The FIA World Motor Sport Council convened Thursday March 11, 2010 and has postponed the finalization of the 2011 WRC Calendar.

The World Council has mandated the FIA President, the President of the World Rally Commission and the Championship promoter (North One Limited) to further consider the World Rally Championship Calendar with a final version to be decided no later than April 16, 2010.

New S2000 Homologation Regulations Passed

The World Council has adopted new homologation regulations permitting the use of a 1.6 litre turbo engine with direct injection (based on the existing Super 2000 regulations). This engine may either be derived from the Manufacturer’s base engine, or be homologated in accordance with the strictly defined technical regulations.

To improve competitor safety, Priority 1 and Priority 2 driver teams contesting all events of the Championship will be permitted to use Safety Cars. This will apply only to tarmac events in the Championship.

Regional Championships Adopt New Points System

The European, African, Asian Pacific FIA Regional Rally Championships, and the European Rally Cups have amended their points scale to harmonise with recent changes to the points system in the World Rally Championship.

Points will be awarded as follows:

1st - 25 points
2nd - 18 points
3rd - 15 points
4th - 12 points
5th - 10 points
6th - 8 points
7th - 6 points
8th - 4 points
9th - 2 points
10th - 1 point

Ralliart Inc. has announced that it will cease its global motorsports business operations as of April 2010.

The company has stated that its business activities have radically deteriorated as a result the economic downturn that began in 2008 and that it can no longer continue to operate under these conditions.

Ralliart is in the process of winding down its sales and support services before officially closing its doors to the public. Customers still have until March 22nd 2010 to place orders on competition parts, sport parts, collection items etc.

Ralliart's scale down includes the following items:

1. Support to motorsport customers (Support to the participation, Technical Support, and Awarding of Mitsubishi/Ralliart Driver of the Year)
2. New Planning, Development and Merchandize of Ralliart products (Except FIA VO parts)*
3. Information of new products and dispatching motorsport information (on the web)**

*FIA VO parts development and application work shall be done by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation as it is.
**FIA Group-N information shall be available on the official Mitsubishi Motors Corporation website.

Ralliart was established in 1984 by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation to serve the company's growing motorsports programs. From the time it was created by MMC, Ralliart grew to 23 branches worldwide before announcing its close for business March 8th 2010.

For Immediate Release

March 3, 2010

Bangor, Maine USA

Maine's Last Ditch Racing had a mixed weekend at the recent 100 Acre Wood Rally in Salem, Missouri, ultimately claiming third overall of sixteen regional entrants and third in Open Class in Saturday's 100 Acre Wood Regional Rally.

The 100 Acre Wood Rally, round 2 of the Rally America 2010 National Championship, also comprised the Regional Rally Championship. As 2009 Eastern Region Open Class Champions, the team had come down to race again other regional champions in an attempt to take overall honors. The woods of Missouri had other plans for the team, however.

Friday's event was eventful, but not in a positive way. A slight off early on SS2 rattled Cassidy and Co-driver Adam Kneiip, and then halfway through the stage the team's exhaust manifold on their 2003 Subaru STi fractured, causing hot exhaust gases to blow onto components in the engine compartment. "In addition to not having any power due to lack of boost, we started to see smoke and smell burning rubber," said driver John Cassidy. "We were forced to make the decision to retire from Friday's event in order to save the car and ensure we'd be able to compete in Saturday's event."

Friday night saw the crew of fellow competitor Dillon Van Way weld up the team's header. As it was the second such failure in the same manifold in a couple of weeks, the team did not trust that it would hold and looked for an alternative. A local media person and Subaru enthusiast soon heard that the team was searching for a manifold and met the team at their hotel with the replacement. New part in hand, the crew replaced it in the early hours of the Saturday morning and the team were ready for Saturday's stages.

