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Andrew Comrie-Picard and NOS Energy take third overall in 2009 Rally America Championship

mrwatkins83 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:49:02 +0000

HOUGHTON, Michigan (ACP Racing) Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard and the NOS Energy rally team scored a third place overall in the 2009 Rally America Championship, edging Monster Energy’s Ken Block out of the top three despite suffering an engine failure while angling for the a podium at last weekend’s season ender.

Full release after the jump.

“We had the runner-up position in the championship in our sights, so the DNF at the final round was a disappointment,” said Comrie-Picard, “But we’ve had a strong season and the whole team and all our partners deserve a huge thanks for the effort that carried us to all the successes this year.”

Comrie-Picard and ACP Racing were consistent podium finishers throughout the 2009 Rally America season, with their results topped by an overall win at the Colorado Rally last month and a top-five finish at the high-profile X Games this summer in Los Angeles.

The factory-backed Travis Pastrana, of Subaru Rally Team USA, took the championship win for a fourth-consecutive season, while top Polish driver Andi Mancin secured second place after ACP retired from the season ender while running in second place overall.

Initial investigation suggests that the engine was damaged by water taken in at a water splash about 90 miles into the 130-mile contest.

“We’ll be back next year to contest not only the rally championship and X Games, but also the new Rally America rally cross contests scheduled for late 2010 in the Northeastern USA,” said Comrie-Picard. “Next year looks like a great one and with our renewed relationship with NOS Energy we expect great success.”

Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover hundreds of miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.

Source: ACP Rally

Links of the day: Block downplays the rumors

mrwatkins83 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:37:18 +0000

Ken Block addresses rally rumors – Word has it that Ken Block and Chris Atkinson are going to make up the Monster Energy Drink Rally Team starting with a limited schedule in 2010. Block discusses the rumors in this interview with Rally America.

Andrew Comrie-Picard on co-driver Jeremy Wimpey – Despite his hard weekend, ACP takes the time to talk about his Lake Superior Performance Rally and his co-driver for the rally, Jeremy Wimpey.

The 2009 tale ends in Wales – The 2009 FIA World Rally Championship draws to a close next weekend at Wales Rally GB. Mikko Hirvonen, the current championship leader, is hoping to hold off reigning champion Sebastien Loeb in what has to be the most important rally of the Ford driver’s career. WRC.com has an interview with Hirvonen leading up to next weekend’s rally.

Test in Wales – Petter Solberg will finish the 2009 season in a Citroen C4. Here are some recent pictures of a test session for the year-ending rally.

Vision X Signs with Subaru Rally Team USA – Subaru Rally Team USA will have a new official supplier of competition lights.

2009 closes on a high note

mrwatkins83 — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:46:20 +0000

The 2009 Rally America season drew to a close this weekend with the conclusion of the season’s final event, Lake Superior Performance Rally. The rally’s eventual winner, Travis Pastrana, claimed his sixth victory of the season and will be officially crowned the series champion for a fourth consecutive year tomorrow morning at the Rally America awards banquet.

Click here for the overall standings.

As the championship moves into 2010, the next event will be Sno*Drift in Atlanta, Michigan. Congratulations to all of this season’s competitors. We’re looking forward to an exciting 2010 season.

Entry list for LSPR

mrwatkins83 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:04:34 +0000

Rally America has an updated entry list for this weekend’s Lake Superior Performance Rally. A few big names are back, as the season draws to a close in Houghton, Michigan. Of course, provisional series champion Travis Pastrana will be on hand, joined by fellow Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block (back in an Open class car after contesting Rally Colorado in a Super Production WRX).

Notable drivers attending LSPR:

Travis Pastrana
Ken Block
Andrew Comrie-Picard
Antoine L’Estage
Andi Mancin

Unfortunately, series favorite Matt Johnson is skipping this event, as well as Formula D champion Tanner Foust. It’d be nice to get those guys back behind the wheel next season. Dave Mirra, a relative newcomer to rally, is not included in the entry list, either.

Group 2 looks solid with 12 registered entries.

Complete entry list here.

Poll – Who will be this year’s championship runner-up?

mrwatkins83 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:58:04 +0000

Only one round remains in the 2009 Rally America Championship series, Lake Superior Rally. With Travis Pastrana locking up his fourth consecutive driver’s title, the race for the final standings in the overall classifications continues. Andrew Comrie-Picard and Andi Mancin posted solid results from Rally Colorado two weeks ago, while Ken Block saw another premature end to his race weekend.

The fight between ACP, Mancin and Block should be the highlight of the season. Who do you think has the best chance to come away the season’s runner-up at LSPR?

