Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe 

Sunday’s race in Valencia was a sight to see, full of action, drama, and disappointment. In the final laps, William’s Pastor Maldonado battled with Lewis Hamilton of McLaren and, on his third attempt to pass, caused Hamilton to be pitched into the wall ending his race. Maldonado was later penalized for an unsafe re-entry to the track which pushed him out of the top 10.

Just after taking the lead, Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull petered out, leaving him on the side of the track. Lotus’s Romain Grojean was similarly unreliable and eventually left him coasting to a halt as well.

In the end, Ferrari’s persistent and consistent Fernando Alonso took the win by more than six seconds in front of Kimmi Raikkonen. Lo and behold 43-year-old Michael Schumacher managed his first podium finish since his return in third. This was the first podium finish for a man of his age since 1970.

IndyCar Iowa Corn Indy 250 

In the last of the mid-season, short-oval races--and the second one to be delayed by rain--Ryan Hunter-Reay took his second victory for Andretti Autosport in the #28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car under caution. Second went to Andretti teammate Marco Andretti who raced competitively but cleanly against Hunter-Reay until Katherine Legge crashed exiting turn two, bringing out the yellow flag for the remainder of the race.

Tony Kanaan followed up last week’s second with a third this week. Simon Pagenaud made a valiant effort coming all the way from 25^th to land a fifth place and Scott Dixon earned fourth.

Hunter-Reay is now only three points behind Will Power, who was involved in a crash on lap 68. That also gives Andretti Autosport its fourth short-track oval-race victory; three of them can be accredited to Hunter-Reay.

NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma 

Sunday’s race at Sonoma proved that NASCAR cars can turn right as well as left as they harried each other on the road course. For me, this is the most exciting race of the NASCAR season and I wish they would do more road course races. The cars look capable and agile tearing it up through the chicanes and the driver’s seem up to the task.

What’s red, full of attitude, and without a sponsor? Kurt Busch in the #51. The man who has no filter put on a solid chase and kept his damaged car in the running to settle for a third place after ramming a tire barrier, breaking a panhard and later being passed by Tony Stewart. Busch was stalwart about failing to get the win but polite and even complimented race winner Clint Bowyer’s driving skills saying, “That boy can drive.” Bowyer has been consistent in the road course events snagging several fourth-place finishes and an eighth prior to this victory. 

Formula Drift—The Gauntlet at Wall Speedway 

The top drift drivers laid it out on the line at the 16-degree banked straightaway and 30-degree banked turns at Wall Speedway, otherwise known as “The Gauntlet.” Drivers were challenged to use the entire oval giving the fans a great show as the competition ensued.

Vaughn Gittin in the Falken Ford Mustang won the event, Dajiro Yosihara in the Discount Tire/Falken Nissan S13 240 SX took second after the final shootout, and Chris Forsberg in the NOS Energy Drink Nissan 370Z took third.

Here is a video of some of the action:

This Week’s Featured Club TEAM CR3ATiViTY 

Each week Rear View Mirror features a new Forza Motorsport 4 Car Club. Post about your club in the RVM thread to be considered. This week its TEAM CR3ATiViTY from the U.K… Forza community member Woody1725 posted about some things that make his club different. Here is Woody in his own words:

“The team is called 'TEAM CR3ATiViTY' it was founded quite recently as our last club split up due to having too many members. The other half that set up on their own were pure drifters. The rest of us do enjoy drifting but other things as well, such as cruising, racing, drag, tag and soccer. We basically do everything. We host lots of events such as racing series' such as GT3 and BTCC and track days. However we mainly run cruises. These are properly organised with themes, sound tests and paint competitions. Cruises are held weekly usually on Saturdays at 8pm GMT. We are looking for new members to increase the size of the club and to meet new people to have fun playing Forza with. We are not super competitive or super quick we are just looking for a good time.”

Thanks for your contribution to the community, Woody. If you would like to know more about TEAM CR3ATiViTY check out their Facebook page. Featured teams will receive unicorns gifts for all members.

Virtual Motorsports 

Virtual Motorsports offers some of the best organized online racing available. Right now, they are conducting five different race series: Super GT, Classics, Spec Racing, GP2, and Stock Hatches. They also conduct photo contests and “Guess the Car” competitions. For more information on their weekly competitions and race results check out their newsletter.

This week they have a cool new video as well:

Community Bounty MightyMrDigital 

This guy is the real thing, a Turn 10 game designer that plays games. When the MightyMrDigital isn’t fleshing out various aspects of the game or writing design documents, he is playing Forza. That is part of the passion that makes Forza Motorsport the best racing game:, our team loves what we create.

Christopher will be racing like it’s for pinks in “Once Bitten” our Community Monthly Rivals event featuring the all-new completely free and inexorably awesome SRT Viper. So bring it if you got it and check out the Community Bounty thread that will be posted tomorrow.

July DLC Clues 

With the popularity of Forza 4 DLC I guess it should be no surprise how busy this thread is, but I am surprised. I have been offering up clues about the July DLC Car Pack and you guys have been eating it up. I am constantly amazed how fast the correct car is guessed, no matter how hard I think I am making the clues. It just goes to show the wealth of knowledge this community holds. We have been giving out unicorns for correct answers and randomly jumping in the thread with buckets of generosity, further confusing any possible confirmed lists. Tomorrow the announcement of the latest add-on pack for Forza Motorsport 4 will be made and all your dreams and potential answers will be confirmed.

Here is the last clue:

This car’s name matches its most popular engine size.

Post your answers in the thread, and I will see you with the full list of our next pack tomorrow!

Mazda Furai Ogura Racing Free Tune 

These guys are giving away a tune that has the number one spot 37 times on the leaderboards. The Mazda Furai is a track star by itself, add this tune, and it’s like Coke and Pop Rocks: explosively awesome!

So check out their thread and grab the tune from this thread.

 WaterWerks NW On the Green 

I attended a really cool car show on Sunday, where this week’s RVM photos were gathered. This was a water cooled VW focused event and there were hundreds of cars being shown on the picturesque polo fields of Mountain Meadows Farm in North Bend, WA. While it was mostly VW’s and even sponsored in part by VW, there were many other European models being shown including Porsches, BMWs, Audis, and Volvos, to name a few. Many of these cars were bagged and dropped, some resting their frames on the grass. If you are into the whole “Stance” thing, there is some serious eye candy to be seen in my album.

I’ll be attending more events like this and doing my best to bring video game culture one step closer to car culture. There were too many cars to pick a favorite, but the guy with the Star Wars-themed headliner has got a good thing going. That FJ Cruiser ain’t bad lookin’ either. Wait, WTH is that thing doing there?

Comment on your favorite cars and shots in the RVM thread. I will be granting unicorn wishes (as is now my chosen calling) to those who can note details that make each car special. I like to think my photography skills are improving, so knowing your favorite shots will give me pause to consider what to focus on.