Auto Industry News: Records are Meant to be Broken

Rally Car

Billie Jean King once said, “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” But if you’re Travis Pastrana, one of the most talented and decorated competitors in motorsports history, then winning isn’t enough. In this week’s auto industry news, we prove that records are meant to be broken; that’s exactly what Pastrana did yet again at the Mount Washington Hillclimb.

Driving his Subaru WRX STI with a specially-modified 600 horsepower engine, Pastrana participated in the Climb to the Clouds rally car race up the treacherous Mount Washington. Especially relevant is the fact that it’s “one of the steepest, narrowest, and harrowing hill-climbs around,” said writer Ryan Brower. “He smashed the record to the top of 6,288-foot summit by nearly 25 seconds. Pastrana broke the 2014 record of 6:09.09 by David Higgins twice: once with a first try of 5:46.28 up the 7.4-mile course and then a second, better time of 5:44.72,” he continued.

Drifting into Monday

Fredric Aasbø is sure to be recovering from an epic win this weekend. The Formula DRIFT Black Magic Pro Championship presented by BlackVue Dash Cameras made its way to Autodrome St-Eustache in Canada. In the Rockstar Energy/Nexen Tire Toyota Corolla iM, Fredric Aasbø took the victory for his tenth event win. That’s one more for the record books.

“In one of the most action packed and chaotic rounds of competition, Round 5: True North brought the top drifting talent in the world into Canada to a capacity crowd. The Livestream drew over 1 millionviews over the course of the weekend,” said Motorsport.com. “What an event! In what I can only describe as a historic and carnage filled, the event showcased true sportsmanship amongst the drivers and crew members often seeing them help each other in the pits,” said Jim Liaw, President of Formula DRIFT. A Round 6 throwdown moves to Monroe, Washington on August 4, 2017.

F1 British Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton was successful at his craft this weekend, too. The racecar driver “won his home British Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row on Sunday, while a penultimate-lap puncture slashed Sebastian Vettel’s championship lead to a single point,” reported Autoblog. Yes, it was a rather uneventful race. But Hamilton dominated at the track to take home his 57th career win. Possibly more intriguing is the championship points race. Vettel has 177 to Hamilton’s 176 with Bottas at 154.

NASCAR

Denny Hamlin held off Kyle Larson to deliver Joe Gibbs Racing its first NASCAR Cup win of the season. “Hamlin needed his 30th career Cup victory to secure a berth in NASCAR’s version of the postseason and end a winless streak that stretched to September,” continued the Tampa Bay Times. Kyle Busch sat atop the podium, as he “dominated yet again to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Busch won for the third time this season and 89th time in his career in the second-tier series,” said the Los Angeles Times.

IndyCar

In other auto industry news, Josef Newgarden secured another IndyCar Series race in Toronto. This time handing Team Penske its 193rd victory. “Newgarden came out in front on Lap 25 after a crash by Tony Kanaan caused a caution and maintained an advantage of over two seconds for the majority of the rest of the race. The American has five career victories, also winning in Alabama in April,” reported the Los Angeles Times. Scott Dixon holds the points lead with 423, closely followed by Helio Castroneves with 420.

79-Year-Old Woman in F1

As exciting as the headlines are from this past weekend, there’s one that really stands out as extra special. And that’s the 79-year-old female rally car driver who welcomed a chance to jump behind the wheel of an 800 horsepower track missile to represent Renault Sport Formula One.

“In the sport’s nearly 70-year history, only a small handful of women have ever been behind the wheel, much less raced in a grand prix. 79-year-old Rosemary Smith shows that all it takes is talent and not a certain pair of base chromosomes,” said Autoblog. “Smith was contacted by Renault UK about the test drive. She’d never driven anything close to as fast or as powerful as a modern F1 car. Current Renault Sport driver Jolyon Palmer showed her the basics of the car – mostly how to work the complicated steering wheel – before Smith went out for laps at France’s Circuit Paul Ricard. According to Renault, Smith now holds the record for the oldest person to ever get behind the wheel of a modern Formula One car.”

Most notably, Smith teaches that we must all approach our calling in life with fire in our bellies. Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to watch the inspiring clip below. And until next week’s auto industry news, remain in the fast lane!

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