Autoblog

Click above for high-res gallery of awesome rally shots

After all the trials and tribulations, the first event in the Central Europe Rally took place this past weekend and Carlos Sainz took the overall win behind the wheel of a heavily prepped Volkswagen Touareg 2, while NASCAR driver Robby Gordon's team finished 10th.

The race, which spanned some 1,670 miles across Hungary and Romania, took Sainz and his co-pilot, Michel Perin, 11 hours, 18 minutes and 8 seconds to traverse, followed by the team of Stephane Perhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret driving a Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution, while Dieter Depping and Timo Gotschalk came in third, behind the wheel of another Touareg 2.

Gordon, whose total time was 1 hour, 25 minutes and 38 seconds behind Sainz, completed the race with the help of a HUMMER H2 and Andy Grider at his side. The full race results can be viewed after the jump, and we've assembled a gallery of some seriously awesome shots from the Central Europe Rally below.


[Source: Rallysportmag]

Michael Schumacher may have turned down the opportunity to take over the Scuderia, but that doesn't mean he's given up on ever running his own racing team. Schumacher is co-owner of the KSM karting team, based near his hometown of Kerpen, Germany. To drive the team's kart in the German championship this year, Schumacher, who is in charge of driver development (no kidding), signed Carlos Sainz, Jr., the son of the two-time world rally champion.

Since Schumacher's retirement, many aspiring racers have been proclaimed as the champ's natural successor: his brother Ralf, his protege Felipe, the drivers that Michael's longtime manager Wili Webber has been handling, even Schumi's nephew. But now the man himself has put his weight behind Carlos Sainz, Jr. Schumi was quick to point out that he, like countless other star drivers, got his start in karts, and that the deal could put Sainz on the path to Formula One. Not too shabby an endorsement, then.

[Source: F1-Live]