After a one week respite, Rear View Mirror is back to bring you racing highlights from what you may have missed over the weekend in racing as well as what is going on in the world of Forza.

 

The halls of Turn 10 have been a busy place these last couple weeks and it’s only going to get busier as we get ready to release Forza Horizon. We are already announcing the list of killer rides that let you experience the open roads of Colorado in Forza Horizon. If you look closely in each shot you can catch a glimpse of what will be the next chapter in the Forza series. Trust me, it’s going to be incredible! There is so much to discover, so many roads to conquer, and so much variety that you’ll be busy exploring Colorado for a good long time.

 

But before we catch you up on Forza, let’s review the weekend in racing.

 

 

Community photo contest favorite from YamanekoSniper 

 

IndyCar: GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma 

The competition in Sonoma leaves only two races left in the IndyCar season to decide the overall champion. Three other best in class awards have been clinched though. First off Chevrolet has captured the manufacturer’s championship. Among Chevy, Honda, and Lotus, the Chevy has won the most races. Chevy-powered IndyCars have won nine of the thirteen races thus far in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

 

Ryan Briscoe won the 85-lap race at Sonoma but was challenged by Will Power to the very end. Power’s second place secured him the Mario Andretti Road Course trophy for the third year in a row. Dario Franchitti followed Power to fill out the podium. That puts Will Power 36 points ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay, who suffered a disappointing spin from contact with Alex Tagliani. Hunter-Reay was headed to a podium finish before Tagliani locked up his brakes and tapped Hunter-Reay’s tail, spinning him and taking him out of podium contention.

 

Congratulations to Simon Pagenaud, who clinched the Sunoco Rookie of the year award with his seventh place finish at Sonoma.

 

Here is Hunter-Reay’s reaction, the incident, and Tagliani’s explanation. What do you think of it? Talk about it in the RVM thread.

 

 

 

NASCAR IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway 

In a race that saw 13 cautions and a lot of mixed emotions about the new surface at Bristol, Denny Hamlin achieved his third win in the 24-race Sprint Cup Series. There was massive frustration about drivers’ inability ability to pass and the multiple wrecks. This made for an exciting race for fans, but a drag on the drivers who were taken out or otherwise hampered by the change in surface.

 

Jimmie Johnson held on longer than Carl Edwards and earned second place. Edwards continued to fade and Jeff Gordon landed in third. Three races remain before the Chase for the Cup is set.

 

There were flare-ups and wrecks throughout the race. Juan Montoya took out his old nemesis Ryan Newman, removing him from contention for a wild card in the Chase. Danica Patrick was doing well and on the lead lap before she was shoved nose first into the front-stretch wall.

 

Here is a video of Danica Patrick hitting the wall.Pretty scary, thankfully, she walked away from it. What is really amazing is the in-car cam. The crumple zone was so effective you can hardly tell the impact, aside from the sparks.

 

 

 

Aussie V8 Supercars Eastern Creek 

Jamie Whincup had a horrible race on Saturday due to a delaminating tire. That loss saw him fall out of the top points spot for the championship. Sunday he redeemed himself with a win and regained the points lead. Whincup holds the lead by one single point over Mark “Frosty” Winterbottom.

 

Saturday’s 36 lap race had Craig Lowndes winning, with Frosty three tenths of a second behind him and Will Davison another four tenths behind him.

 

Sunday’s race had Whincup first, Lowndes second by about a half a second, Frosty took third once again in the FPR Ford. This was the eighth win in a row for Team Vodaphone drivers Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

Here is a video summing up the race weekend at Eastern Creek.

 

Formula Drift Vegas, Round 6: After Dark 

Drift racing is one of the fastest-growing forms of motorsport out there and the grand stands in Las Vegas were full of more fans than ever this weekend for the sixth round of the Formula Drift series. The racing had to take place at night because it is so hot in Las Vegas. More than 150,000 people watched the event live via the Formula D livestream.

 

Rhys Millen, coming off of a world record-setting run at Pike’s Peak in the same Hyundai Genesis Coupe he runs for drifting (although with a much different setup), took the win. That puts him at third in the points standings for the title, behind Daigo Saito and Vaughn Gitten Jr.

 

 

After hitting the wall, Fredric Aasbo in his Scion TC earned second place; Vaughn Gitten Jr. in the Monster Energy Falken Ford Mustang landed third securing enough points to maintain a comfortable lead over Saito.

The final event of the Formula Drift season is Round 7: Title Fight on October 12-13 at Irwindale Speedway.

 

And in the world of Forza….