Our latest poll question is now live in the right-hand sidebar. Please take a moment to enter your response. Feel free to discuss your thoughts here.

Driver ACP and the NOS Energy Mitsubishi win Rally Colorado

mrwatkins83 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:31:57 +0000

ACP at Rally Colorado (Photo by Caleb Tkach / Kevin Hahn Photography / Rally America)

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO (ACP Racing) Driver Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard and his NOS Energy Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX took a decisive win this weekend at Rally Colorado, the 8th round of the national Rally America series.

“I love it when it’s a battle,” said Comrie-Picard. “We were fighting tooth-and-nail with Travis (Pastrana) early in the rally and that’s really satisfying.”

The challenging Colorado rally through the high-desert roads around the Yampa Valley is fast and often features widely variable weather. This year was no exception. Dry, dusty conditions on Day 1 were replaced by driving rain that turned the roads slick with mud on Day 2. The rally ended under a rainbow.

Full release after the jump.

A ferocious early battle shifted gears on Day 2. Comrie-Picard and co-driver Jeremy Wimpey found themselves holding position at the front of the pack for the second half of the rally after Subaru Rally Team USA rival Pastrana barreled through a chicane taking huge penalties.

“We would have preferred to have raced hard in a close fight right to the end,” said Comrie-Picard. “But to finish a minute and 46 seconds in the lead is an accomplishment to be proud of after 100 miles of racing.”

The duo took the most stage wins of any team, winning eight of the 16 stages.

The first-place finish moves Comrie-Picard into the top-three in the overall Rally America series — ahead of Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block — and extends his lead in the North American Championship. With one round remaining in US competition, the driver is assured to at least tie Block for third place in the 2009 season.

“If Rally Colorado was anything to go by, the final round next month is going to be intense,” said Comrie-Picard. “We’re making every round count this season.”

The Colorado event saw the team return to US competition for the first time since their top-five result at X Games 15 this summer in Los Angeles. The team took a two-round hiatus from regular season competition both to prepare for the prestigious contest, and also to return their competition vehicle to gravel rally specification afterward. Rally America allows two event drops in the season, counting seven of nine rallies toward the championship.

Second-place went to Polish driver Andi Mancin and co-driver Maciej Wislawski, while Nathan Conley and co-driver Todd Moberly finished in third-place overall.

It’s the first time that Mitsubishi cars have scored a one-two finish in Rally America history.

“It was great to see two Mitsubishis atop the podium,” said Comrie-Picard.

Source: ACP Rally

Readers read Colorado, correctly call winner

mrwatkins83 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:38:08 +0000

Good job readers! You successfully predicted the winner of last weekend’s Rally Colorado. I know that only having a total of 10 votes might not seem that much, but five of you correctly predicted Andrew Comrie-Picard was going to come away with the win! That’s half the vote.

Subaru Rally Team drivers Travis Pastrana and Ken Block both had two votes, while the rally’s eventual second place finisher, Andi Mancin, came away with one.

* Andrew Comrie-Picard (50%, 5 Votes)
* Travis Pastrana (20%, 2 Votes)
* Ken Block (20%, 2 Votes)
* Andi Mancin (10%, 1 Votes)
* Other (0%, 0 Votes)

ACP Takes Overall Win at Rally Colorado

mrwatkins83 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:21:32 +0000

Steamboat Springs, CO (September 20, 2009) — NOS Energy Drink driver Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard scored a decisive victory this weekend at Rally Colorado, Round 8 of the Rally America Championship.

“We’re really excited to win,” said Comrie-Picard, who was co-driven by Jeremy Wimpey for the first time at this event. “We were having a really great race with Travis (Pastrana) early on, so it’s a shame it came down to a chicane but it’s great to have the victory.”

Full release after the jump.

Comrie-Picard had been trading times with Pastrana on the first day of the event until the Subaru Rally Team USA driver struck a chicane and incurred hefty penalties. The driver has already secured the 2009 title – with just one round remaining, nobody can catch him in the points – and the team opted to play it safe and pull Pastrana out of competition for Day 2.

The Polish team of Andi Mancin and co-driver Maciej Wislawski finished in second-place overall after a long battle with Subaru Rally Team USA’s Ken Block in his loaner Super Production class car.

Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino had been running ahead of Mancin until they struck a chicane element on the final stage of Day 1, taking a one-minute penalty. Then, as they fought to claw back the time, Block found himself out of the contest with engine trouble on the second-to-last stage.

The team’s Open class rally car is out of commission after a big wreck at Round 7, and they had taken over Dave Mirra’s ride for this event. Mirra sat this round out due to a conflict with his BMX competition schedule.

