BARGING INTO 2010 - RED BULL: NEW YEAR. NO LIMITS.

BARGING INTO 2010 - RED BULL: NEW YEAR. NO LIMITS.

Action Sports Icon Travis Pastrana Aims to Shatter World Record for Longest Distance Jump in a Rally Car

On New Year’s Eve, Live from Long Beach on ESPN



Santa Monica, Calif. (October 15, 2009) – With four consecutive Rally America championships, nine X Games gold medals, the first double backflip on a motorcycle and a hit television series under his belt, it is safe to say that Travis Pastrana has reached the pinnacle of his career – and yet he’s showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. In fact, on New Year’s Eve at Red Bull: New Year. No Limits., the action sports superstar will step on the accelerator and ring in 2010 by adding yet another jaw-dropping feat to his already impressive resume: the world record for longest distance jump in a rally car. Add a healthy dose of the Pacific Ocean to clear, and now you have a party!



Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. will be televised live on ESPN/ESPN HD on Thursday, December 31, immediately following the Chick-Fil-A Bowl (approx. 11:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. PT). Viewing of Pastrana’s jump will be free to the thousands of revelers in downtown Long Beach.



“I’m looking forward to being part of Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.,” said Pastrana. “Long Beach will continue the tradition of a fun and festive environment for this New Year’s celebration and flying over the water in a car and landing it onto a floating barge will push the limits of anything that I have ever executed in my career. Live events are always difficult and more entertaining, both for the fans and the participants, and so many factors play into the success of this jump. I live for this kind of excitement.”



Joan Lynch, ESPN vice president, content development, added, “We are thrilled to team again with Red Bull to televise this live and exciting event on ESPN for a third year. ESPN is dedicated to bringing live and compelling programming to the viewer and no New Year’s show delivers more unique suspense and action than Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.”



NOT SINCE THE JETSONS WILL A CAR FLY SO FAR

Before the clock strikes midnight on the East Coast on December 31, Pastrana will attempt to accomplish the first ever ramp-to-ramp car jump over water, a feat that will test the laws of physics and take his career to yet another level. With the world-famous Queen Mary docked in the background, Pastrana will jump his rally car off the Pine Street Pier onto a floating barge anchored in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor, aiming to shatter the existing mark of 171 feet and establish a new world distance record, live on ESPN.



Jumping a car takes guts enough, but add water between the ramps, and Pastrana will feel what most, if not all, golfers feel when faced with hitting a ball over water – stay out of the water! On New Year’s Eve, Travis is not only the golfer, but also the golf ball!



THREE’S COMPANY

Pastrana will follow in the footsteps of fellow motorsports athletes Robbie Maddison and Rhys Millen, who rang in the last two New Year's Eve celebrations by pushing their physical, mental and technical limits to break boundaries and records, in front of thousands of fans in Las Vegas and millions of viewers on ESPN.



For Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. event details, visit www.redbullnewyearnolimits.com, and for information on Pastrana, visit www.travispastrana.com.

Loeb fast enough for F1, say Red Bull

Multiple World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb has been hailed fast enough for Formula One by the Red Bull Racing team after the Frenchman tested one of their cars at Barcelona on Monday.

Loeb, 34, set the eighth fastest time of the day as F1 began preparing for the sweeping rule changes set to come in to force in the sport next season, and completed 82 trouble-free laps at the Spanish circuit.

"I expected to be pleasantly surprised and that was the case," Red Bull's race performance engineer Daniele Casanova told Autosport. "Sebastien has been really impressive. He has stepped into the car and not put a foot wrong from the beginning."

Loeb drove an interim RB4 chassis, with new slick Bridgestone tyres and simulated '09 levels of downforce. And while he was eighth quickest of 17 runners, the field was spread unusually wide due to the different configuration packages all the teams ran this week.

Nevertheless Casanova believes that Loeb's performance was of 'midfield' F1 pace.

"It's hard to the tell the exact pace," said Casanova. "From the fastest car to the slowest there is a 25km/h difference, so clearly a lot of people are running many different configurations, including KERS, wings and tyres.

"We are the correct weight, so at a guess I would say Sebastien is running somewhere in the midfield, which is mighty impressive.

"It's obviously fun to run a driver like Sebastien, but we also got a lot of useful work done. The new tyres are things that we have only tested two or three times before and they are really quite different. The idea is that this would be a normal test for us. So he was going at a good test pace, without taking any risks."

Despite proving that he has the speed, Loeb dismissed a switch to Formula One at this late stage in his career.

"Maybe I am too old," he told Autosport. "If I was going to do that, it's something that I should have thought about doing a few years ago. This only came about because it was an opportunity offered to me by Red Bull.

"You can't compare F1 to rallying, they are so different. It's not true that rallying is more of a comfort zone, because when I am flat-out on the stages I am concentrating just as hard as I was today."

The test was Loeb's second experience of F1, having tested a Renault R27 alongside Heikki Kovalainen at Paul Ricard last year - where he lapped 1.5s off the Finn's pace.

The Citroen WRC star added that he would love to drive an F1 car again and felt that there was more to come from him in terms of performance.

"I think there was more speed to come from me, but I am not going to say that I could have gone a second quicker or anything, because I wasn't," he said. "There were definitely areas where I could have improved though, particularly under braking.

"Sometimes I was braking too early and sometimes too late. I think it's the most difficult thing for anyone coming into F1 for the first time. For the rest [of the driving skills], it was not too bad. I studied some videos before, which helped with things like the racing line."

