The 2010 New England Forest Rally (NEFR), the sixth and final round of the 2010 Rally America National Championship, ended with spectacular drama that kept fans and competitors riveted. Once the champagne popped, it was Rockstar Energy Drink’s Canadian duo, driver Antoine L’Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard, celebrating a New England Forest Rally victory and their claim to the 2010 Rally America Championship title. Heading into NEFR, L’Estage held a 13 point lead over Nashua, NH’s hometown favorite, Bill Bacon. Both had a shot of winning the Championship at NEFR, but L’Estage just needed to finish 5th place or better to cement his place at the top. Bacon fell back after a changing a flat tire on Stage 9 and lost 5 minutes to the event leader.

Subaru driver Travis Pastrana dominated the majority of the New England Forest Rally this past weekend at the wheel of his BFGoodrich Tires-shod 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI before a problem with his engine stopped him on the penultimate competition stage, forcing him to retire.  Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom were able to pull away convincingly from the competition early and built a lead of over three minutes on the event’s technical gravel roads that snake through the forests along the Maine-New Hampshire border.  Then unexpectedly, with under fifteen competitive stage miles remaining, Pastrana experienced an engine problem which forced him to stop on stage, ending his run to victory.

Team Mitsubishi Ralliart Australia has set themselves up as the team to beat at this weekend’s Dial Before You Dig Australian Six Hour, to be held at Eastern Creek Raceway. During the last two rounds of the Australian Manufacturers Championship, the Melbourne based squad have proven to be unbeatable, and for this weekend’s event the team have expanded to field a total of three cars. Championship front runner Stuart Kostera will team up with Jim Beam Racing V8 Supercar endurance driver Warren Luff, while Inky Tulloch will race with tarmac rally star Steve Jones, and Glyn Crimp will pair with Improved Production front runner Matthew Cherry.

Entry is now open for all-gravel International Rally New York scheduled for September 10 – 11, 2010. Rally program, online entry, printable entry forms, itinerary, supplementary regulations, reconnaissance schedule, lodging information, printable order form for course notes (can also be ordered online) and printable poster are available at http://www.RallyNewYork.net/irny2010.html. Regular entry ends on August 19. The entry will close on September 2. The International Rally New York is the penultimate round of the United States Rally Championship. Each day of the rally is a separate round of the New York Rally Championship – Thunder 102 Cup sponsored by Tearoff Guys and presented by Thunder 102 Rally Radio.

Formula DRIFT entered Evergreen Speedway for Round 4: Throwdown in Monroe, Washington. Tanner Foust takes the victory and moves into second place overall in the Pro Championship standings, while taking the lead in the chase for the Tires.com Triple Crown. Evergreen Speedway hosted Round 4: Throwdown to a packed stadium. Fans gathered to watch the exciting competition under the clear skies and warm sun. Attendance increased from past seasons proving the growth and popularity of the sport in the Pacific Northwest is as strong as ever.

The next chapter in the racing legacy of the Dodge Viper is about to be written when 12 Dodge Viper ACR-X race cars take to the track to begin the 2010 Dodge Viper Cup series season at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, Va., July 10-11, 2010.  “The Dodge Viper ACR-X is designed and built specifically for the race track,” said Ralph Gilles, President and CEO, Dodge Brand. “Now with VERSUS on board, race fans will have the opportunity to see our untamed and unmatched road-racing machine along with some of our talented Viper owner/drivers compete on five of the best road courses in the county as part of the Dodge Viper Cup series.”

With the first five rally events of the 2010 Rally America National Championship in the record books, the top Regional and National rally teams from across the United States and Canada will soon be making their way to the tiny resort village of Newry, Maine for the New England Forest Rally - home to the Sunday River Resort, for the final round of the 6-event 2010 Rally America National Championship. Set for Friday and Saturday, July 16 & 17, 2010, as many as 65 or more top-level rally teams are expected to be competing on some of the fastest gravel and forest roads in the country for top honors at this always-popular rally event.

