Following the somewhat anti-climatic end to the rally car competition at X Games 16, all of us were looking forward to the debut of the SuperRally event.
With four drivers running wheel to wheel around the track, everyone hoped this new event would bring some much needed excitement to the day.
12 qualifiers would be divided into three groups of four cars, and each group would do a four-lap race around the course. Every driver would be required to clear the jump once, on the lap of their choice.
After a disappointing result earlier the day, Ken Block and his Fiesta were good to go for SuperRally. Even after getting left behind at the start, Ken made up enough ground to finish second in the first race. Each of the second place finishers would get one more shot to make into the final as part of the "last chance qualifier" race.
As fast as Ken was, he couldn't catch up to the race winner, Formula Drift veteran Stephan Verdier.
With four drivers battling to share a compact course, the excitement was definitely there. A nice change from the confusion and mistakes seen in the earlier rally event.
Tanner Foust jumped out in the lead of the second race and stayed there. Obviously that European rally cross experience was helping him.
Finishing second would be another FD veteran, Sam Hubinette in his Sparco-sponsored Evo X.
Here Kenny Brack and Brian Deegan battle it out in the opening moments of the third race. It was pretty intense watching these guys fight for position into the first corner. Brack would end up retiring early, with Deegan taking the win.
You gotta give it up for Carl Decker, out there battling big budget factory teams in his first gen Impreza.
The opening moments of the LCQ race, with four drivers fighting for the remaining spot in the final heat.
Ken Block was on top at the start of the race, but it wasn't to last…
It'd be Sam Hubinette, who came from behind and grabbed the last spot in the final.
And so, the final would feature Stephan Verdier, Tanner Foust, Brian Deegan, and Sam Hubinette. Interesting to note that Deegan is the only one these four who isn't an FD competitor…
Deegan and Foust, battling it out from the start.
Once again, it was Tanner who seemed to be on the fast track to gold.
Deegan gets airborne on his way to silver.
Verdier's car was looking quite battered by the end of the night.
In the end, Foust and Deegan would repeat with gold and silver respectively, while Sam Hubinette took bronze.
So another year of X Games rally was in the books. Could it have been better? Certainly, but there was lots of potential out there.
Hopefully the event format will see some tweaking for 2011 and rally in the US will continue to change for the better.
-Mike Garrett
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Good to see Tanner Foust take the win! I was hoping he'd win.
First off, the whole thing keeping Travis Pastrana out of the races was complete BS.
Ken Block was hauling ass in the LCQ. Its a shame he broke down with one lap to go.
And yes, the regular rally event was TERRIBLE. When the first 4-5 races were decided on a red flag and then the final race was as well, you know there are problems. X-games is good as pushing the envelope but this year they took it too far.
Every year the rally event gets worse and worse they really need to plan this out better and let them do more practive runs because both events were terrible.
ESPN If you cant do it right don't do it at all!!!
"And so, the final would feature Stephan Verdier, Tanner Foust, Brian Deegan, and Sam Hubinette. Interesting to note that Deegan is the only one these four who isn't an FD competitor..."
interesting
meh.. seems like a sell out thing now.. all about advertisement. dirt3 looks like fun though =P
I don't know why, but I just don't like Ken Block's Fiesta. I think that the car for him is definitely the Subaru Impreza WRX STI
PS: Please make a desktop from the 1st pic
You gotta give it up for Carl Decker...At the end of the day, he just put back his roof rack, put up the 2 bike on it and just drove it home....Street legal car competing against factory backed car...HELL YEA !!!
@stallion
He switched to Ford since Subaru no longer races in WRC. Smart move.
Tanner's having a big couple of weeks. Wins FD at Evergreen and then takes gold at X Games.
If they are going to be pushing the whole rally event, they need to go back to the first year they did it and have a proper small rally with 3-4 stages, then finish off at the staduim. One car at a time. Then run the rallycross.
The year they did it properly was the best, when Colin (RIP) rolled the subaru over the kicker.
I was watching it live in Sydney, Aus LIVE on ESPN, and i was with a mate who use to shoot full time for the Aussie Rally Champs. He reckoned it was rubbish this year.
Really the first rally course should of been the same as the rallycross, but one at a time against the clock.
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOW!
i miss Mirra's old subaru not liking his new one...
What's with this. The whole rally thing is getting more and more comercialized. It's all about extreme everything, big explosions and big jumps... Really hate this new wave of motorsport.
I was there, Super Rally was great but the Elimination Rally was a bit spoiled since it had a lot of off course DQ's, drivers were confused on the new course layout. They announced over the intercom Travis's tranny had issues, and it was an experimental transmission subaru put in and was testing. I thought that was BS, why test it at an event? It was definitely a let down.
@ Lukaz
if it brings a wrc event to north america, i dont care