Block, who is perhaps best known for his sensational online gymkhana videos, has had a run of bad luck in rally competition this season and has DNF’d more times than he’s finished. Yet another poor result drops him into fourth-place in the championship, behind Pastrana, Mancin and Comrie-Picard.

Third place came down to a tie-breaker between Nathan Conley and co-driver Todd Moberly, and Mark Fox and co-driver Jake Blattner. Both crews crossed the finish line with a time of 1:35:46.0 but, under Rally America rules, a tie is resolved by counting the number of stage wins between the teams and the final spot on the overall podium went to Conley and Moberly.

With Block out, Pat Moro and co-driver Ole Holter inherited the Super Production class lead, scoring valuable points in a tight class championship battle. Heading into the final round, Moro is narrowly ahead of Piotr Wiktorczyk — who was absent from this round.

In the two-wheel drive class, Monument, Colorado’s, John Conley took the win.

All results are considered informational pending official rally processes.

The Rally Colorado event poses unique challenges. Many teams were complaining that they were down on power or overheating during the high desert stages. The altitude and subsequent lack of oxygen at this event saps the rally cars’ power. Despite this drain, the event has a reputation of being a one of the fastest in the series featuring many high-speed sections on flowing roads. The typically variable weather saw the event begin and end under bright, sunny skies, but also a rain delay and two stage cancellations due to mud on Day 2.

The rally is headquartered in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, known as “Ski Town”, USA. The small mountain community that’s home to numerous world-class ski and snowboarding events is also home to the largest ski jumping complex in America — used for training by the US Olympic Ski Jumping Team.

Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.

The 2009 Rally America National Championship series consists of nine exciting events that take place in a range of challenging weather and road conditions in a season that extends from February to October. Throughout the year, teams take on everything from the forest logging roads in Minnesota, to the Pacific Northwest forest and coast paths.

Top teams in the series are also invited to compete in the Summer X Games, the leading action sports event broadcast live on ABC and ESPN.

The ninth and final round of the 2009 Rally America series is the grueling Lake Superior Performance Rally, October 16 – 17, in Houghton, MI.

Press release: Rally America

ACP Rally Team heads to Colorado

mrwatkins83 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:11:34 +0000

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO (ACP Rally) – Rally Driver Andrew Comrie-Picard and his NOS Energy Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX will make a return to U.S. rally competition this coming weekend, following a tough event in Canada.

Full press release after the jump.

Comrie-Picard is in a tight battle for the top three in the 2009 Rally America championship as the series winds up. He is currently in fourth place, just two points behind Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block, but he is confident he can move up.

“There’s going to be some great racing in the final two rounds,” said Comrie-Picard. “We’re playing catch-up to the other guys, but we’re going to make every round count this season and claw up the rankings.”

Rally America allows two event drops in the season, counting seven of nine rallies toward the championship. While some teams, like the factory-backed Subaru Rally Team USA, run all nine events, the ACP Rally Team is able to contest seven rounds in 2009 — so every rally counts for the team’s points standings.

Comrie-Picard will be accompanied by guest co-driver Jeremy Wimpey in Colorado.

The team was competing this past weekend at Canada’s Rallye Defi Ste-Agathe in their developing Evolution X when they were forced to abandon the contest at the mid-point after a rock punctured the oil cooler and resulted in damage to the engine.

The driver, with co-driver Robbie Durant, was running a strong third overall in the rally when a rock thrown up in the right wheel well damaged the oil cooler. The team stopped between stages, re-routed the lines to delete the oil cooler, and drained the oil from a spectator vehicle into empty NOS Energy bottles and transferred the oil into the rally car.

It was a triumph of roadside engineering but, when they were finished, they found they were narrowly over the 30-minute maximum lateness permitted by the rules and were not allowed to continue. The engine sustained internal damage thanks to the low oil. Rival driver Patrick Richard, of Subaru Rally Team Canada, retired on the same leg with gearbox damage.

“Obviously this is very frustrating, as we would likely have finished at least second overall and could have used the championship points,” said Comrie-Picard. “But you have to have the endurance to push on, and there are two events left in the Canadian championship to allow us to pull back up in the standings.”

Rallye Defi Ste-Agathe was the team’s first appearance since their top-five result at X Games 15 this summer in Los Angeles.

Source: ACP Rally

ACP on Vimby

mrwatkins83 — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:13:13 +0000

Here’s an awesome video from VIMBY of ACP and team at XG15.

VIMBY – Andrew Comrie-Picard at X-Games

By the way, this site is awesome.
F/T blog.drinknos.com