Morning came with the crew feeling fresh and confident in the car. The first stage saw Cassidy and co-driver Adam Kneiip continue to acclimate to each other's styles. At a low water bridge on the second stage, a slip joint in the exhaust system separated, creating worry in the car that they had another serious exhaust system failure. "Even with our noise canceling intercom, it was incredibly loud and I thought we had another hole on our hands. Driving a bit further on, I realized that, despite the noise, we still had full power and all systems were go."

Saturday saw the team chasing fellow Open Class crews of Henry/Cindy Krowlikowski in their ex-Prodrive Subaru and Chris Gilligan/Joe Peterson in their EVO 4. Said Cassidy, "I wish we could have pushed Henry and Chris a bit more, but we did all we could with the car we had. We'll continue to work hard to increase the performance of the car on our next outing!"

The 100 Acre Wood Rally saw Colorado co-driver Adam Kneipp sit with Cassidy for the first time. "It was obvious from the first time that we talked over the phone that Adam is meticulous and goal oriented. Adam slotted into the car and team seamlessly. We had a great weekend overall and perhaps we'll be able to get him back into the car later in the season."

The Last Ditch Racing crew were highly regarded in the service area at the event, and Cassidy/Kneipp want to thank them publicly. Drew Simpson, Zachary Sennett and Drew Gladu swarmed on the car each service and worked into the morning hours making sure that everything was perfect for Cassidy/Kneipp. "This event saw the crew really coalesce. I was amazed by the ownership and assertiveness the lads showed this weekend. Their strong work allowed Adam and I to maintain our focus on the race and developing our relationship within the car. Our helmets' are off to them!," said Cassidy.

Last Ditch Racing would also like to thank the Organizers for a fantastic event, as well as the fans/residents of Salem and Rolla, Missouri and all the towns the event travelled through. "The people of Missouri are some of the friendliest folks we've met in rallying and we felt right at home in Missouri. Maine feels a bit like Missouri, but without the awesome BBQ!"

2010 sees LDR with several new partners. LDR has partnered with VP Racing Fuels in the Northeast to run the new 109e race fuel. "We've run VP in the past, but rule changes meant we had to switch to another brand. Now that VP has come out with a newly formulated fuel, we're able to use our preferred brand. We'll soon be remapping our ECU to take advantage of the new fuel." Kartboy products, maker of short shifters, shift knobs, swaybar links and other performance oriented parts is also stepping up support this season. "We've run Kartboy decals on the car in the past, but now they're bigger! Kartboy makes products in the USA that are second-to-none in quality and performance. We'd only consider Kartboy for our mission critical suspension and driver interface parts."

Luke Dobie, of Luke Dobie Designs worked with California graphic artist Craig Woida to create a graphic design for Cassidy's Peltor helmet for 2010. "Luke has been doing custom paint at the pro level for some time. When he approached me about putting custom paint on my helmet, I jumped at the chance. Between he, Craig and I, we came with a design in short order and Luke made it happen incredibly quickly, even hand delivering the helmet to me here in Maine." Openpaddock.net is an online motorsport news clearinghouse and community. LDR has partnered with Openpaddock for 2010 to help share some insight with fans into what it takes to field a rally team. Cassidy has appeared as a guest on two Openpaddock podcasts to discuss rallying in the US as well as share his thoughts on the WRC as a rally fan and driver.

Last Ditch Racing would like to thank their 2010 Partners for their support:

VP Racing fuels. http://www.vpracingfuels.com
Kartboy, http://www.kartboy.com
Triple Caution, LLC, http://www.triplecaution.us
Team O'Neil Rally School, http://www.teamoneil.com
Luke Dobie Designs, http://www.lukedobiedesigns.com/
32North.com, http://www.32north.com/
Openpaddock.net, http://www.openpaddock.net

To view the Rally-America official highlight video, please visit, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8VnxwTu4OY

For more information on Last Ditch Racing, please visit: http://www.lastditchracing.com
Social Networking: Please search for us on Facebook and Myspace.
To follow us on Twitter, please visit: http://www.twitter.com/lastditchracing
Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LastDitchRacing

To Purchase Last Ditch Racing Gear, please visit: http://www.cafepress.com/lastditchracing

We didn't make it, but we heard it rocked.

