Today on Shakedown, the racing news and race results.
No, I won't be reading ethnic trends from
the US Census reports.
Although don't tell the Republicans, I think the
Latinos are winning.
I'll be talking about who won this weekend's races, like the
Bathurst 12 Hour GT race and the opening round of the World
Superbikes--
both in Australia, rallies from the Intercontinental
Rally Championship in the Azores, and the Rally America
100 Acre Woods event.
It rained in Daytona on Sunday, and it's supposed to
rain again today, which means I won't be
talking NASCAR or Danica.
But viewer adrive7 wrote on Drive Central earlier this
morning, quote, "make sure Leo talks about Ken Block winning
his 6th 100 Acre Woods rally." So I will.
But wouldn't it be kind of dickish of me if I did and
then compared it to Danica winning the pole for the
Saturday Nationwide race?
I won't do that.
I'll give Ken Block his props.
Hey, wait a minute.
Who's shooting this Shakedown?
Is that you, Ian from Fast Lane Daily behind the camera?
Cool.
Team.
And that reminds me.
If you haven't noticed, Motor Trend, Car and Driver, and
Drive were all part of this new YouTube programming
initiative in the automotive category.
And JF Musial went to some YouTube Google launch
conference, where they're trying to convince us how we
all need to work together within this YouTube system.
Kumbaya.
BS.
The first rule of racing-- beat your teammate.
So Motor Trend and Car and Driver, here we go.
Mount Panorama in Australia is an ungodly exciting racetrack
when the V8 supercars run it.
But send GT cars up and down the mountain and it takes the
experience to another level.
That's the Bathurst 12 Hours.
It wasn't a big field, only 25 cars.
But it was showing quality, with Porsche, Ferrari,
Mercedes' SLS, Lamborghini, a GTR, Lotus, and Audi, who were
taking the race seriously to defend their 2011 R8 win.
Fighting rain and fog and the mountain, R8 prevailed,
landing the mid-motor GT3 monster its 119th win in R8's
3 years of competition history.
Also in Australia was the start of the World Superbike
Championship.
Two races in each round.
Round 1 was at Phillip Island.
Max Biaggi took the first win with his Aprilia.
Carlos Checa nailed the win in the second race on his Ducati
after Max made a mistake, dropped to last place, but
then fought back with some real great passing to recover
a second place finish and leave Australia--
not with the double win he craved, but with the points
lead, which is bene.
OK.
Time for the rally news.
And let's start with the Intercontinental Rally
Championship and their opening round in
the Portuguese Azores.
Skoda continued to prevail.
2011 champions, and now, one, too in this 2012 event.
You know, Skoda is a Volkswagen Group brand.
And this can only mean great things for the 2013 VW World
Rally Championship entry, and mean things for Ford Citroen,
and Mini WRC competition.
VW continues to test the Polo and race the Skodas.
They're going to get ready.
OK.
All you Ken Blockheads.
Here's the news you already know.
Ken Block won his sixth 100 Acre Woods Rally America
event, captured 15 of the 17 stages, cut back his 2012 WRC
plans to win rallies like this.
I'll put links to the KB videos, his 100 Acre testing,
and his 2012 season launch with Nick Swardson's.
I'll put them in the description.
And now I'll turn my attention to the other US racing
superstar Danica Patrick and wait for her to race.
Thumbs down, Leo, for comparing Ken to Danica.
I was going to go through a bunch of new car testing news
to finish up for today.
But I'll save that for later.
But I will leave you with two quick shifts.
Remember all those new race cars at the Grand-Am Rolex 24?
Well, I checked the entry list for the next race of the
season, the March 31 tilt at Barber Motorsports Park.
And guess what?
Only 10 entries as of today, and no Ferrari or Audi.
What did we have at Daytona?
59 cars?
Here we go again, Grand-Am.
But the rumors of Mercedes with the SLS and BMW with
their Z4 tweaking their GT3 versions into Grand-Am specs
may be true.
And I predict there will be at least one Ferrari
and one Audi at Barber.
And finally, Toyota teased their 2013 NASCAR Camry.
They even had Akia Toyoda, their race car driver
president, drive the car around Daytona
and shoot a TV ad.
Wow.
When I worked at Toyota and raced, it was a lot different
about execs racing.
The last time, for example, I raced Long Beach, my racing
name was Shishi Ryoshin.
Let me explain.
I used to race on my vacation days and weekends while
working at Toyota.
In 1994, I finally had a boss that hated my racing.
So I wimped out and tried to hide.
Shishi is Japanese for lion, Leo.
Ryoshin for parent.
Don't Google it.
There's no record out there.
But Shishi Ryoshin went to Long Beach.
Swift race cars gave Shishi a very fast Toyota Atlantic car.
And Ryoshin found himself in P3, closing on P2 with five
laps to go.
My cover was about to be blown on the podium.
But the second I decided I'd do the Stig thing and go to
the victory stand with my helmet on, the
Toyota motor blew.
And I cursed both the Toyota boss and the Toyota engine in
Italian, because Japanese Shishi Ryoshin had just
retired from the race and racing.
Ian, thanks for bailing me out.
Alan and Derek, appreciate it.
I'm all dressed up to go to a meeting, so we're out of here.
We'll see you Friday, Shakedowners.
[MUSIC PLAYING]