 

Design Rob Primo’s Drift Car Contest 

Through an interesting turn of Forza-related events, I was hooked up with an opportunity to feature NW Pro-Am drift driver Rob Primo and his Toyota 2JZ powered Nissan S14 in this week’s edition of Heavy Metal Affliction. To make the most of this opportunity and share some of the fun of hanging out with a really cool soon-to-be pro drift driver, I asked the Forza design community to replicate his livery. Primo will use the winning livery in a side contest following this week’s HMA that will have you competing against him.

 

The call was answered by many designer/painters, and the designs are incredible. Check out the threads here and here to see all the entries. It was no simple task, as his livery is complex and includes a huge array of elements.

After much contemplation and reviewing all the killer liveries… V12 Coops was Rob’s topchoice. His exact words were “V12 Coops killed it with the specifics and clean lines. He wins!”

 

All of the entries were spot on in their own way, but Rob also wanted to give an honorable mention to the collaboration that produced this awesome promo video for the design submitted by DIS Old ManTiger and ID LowLife 

 

  

 

Thanks to everyone who contributed a design to the contest.

 

Fans have a Fever for HMA 

Looking for another design competition. Tuff Puppers, who was featured in Heavy Metal Affliction a few weeks ago has a competition going to show your love of Heavy Metal Affliction. Check out his thread for the full meal deal in details. Basically you create either a race livery or fantasy livery in a Heavy Metal Affliction theme. I will be participating in the final judging and there is a monster credit gift going to the winner.

 

I’ll be looking forward to seeing what all you talented painters come up with. Personally, I couldn’t paint myself into a corner.

 

Furthermore, this week’s community race livery contest is going to have a Heavy Metal Affliction theme. You can enter your design in both TuffPuppers’ competition and the community contest.

 

Virtual Motorsports 

Virtual Motorsports provides a venue for organized racing. They have multiple race series going on at any one time. If you’re looking for places to compete outside the lobbies, they are a respected long-time presenter of organized racing.

 

VM GP2 Series 3

This week more than 80 participants met at Twin Ring Motegi to race the topless Mazda MX-5 Superlight. The competition lined up across eight qualifying rooms.

Race one was a 12 lap sprint race it was won by #955 FMS Takumi, followed by #810 TPR Zermatt and the podium was filled out by #20 GLR BRIZZO 

  

Community photo contest favorite from Warbird1974 

 

VM Knockout Tournament

Last week there were eight racers, this week there is only four. This week competitor’s race the 1997 Mitsubishi GTO with a max PI of B-493 at Infineon.

 

The four finalists that have made it to the semi-final round are: #266 EZT Gambit, #955 FMS Takumi, #14 Exiled666 and #440 VVV Amarth.

 

These four will face off this week in a 1991 BMW M3 with a maximum PI of C-354 at Suzuka West. This tune is actually lower than stock so the competitors will really have to think to build a car that maximizes the use of PI.

 

And here is the latest promotional video from VM touting their new Super GT Series Three.

 

 

 

Corvettes at Carlisle from Will Fight for Food 

Some of us get to see some of the coolest things because of where we live. WiLLfiGht4FooD attended one of the largest gatherings of Corvettes in the world. He sent me some pictures of the event; it was literally Corvette’s as far as the eye could see. I chose the shot below that showcases the design that sparked it all.

 

 

Submitted by WiLLfiGht4FooD 

 

September DLC Clue Thread 

As we all get ready for another release of spectacular cars to add to your Forza 4 garage I kicked off a September DLC Clue Thread. In said thread I tantalize and tease all lovers of DLC with clues about the cars in the pack and give away unicorns to people who give the right answers and also to those that give the wrong answers to keep it confusing.

 

There are nine clues in the thread and I have seen a correct answer for every one of them so far, but nobody has put together a completely correct list. Everything has worked out—even though I did not have enough to time to truly enjoy the thread as I have in the past. What I really mean to say--and I said it once in the thread--is that,I love it when a plan comes together.

 

Therein lies the last clue about the last vehicle. Which will be a Forza fanatic favorite I am sure.

 

Look Out Behind You 

A Turn 10 team member, ForbiddenMEHR shared this cool shot she took at a stoplight. It turned out pretty awesome I think. Sadly she is leaving the team to take on another assignment, but this picture will leave an impression. Like most of us here at Turn 10 she is a car lover, in fact she has plans to turn out VW engines from her garage. This car could tail-gate me all day and I wouldn’t complain.

 

 

Submitted by ForbiddenMEHR 

 

That is all for this week folks, thanks for reading and if you would like to comment on anything I wrote about in Rear View Mirror please do so in the RVM thread.