Red Bull take over Toro Rosso F1 team

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Red Bull have taken back total control of the Toro Rosso Formula One team, the energy drink company said on Tuesday.

The company said in a statement that they had re-acquired co-owner Gerhard Berger's 50 percent holding "subject to approval by competition authorities."

Austrian Berger, a former Ferrari and McLaren driver with 10 Formula One wins to his credit, had controlled Toro Rosso jointly with Red Bull's billionaire founder and compatriot Dietrich Mateschitz since 2006.

Mateschitz, who already owned the Red Bull Racing F1 team, bought the struggling Italy-based Minardi outfit at the end of 2005 and renamed it. Toro Rosso means Red Bull in Italian.

Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso out-performed Red Bull this year, winning the Italian Grand Prix in September with 21-year-old German Sebastian Vettel.

"Red Bull will now run Toro Rosso alone...as well as remaining a partner of Berger Logistik," said Mateschitz, referring to Berger's family-owned haulage firm which is half-owned by Mateschitz's company.

Toro Rosso's future had been in doubt, with Mateschitz saying in March that Red Bull wanted to sell their stake before 2010 when the current regulations require all teams to build and design their own cars.

The 2008 Toro Rosso and Renault-powered Red Bull cars were both designed by Red Bull Technology under the guidance of former McLaren technical director Adrian Newey.

It was not immediately clear what had brought about Mateschitz's change of heart, although there has been talk recently of relaxing the 'customer car' rules, at a time when teams are under pressure to cut costs.

Toro Rosso have yet to announce their 2009 driver line-up, with France's Sebastian Bourdais saying last week that the team needed money and were looking for a driver who could bring funds with him as well as talent.

(Source: Reuters)

WRC Champ Loeb to test Formula 1 car.

SEBASTIEN LOEB TO TEST A RED BULL F1 CAR

Fresh from getting out of his Citroen C4 WRC at the end of Rally Japan, newly-crowned five-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb was handed a fantastic prize for his title by Red Bull, Citroen Sport's partner.

Red Bull Racing will give the Frenchman a chance to test one of its RB4s at the official Formula 1 test session on 17 November in Barcelona.

Beforehand, Sebastien will go to the team's headquarters in Milton Keynes to meet Red Bull Racing and prepare for the 17th. He will make his first acquaintance with the car during a preliminary test at the Silverstone circuit.

Sebastien Loeb is already eagerly anticipating this amazing experience: "I'm absolutely delighted by this present from Red Bull to celebrate my fifth World Rally Championship title. I already got the chance to test a Formula 1 car last year, but this time the circumstances will be a little different. I'm now going to find myself in the midst of all the regular F1 drivers during an official test. I just hope that I don't make a fool of myself! On the other hand, it's only for one day. I'd like to clear up any speculation about me possibly switching to F1...next year I'm definitely going to be driving a Citroen C4 WRC on the World Rally Championship !"

-credit: citroen

Rhys Millen Injured in practice for Red Bull Backflip

We hope he has a fast recovery, these incidents are scary but I have to give him immense credit for having the balls to try something so revolutionary.

-Matt

From Race Dezert.com...

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Keep Rhys Millen in your thoughts and prayers. He was injured today when his truck missed the padded landing area he was using. He was transported to a local trauma center for a complete evaluation and further care. I can not comment any further on his medical condition other then to say he was awake and oriented during transport.

Re: The Red Bull Experiment gone wrong!!!

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I have talked to Tanner Rhys's room mate today. Rhys is out of it because of pain meds right now. He is on his way to a different hospital where he is in good hands for his injury. He has 4 fractured vertebrate all in the neck area. It is a compression fracture that is thought to be from the top tube of the roll cage pushing down on his head. His helmet has a crushed zone that matches a tube. The cause is just speculation not fact.
Rhys is getting the results of a MRI to see how bad the injury is or if he needs surgery. He has feeling and movement from what I have been told. They are just making sure there are no bone fragments in the spinal canal.
I will keep you guys posted of his condition. i will be visiting him tonight or in the morning.
Please keep Rhys in your prayers!

__________________
Jerry Zaiden

Jerry,
Thank you for updating our community. I was vague in my initial post because there are certain legalities about releasing peoples medical info without consent. I have received numerous request for info and did not want to overstep my bounds, so I kept the info discrete and to the point.

Please pass on to Rhys, that all of us from the fire department that responded to his accident are thinking of him.

"Apparently the kicker portion of the ramp failed. He launched the truck straight up, landing it on the tailgate area on pavement."

More from RDC
I will try to elaborate a little on this since we responded to the accident. As Jesse said, they had landed the flip numerous times and were just doing some tweaking and adjustments.

The kicker portion of the ramp failed to collapse. This in turn put the truck into a wheelie position. It remained in that position throughout the flight. It did not over rotate or go upside down. The added launch of the kicker caused the truck to fly farther then the safety landing area. The truck landed on pavement, past the safety area (actually clipped the last portion of the safety on the way down), on its rear bumper.

We cut away a portion of the tube chassis to aid in extraction. We did this to avoid further injury to Rhys, not because he was trapped. It just made it much easier to get him out and not further injure him.

search out the videos here on this site or you tube to see how the kicker works. It just did not release this time.....

Backflip in a truck?

Red Bull driver Rhys Millen will attempt to complete a backflip in a truck on Dec 31ast, 2007 at the Rio in Las Vegas. The event will be broadcast live on ESPN. Click here for more info.