Subaru Rally Team USA announced today the selection of Sverre Isachsen of Norway, the defending FIA European Rallycross Champion, to fill the team’s guest driver slot at the 2010 ESPN Summer X Games 16 in Los Angeles, California on July 31st.  Isachsen will join Subaru Rally Team USA star drivers Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra for the debut of SuperRally at the X Games, each will drive a 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI modified for Rallycross with an over 550 horsepower Boxer engine and Symmetrical All Wheel Drive. 

Brothers Lee and Brett Holdsworth bounced back from a controversial opening encounter to claim an emotional Ashley Cooper Memorial Trophy, as the Commodore Cup National Series headlined the fifth round of the 2010 Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships at Winton Motor Raceway. Overall, the round was taken out by Adam Beechey and Dean Crosswell, who also won the opening 45 minute long race, which was marred by a controversial mid-race safety car period. After setting the pace throughout the opening race, the Holdsworth brothers had to settle for seventh at the conclusion of racing, but they bounced back strongly, cruising to the feature race win.

Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) drivers Andrew Aquilante, from Chester Springs, Pa., and Bret Spaude, from Bushnell, Fl., finished 13th in Saturday’s 2.5-hour GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series races at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Held on the 2.258-mile, 15-turn circuit, and from a 15th place qualifying position, only 0..765 seconds off the pole, Spaude and Aquilante raced their 2010 Subaru Impreza WRX STI to as high as seventh place in the 29-car Grand Sport field.

The HQ Holden racing at this weekend’s round of the Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships at Winton Motor Raceway will be a tribute to category stalwart Dallas Crane, who succumbed to cancer on June 15. He was 56 years old. Crane was instrumental in the growth and development of HQ Holden racing, which he was involved with since the category’s humble beginnings in his native Tasmania in 1988. Over the years, Crane campaigned nation wide in the class, including at the Calder Park Thunderdome, with his last event being a Victorian state round held at Sandown Raceway in late May.

BMW brought a tradition back to life when it lined up at the 78th staging of the Le Mans 24 Hours (FR) with an elaborately designed Art Car. American artist Jeff Koons’ BMW M3 GT2 Art Car really caught the eye in France. While the no. 78 BMW M3 GT2, with drivers Jörg Müller (DE), Augusto Farfus (BR) and Uwe Alzen (DE), finished sixth in the LM GT2 class, the BMW Art Car, with Dirk Werner (DE), Dirk Müller (DE) and Andy Priaulx (GB) at the wheel, had to retire early. Despite this, Koons drew a very positive conclusion from the endurance classic at the “Circuit de la Sarthe”, as he reveals in this interview.

Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) drivers Andrew Aquilante and Bret Spaude are looking forward to an upswing in the team’s fortune as the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series races this Saturday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, site of two of the team’s past wins (2007, 2008). The 2 1/2-hour race on the 2.258-mile circuit near Lexington, Ohio, is round seven of 10 in the season, and will take the green flag at 1:15pm.

Production Car World Rally Championship (P-WRC) driver Toshi Arai will compete in Round 6 of the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC), the Geko Ypres Rally in Belgium on June 25 and 26. This will be the first IRC event for Toshi who will be driving a Group N SUBARU Impreza WRX STI. The Ypres Rally is an all-tarmac event around the town of Ypres in western Belgium. It is a classic rally which has been held as part of the European Rally Championship (ERC) for many years.

SPEED™ and D1 Worldwide Entertainment, (http://www.d1gp.com, http://www.d1we.com), the official organizers of automotive entertainment’s premier drifting events in the United States announced today the 2010 USA D1 Grand Prix event line-up and that each event, plus the D1 Grand Prix Japan events will be covered by one-hour television broadcasts to be carried on SPEED™ throughout the entire drifting season. The first SPEED broadcast is scheduled for September 4 at 6:30 p.m. ET from Tokyo, with the second event premiering September 12th at 6 p.m. ET from Oita, Japan.