See the whole story with pics & vids here -> http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/events/100-acre-wood-wrap-up/

Unfortunately for Terra Firma, and Terra Firma fans, we didn’t make it to 100 Acre Wood because of a series of unfortunate events which included separated shoulders and broken ribs.

Being the determined rally fans that we are, we weren’t going to let that stop us from enjoying the event as if we were there. So we created this uber-Twitter-rally-mashup which allows the user to quickly search popular #hastags for various rally series. Be sure to check it out and make sure you’re tagging your tweets!

Using these rally feeds, we found out big news such as ACP’s engine catastrophe (Watch the video on the left), Pastrana’s broken link and flat tire at the Super Special, and Ken Block’s narrow win over Antoine. We were also able to hear from competitors, service crew, and Rally America official news right as it happened.

We’re happy to report that Dillon Van Way and Ben Slocum of Team 600 scored 2nd place in 2wd in their Ford Focus after a consistently fast weekend. They were beat by the frighteningly-fast 1990 VW of Duplessis/Woods and were trailed by Conley/Rudolph.

Other interesting things from the weekend

* Privateers William Bacon and Peter Watt in a 2006 EVO proved that Sno*Drift was no joke, making their second podium in as many rallies.
* Because of Pastrana’s mechanical DNF, the podium was Ford, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi which was the first National Podium without a Subaru in 5 years, according to the rally gurus @WorldRallySport
* http://www.stagetrack.net/ was launched and was supposedly tracking the rally somehow, and more specifically Dave Mirra. We’re not sure if it’s meant for organizers, competitors, fans, or somewhere in-between, but we like the potential.
* The weather was nice for once. Now we’re really mad we didn’t make it.
* Hanson and Hanson in their ’07 STI had a dominating performance taking 1st place in the SP class for the 2nd rally in a row.
* Most of all, I think we missed The Roadhouse, hungover SuperSonic burritos and awesome Ozark sightings.

For more pics & vids than you can shake a sway bar at, click here: http://www.100aw.org/media.html

Houghton, MI, USA: The Moyle Racing team has notched its first National Open Class finish this past weekend in Salem, MO at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood. The team placed 14th overall and 8th in class. “I’m happy with the results,” said driver Mason Moyle, “We came into this race hoping to just finish and to get the results we did is very satisfying.”
Co-Driver Scott Putnam said, “Toward the end of the rally, Mason was really showing his true potential and learning a lot more about the car. He made monumental improvement this weekend.”
The 100 Acre Wood Rally is the second race of the Rally-America Championship Series. Named after the storybook home of Winnie the Pooh, the rally is picturesque, and features plenty of twists and turns to test any driver’s ability. Set in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, the rally is a favorite for drivers due to its pristine surroundings and fast, tight roads.
“The roads were unlike anything I’ve ever seen before,” quoted Mason, “They were super fast and flowing. It was a really good rally to learn more about the car on.”
The next race comes over a month-and-a-half later in Olympia, WA on April 24th-25th. “We have a lot of cool things happening between now and then, so this month and a half off is going to be perfect.”
When asked what the team has in the works, Mason just smiles and says, “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

Where do I begin this blog post? Do I start with talking about how proud I am with the whole team and how great the car ran? Or maybe with how much I hate 22 hour straight through drives to and from events, Or possible how sketchy Missouri is. I’ll be sure to cover most of these topics in my blog this week, but for now I’ll start with how the drive out and how the rally went.

