Petter Solberg had warned Sebastien Ogier before the World Rally Championship’s final event, Wales Rally GB, that his 2nd place standing in the driver’s championship was not necessarily safe. It turns out Solberg was absolutely right. While Loeb claimed his 62nd WRC win, the big news was Solberg, as he challenged him all weekend for the top spot. Solberg was very impressive, especially considering some of the problems he faced, but Loeb was able to hold him off.

Sebastien Loeb claims his 62nd WRC Victory at Wales Rally GB

Solberg’s Citroen suffered gearbox issues on Day 1 which cost him the opening day lead. Solberg said that the issues cost him at least 10-15 seconds. “When we wanted first it would go to fourth for example and when you can’t trust the car it’s difficult to push properly.” Solberg’s co-driver Patterson said, ““On the second Sweet Lamb stage the car actually stopped because we had no gears.” Solberg also drove the first day without a starter motor, which caused him to drive more cautiously and make sure the car kept running.
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Team GotCone driver and GotCone.com blog contributor Christy Carlson made her Rally America debut last weekend at the Rally America Nocona Stomp Rally in Nocona, TX. After finishing 4th in G2 in the Nocona Stomp Rally I on Saturday morning, Carlson and co-driver Adam Kniepp picked up the pace in the Nissan Sentra SE-R rally car for the afternoon to claim 2nd place overall for Nocona Stomp Rally II.

Carlson said, “It felt strangely comfortable, as though this was meant to be.” after suiting up and getting ready for the first stage of the rally. Early on she said she was telling herself, “Just feel out the car. I’m not here to win, I’m just here to finish this one… so make sure you can finish.” That attitude changed after seeing the results for the morning stages. “Its time to show them that there really is a competitive female in this sport now.”, she said. She felt much more comfortable with the car and her co-driver in the afternoon and was able to ‘dial it up’ a bit. She finished just 40 seconds behind the leader and in 2nd place overall. More…

Subaru has announced today that Travis Pastrana has left the Subaru Rally Team. Pastrana’s contract with Subaru was up for renewal this year and Pastrana has decided not to pursue a new contract with Subaru. Pastrana has won 4 Rally America Championships with Subaru between 2006 and 2009, while winning 22 rallies and making 40 podium appearances. He also won 2 gold and one silver medal at the ESPN X Games Rally competitions while with Subaru.

Travis Pastrana has officially left the Subaru Rally Team

“Travis brought rally to a whole new audience through the rally championship and, of course, through his spectacular appearances at X Games,” said Tim Mahoney, chief marketing officer of Subaru of America. “We wholeheartedly thank him for his outstanding performances with Subaru Rally Team USA and wish him well in his future endeavors.” More…

The latest rumor to sweep the WRC world is that Monster Energy Ford World Rally driver Ken Block and Red Bull Citroen driver Kimi Raikkonen will be teaming up for the 2011 WRC season. There seems to be some credibility to these rumors, even though it makes little sense currently with each driver sponsored by different manufacturers and energy drink companies. My guess would be that Kimi would be switching over to Monster and driving a Fiesta next year if this were to happen.

Kimi Raikkonen drives at RACC Rally Deutschland in Germany

Kimi has stated that it is WRC or nothing for 2011, confirming his dedication to WRC. Rumors were that Kimi was seeking out a ride in a F1 car for 2011, but would only go with a team that could provide him a car that could win. It seems all the F1 negotiations have fallen through and he will try to be back in WRC next year. This may be tough for Kimi to find a ride, considering his record this year which was characterized by him rolling his Citroen Rally car in the shakedown stage in Spain and was forced to retire before the event had even begun. More…

Ford announced today that they will be making available in the U.S. the R2 Rally kit (in gravel or tarmac trim). The kit was designed by M-Sport, Ford’s WRC partner. The kit includes a bump in power to 168HP and 134 lb/ft of torque, a new suspension, roll cage, 4 pot brakes, limited slip diff, sequential gearbox and more. The kit will be available exclusively from Team O’Neil Motorsports. Also available will be a Stage 1 kit that will be somewhat less ‘hardcore’, for rally enthusiasts.

The new 168 HP Ford Fiesta R2 Rally Kit

I’m fairly certain this Ford kit should make the ford Fiesta somewhat close to what is currently running in the S-WRC (minus the AWD) and has been fairly impressive. Henning Solberg has been driving one for much of the season and has made a few finishes in the top 10 in the very under-powered Fiesta.
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I thought it might be fun to make a year in photos type thing and post some of the great GotCone? photos from 2010. I will be adding photos as I have time to find them, so this is a work in progress. If you have any favorites that you would like included please leave a comment, as I have A LOT of photos from the year, so will be hard to pick out the best ones! Click on the photos to see the photo in a much larger size and of course all the photos from the events can be found in the GotCone Photo Gallery

A Subaru WRX wagon slides in the snow at the Febraury 2010 Nebraska Region snow rallycross

There wasn’t much drama for Sebastien Loeb at this years Rally in Spain, also known as the Catalunya Rally. Loeb wrapped up his 61st victory, leading from stage 1 all the way through the entire rally. “It was another very good result for us in Spain and I’m very happy,” said Loeb. “We had no pressure for the championship on this event, so we were just able to drive as we wanted. We pushed hard on the gravel on Friday and from then it was a little bit easier to control the advantage.” Even after backing off on the final few stages, Loeb finished the rally with a 35.3 second lead over runner-up Petter Solberg.

Loeb drove his Citroen C4 to another victory in Spain

Solberg on the other hand, had a real battle for 2nd place with Loeb’s teammate and Spanish countryman Dani Sordo. Solberg finished only 5.8 seconds ahead of Sordo, but was happy with his 2nd place finish. “I went really sideways on the final stage: maybe too much,” said Solberg. “I wasn’t sure if I could do it. This means so much to me to beat the factory cars because our car really isn’t the same.” The finish inched Solberg ever closer to the 3rd spot in the driver’s standings, now just 5 points behind Jari-Matti Latvala who finished 4th in Spain. The finish also put the privateer in reach of catching 2nd place Sebastien Ogier, who finished in 10th, putting him just 16 points ahead of Petter. More…

That’s right the long awaited Top Gear USA show is set to debut on The History Channel on November 21. I’m personally interested to see what the show will be like. Hopefully they will do a better job then Top Gear Australia did. I’m not a big fan of Tanner Foust as a TV personality, so hopefully he won’t get on my nerves too bad.

Also recently announced the ‘Reasonably Priced Car’ will be a Suzuki SX4 and will be driven around the Top Gear USA Test Track by such stars as; Tim Allen, Buzz Aldrin, Ty Burrell, Tony Hawk, Bret Michaels, Dominic Monaghan, Kid Rock and Michelle Rodriguez.

To keep your curiosities peaked a couple teaser videos released by The History Channel below.

Disclaimer: This rumor is just that a rumor and has no real concrete backing what so ever, but I thought it would be interesting to share. If anyone would like to provide any sort of confirmation or real information please do so. 🙂

So, the rumor is this; that Travis Pastrana will be leaving Subaru and joining the Red Bull Citroen Junior Team in the WRC for the 2011 season. The rumor is that he would be taking Kimi Raikkonen’s spot on the team, as Red Bull currently favors Pastrana over Kimi, as they see the following and popularity that Ken Block has garnered and think Pastrana would be able to bring that same kind of following and excitement.

Travis Pastrana #199 driving his Subaru Rally Team STi during the 2010 Rally America Season