie – already an experienced Mod Kart competitor – announced that she’d be putting her hat into the GRC Lites ring. If River Racing’s Collete Davis and newbie-to-GRC Sandra Hultgren return next year, that would make an unprecedented three women competing in the series, which is pretty exciting. Outside of that, there are a lot of questions to be answered; with Volkswagen’s emissions scandal, will there still be a budget for the VARX team in 2016? Subaru experienced maybe not the season they had hoped for – will their team stay intact? Will we see more of David Higgins in GRC as Travis Pastrana becomes more involved with his Nitro Circus – or Bucky Lasek debuting in Rally America? Will Rhys Millen return for a full season? After so many rumors swirling around the internet – will other manufacturers join in the GRC fun? Stay tuned in 2016.