Our trip to The Rally in the 100 Acre Woods started when Brian and Adam met me at the Subaru of Nashua dealership late Wednesday night where we piled into the truck and started a straight through 22 hour drive from Nashua, New Hampshire to Salem, Missouri. The route out was in question for a number of days due to a large blizzard that made its way east across NY and directly over our desired travel plans. Luckily, we rolled the dice like a Vegas gambling addict and came out winners as our newly found route out to Missouri by way of Pennsylvania turned out to be all rain and zero snow. The drive out was not bad as the Wazoo Racing hauler has the ability to comfortably sleep two people as someone is at the wheel, lets not forget that it also has a 36 inch LCD flat screen with DVD and Xbox 360 capabilities. Although those items are nice, I feel as though the truck should carry some sort of self defense weapon as at any given minute in Missouri you feel like someone is going to step out in front of the hauler playing a banjo to the famous tune from deliverance. Thankfully, Wazoo Racing successfully rolled into Salem on time Thursday night and had the car in and out of tech in less than ten minutes. This left plenty of time to hit Alex’s favorite steak house in Rolla, Missouri for a great steak and some unnecessary and mostly inappropriate hazing of the new guy (me) on the team. (Note to my friends, don’t allow me to join another team in the future without doing a background check on everyone.)

Friday was the first day of the rally and might have been one of the smoothest days I have ever had in rallying. It started off with a shakedown stage which gave us some time to check over a few things and do some fine tuning on the suspension. After the shakedown stage wrapped up we made our way to the local Wal-Mart parking lot where we set up to do a full pre-rally inspection. After our pre-race inspection and cleaning, The Wazoo Racing team packed up our things and headed 45 minutes east to the tiny village of Steelville, Missouri. Steelville was the location of the pre-rally park expose* (*sweet Euro slang for Car-show) and also our first and only service of day 1. Tim and Alex brought the car in without a scratch which made our service super easy. We had 45 minutes to align the car, check nuts and bolts and scrape mud from various parts on the car. Tim and Alex went on to finish the day 3rd in class and were reseeded from 25th starting position to a 12th position starting spot for day 2.

Day 2 had the cars starting off with a park expose in downtown Salem, Missouri, and would see the teams racing in the Ozark hills east of Salem. The crews on the other hand would move out to Viburnum, Missouri. This thriving (insert exaggeration face here) 850 person community more than quadrupled in size as the teams and fans moved in and made this hodunk town the base for day 2. Day 2 had two scheduled services to be held in the local high school parking lot. Our first service could not have gone by more perfectly. When the car comes in you expect yourself and the other techs to leave nothing untouched or un-torqued, you work as a team and a machine and when the car leaves service it should be 100%. Well, Tim brought the car in with a few issues. I found and changed out an outer tie rod after doing so Brian and I did our alignment. While Brian and I worked over the front end, Adam found our left rear half shaft had snapped inside the outer boot and was now useless. He changed the half shaft out and continued on without ever missing a beat. This service was text book in my mind. The car came in with issues, we all spoke little, worked our A**** off and had the car leaving service fixed and cleaned right on time. We could not have faced and overcome the challenges any better! Our second service on day 2 had little excitement compared to the first service. Tim and Alex brought the car in with no issues and we sent the car out on time and clean.

Tim and Alex would battle through the remaining stages on day 2 and come into the final timing control back in Salem 3rd place overall in the National Super Production class and 11th place in the National overall standings. This bumps Tim and Alex up into 3rd place in the SP class point’s standings and just 1 point out of 2nd place in Super Production. Before I wrap this blog up I want to make sure I give out a special thanks to the Wazoo Racing team. I have never worked with a more organized team in my life. Our movements during the event are right on time, and our driver and co-driver combination is really coming along, and finally our services have become as perfect as a privateer team could make a service. We are really turning heads while we are at events. I look forward to battling with our friends and fellow teams through the rest of the 2010 Rally-America season.

Things I learned.
1. Some jokes never get to old.
2. Missouri is really sketchy at night.
3. Engine fires suck (I look forward to Riders rally team return at Olympus in April)
4. Russian ladies can get REALLY REALLY pissed while behind the wheel of an SUV. (Speeeaakkk English……)
5. Used tires don’t last 3,000 miles on our hauler.
6. Just because your sponsored by a tire maker. Does not mean said companies tires are on your car when it is on the podium.
7. 44 hours of driving is not the funniest thing.
8. Tap a nutsert after pinching it.
9. “One of them there Zeus fastnus is known as a quarter turn winged nutted fastna around the dirt track series.”
10. In Missouri, workout equipment is more commonly found in front lawns then flowers or grass.

