Canadian Rally Championship 2014 Teaser

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As a Canadian rally fan, journalist and past competitor, I obviously have an affinity for the sport here in this country. For many years, rally in Canada has been a very small niche sport, largely because many events are held in very rural settings. With the advent of modern media though, perhaps driven by the success of series like the X-Games and Global RallyCross, the scene has become much more vibrant in recent years as potential fans can see just how exciting the sport is from home.
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Coolest Granny ever tries RallyX in a Subaru

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At 91 years old, most of us are are being force fed energy shakes and munching on crushed ice from a foam cup, if we are still kicking at all. Youtube user YoungunnR’s Granny isn’t like most of us. This hard core old girl recently strapped in behind the wheel of a Subaru and headed out to do it in the dirt. Go Granny Go!

Check it out after the jump.
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Gumball 3000 Rally Begins in New York City

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As I type, 150 brightly colored, wrapped and logo’ed cars, SUVs and anything in between are arriving in Toronto on the first day of the Gumball 3000 cross-country rally. The festive exotic-heavy field of participants lined up Thursday night in New York City’s Times Square in spite of fog, rain and and huge crowds. Tightly packed, the cars filled up two New York City blocks. [Read more...]

Think motorsport is expensive? Try making a movie about it!

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Ok, so maybe making a movie isn’t quite as expensive as campaigning a top flight race or rally car, but the costs can easily eclipse those incurred by grass roots racers who’ve been known to fund their team by returning empties. Just ask Matt Johnston, who is making what might just be the first ever feature length movie about the U.S. National Rally Championship.

So far, Johnston has sunk ten grand of his own money into the project and anticipates that he will need close to $50,000 to complete the film. If these numbers aren’t high enough, remember that Johnston has done almost everything by himself and already owns much of the super expensive gear needed to shoot wickedly high quality video.
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Massive rally crash caused by missing roof vent!

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We’ve all seen the funky scoops that rally teams use to draw in fresh air to keep the humans cool, but who knew the scoops perform another, more safety related function. These scoops allow air to enter the car, while maintaining positive air pressure that prevents dust clouds from entering the car.

During the recent WRC round in Mexico, Ford driver Evgeny Novikov lost his roof scoop when he clipped a fence or some such obstacle. The resultant dust storm inside the car caused a rather massive crash and a Fiesta RS in kit form.

Check it out after the jump…
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Ride to 2nd at 100 Acre Wood with Mark Higgins

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Block may have taken his sixth win at the woods that Christopher Robin played in, but reigning Rally America Champion Mark Higgins wasn’t going to let him win easily. Being second on the road however, Higgins had to content with the dust that was left hanging in the air as the Ford driver attacked the stages. Even with the addition of a “dust minute”, the Subaru America team still had a tough time seeing the road through the haze.

Check out Higgins in action after the break.
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Tall Pines 2010 video mashup

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Today will be a massive editing day here in The Garage, so I thought we’d share the fruits of someone else’s labour. Matt Johnston has just posted this quick mashup of HD clips from the 2010 Rally of the Tall Pines, which includes in car, road side and even helicopter footage. The soundtrack is all natural, meaning there are no tunes and lots of pops and bangs from the exhaust!

After the break, select HD, crank the volume and hold on!
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Look out NASCAR, your world is about to go upside down!

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Over the years I haven’t commented on anything NASCAR too much as it hasn’t really been on my radar. Now that I spend so much time chasing the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series teams with a camera, I have more of a feel for the roundy round scene. Today’s news in the world of NASCAR is rather large, so I’m going to have a go at some commentary.

Rally fans found out yesterday that Travis Pastrana had cut his ties with Subaru. For you good old boys who don’t follow anything outside of the circle, Pastrana is a top competitor in motocross, freestyle riding and rallying. He has won multiple championships in all of them and for the past 5 years has been competing in the Rally America championship at the wheel of a Subaru.
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100 Acre Wood Highlights video

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If the good folks at Rally America do half as good a job putting on an event as they do marketing themselves, their rallies must be an absolute pleasure to enter.

They’ve just released a fabulous highlights video produced by our friends at Formula Photographic who have done an awesome job as always. There is some great coverage of the Canadian crews and obviously Ken Block takes center stage. A quick flash that made me chuckle is the appearance of American rally legend John Buffum wearing a SpongeBob party hat!

Video after the break
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Ken Block shakes down the Monster Ford for 100 Acre Wood

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If Ken Block and Alex Gelsemino can top the podium at this weekend’s 100 Acre Wood rally, it will be their 5th year in a row winning the event. As always, proper prep is a big part of success and pre running the car to make sure everything is where it should be is a big part of the formula for winning.

Another part of Block’s formula is promotion. Promote his own DC Shoes brand, promote Monster and promote Ford. One of the biggest keys to the promo team are of course the videos of Block doing wild and crazy stuff in rally cars. Today’s video is less wild and crazy and more hardcore performance as Block and Gelsemino visit SayersBrook Bison Ranch near the 100 Acre Wood site to put the little Ford through its paces.
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