People to thank
1. Aaron from SRTUSA for the tech talk.
2. Bill and Alex from DSG for the funny storys.
3. All my friends for the post event congrats.
4. Tim for hiring me full time at Wazoo Racing.
5. Brian and Adam for putting up with me in the truck.
6. The really cute Wendy’s manager girl in Indiana for the free food. ;-)
7. Dude in Wal-Mart parking lot for the political lesson.
8. Brian for not stopping at a Arby’s during this trip.
9. Mom and Dad for letting me chase this crazy ridicules dream of mine.

Hey everyone!

Been awhile since I last posted and figured I would update you all on what has been going on.

Since the roll over at Int'l Rally New York I have been sorting out funding for the 2010 season and building a new car. The 02' WRX was destroyed in the roll over and basically needed a complete replacement. The cage was deemed OK by the scrutineers, but the damage to the rest of the car is basically terminal when comparing the cost of repairs vs. building a new car.

Only 12 days before Winter Rally NY, first round of USRC, I secured funding for the new car. I purchased a 1993 Impreza sedan from a freind who already had the car caged and log booked, but needed everything else. New seats and belts were in order from the accident, so I purchased some new RaceTech seats and belts. These are the most comfortable racing seats I have ever sat in! The choice on belts from RaceTech as well was a result of thier booth at the PRI show in December. Full drivetrain consists of a usdm ej205, ver.4 STi trans w/4.44 Final Drive, ver.6 STi RA R180 rear diff assy. The brakes are Subaru 4/2 pot. Various upgrades in suspension arms as well.

As usual we pressed on to get the car done for the Winter Rally NY event and were cut short when it was 3am the day of the race and we were still in the shop working on the car. Quite delerious at this point we decided to call it quits and go support our other four teammates that were already at the event, Matt Gottleib/Austin Gager and Erika Detota/Jason Smith.

Our next event will be Rally New York USA, www.rallynewyork.net One of the only tarmac rally events in the USA. We will be running in AWD class against some of toughest tarmac competitors in the USRC.

Planned events for the 2010 season are as follows:
Rally New York USA, April 16-17
STPR, June 4-5
NEFR, July 15-17
Int'l Rally NY, Sept 10-11
Black River Stage, Sept 18-19

Rally West Virginia and Prescott rallies are a possibility as well, but we haven't committed to either just yet.

We are also eyeing up the European Rally-X events being they are so close to home and should prove to be tons of fun! Stay tuned for more updates on the progress of our car builds and such for these special events.

You also might see me wandering around at 100 AW this weekend and possibly some of the western RA events.

See you next time!

Houghton, MI, USA -- 2009 Central Open Light Champion, Mason Moyle didn’t run into the best luck at the first round of the Rally America Championship, Sno*Drift. With a new turbo, a new Co-Driver, and the most treacherous conditions the rally has ever seen, the weekend did not go according to plan.
The opening stage of the rally, the young duo of Moyle and Co-Driver Gary Barton ran into some mechanical trouble when tie-rod snapped half-way through the stage. The car made it to the end of the stage, but not much further. “We got to the start of Stage 2 on our minute, and when we went to launch the car, the tie rod decided to not cooperate anymore so we were stuck 10 feet from the start of the stage.” explained Moyle.
Things didn’t get much better for the team the next day either. After completing the Super Special with a 9th place stage time, Moyle and Barton went out to tackle the remaining stages of the day. The team fought with car after blowing both front tires. They had one spare. “We drove 22 miles on one rim!” said Barton, “We got through one of the longest stages of the rally on one rim, but as soon as we got out of the stage, the car decided to not cooperate again.”
Sno*Drift was a learning experience for the young team. But Rally in the 100 Acre Wood will be a different story.
Moyle Racing will be teaming up with veteran Co-Driver Scott Putnam again, due to a scheduling conflict with regular Co-Driver, Gary Barton.
Scott has finished as high as 6th in 2007 with Lauchlin O’Sullivan. This will be the first time Mason has seen these roads.

Well, after years and years of reading about "blog this" and "blog that" we are finally blogging thanks to WRS.

We will try and keep this up-to-date with current news in and around the shop here, new projects, new parts, new clients, specials, etc. Hopefully we can communicate with friends and clients a little better for the 2010 season.

Current project to finalize a new, more affordable CNC upright for the IMPREZA crowds. We are making a full make-over on our current part to help allow a greater flexibility for various caliper installations, as well as bump steer and camber curve corrections.

Of course, if we can get the price down to a better point, maybe we can get a few more people interested in the product as well!

-mark

Pics on our site here: http://bit.ly/99UkNQ

2010 Rallye Perce Neige was a rally of unexpectations. Unexpectations isn’t a word, but I just used it and you knew what I meant. So now YOU just had an unexpectation. You just learned a new nonword. You unexpected that. Ok, let’s get back on stage.

Here’s why the rally was so unexpectatious.

Podium. Here’s How it looked after stage 7.

Antoine L'ESTAGE/RICHARD 47:46
URLICHICH/HEADLAND + 0:01:58
RICHARD/OCKWELL +0:02:03

This looked like a somewhat predictable leaderboard with L’Estage, Crazy Leo, and Richard in the top 3. However after this stage it got crazy. Richard was reported parked on stage by several people on Twitter using #cdnrally hash tag. Early reports said his issue was mechanical and the speculation was that he blew his motor. Next, Antoine L’Estage lost several minutes stuck in a ditch until Henderson pulled him out. Their off bumped Crazy Leo into the lead which then blew Twitter up with “GO LEO” comments. Soon after, Leo had mechanical problems on stage 13 which allowed the snake in the weeds, ACP, to climb from 16th up the leader board to 2nd place. By stage 14, the final stage, ACP was reported to go off which bumped Mathieu L’Estage (Antoine’s brother) and Henderson into 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

1. Bruno Carré/Joyal 2:26:17
2. Mathieu L'Estage/Napert +0:03:22
Craig Henderson/Murphy +0:10:24

WorldRallySport.com landed the first post-win interview with overall winer Bruno Carre. Check it out here:

These podium changes are what rally is all about in my opinion. Unexpectations. Yes, of course it’s a shame when mechanical issues and offs happen, but it’s all part of the sport! It made for such an exciting event. I can’t remember the last time there was such a buzz in the service park because of the leader board shake ups!

There were other unexpectations too. Like everytime I saw someone wearing a snowmobile jacket, stone-washed jeans & sporting a mullet, I was expecting to hear a Minnesota or Yooper accent. (I’m from the midwest, I can stereotype) But what came out of their mouth was French. That blew my mind about 13 times before I got used to it.

Another unexpectation is what a difference the tires made. Some teams had “tractionized” tires which gave loads of grip on the ice. Snow tires are tractionized by running them on a roller filled with pins for a period of time which creates micro-abrasions throughout the treadblocks. This creates a gummy tire which can stick to the ice. The drawback to this is they burn up very, very quickly and can be quite squirmish and unstable on sealed surfaces.

Zedril Rallysport unfortunately didn’t have the tractionized tires. They were holding 2nd in G2 until stage 4 where the DUBÉ/LAVIGNE 1990 VW Golf passed them. From stage 4 to 13 all was well until the Zedril’s Lancer came to a ‘Left 4 Over Crest’ and went over a snowbank losing minutes. This dropped the #708 Zedrils from 16th to 22nd, but despite the off were able to stay in 3rd in G2 on stage 13. The 95 VW Golf of hotshoe NICHOLS/SCHENK took home the G2 overall win by 5 minutes.

WorldRallySport.com caught up with the Zedril’s during the 2nd service. Give the interview a listen here:

If you haven’t been to this rally, you need to go next year. The locals are awesome, scenery is epic, and the stage roads are some of the best I’ve driven in North America.