x-monster KEN BLOCK GYMKHANA DC SHOES
FREESTYLE MOTOCROSS
DOWNHILL
DIRF
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DIRF KEN BLOCK
DOWNHILL FREESTYLE TROY BROSNAN TAKA HIGASHINO
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DIRF
KEN BLOCK HITS UK SHORES READY TO TEAR UP GYMKHANA GRID THIS WEEKEND! The grand master Hoonigan himself will be tearing up tyres at the Flame & Thunder show at Santa Pod as the finals of the first ever European Gymkhana GRID hit the UK this weekend. Budding tyre slayers have been battling it out at Gymkhana GRID rounds in France, Germany, UK, and Holland with Europes hottest drivers ready to fight it out this weekend for the chance to take on Ken Block in Sunday`s final showdown. Formula D champion Vaughn Gittin Jr is also flying in to take on the rear wheel drive hopefuls, as well as the UK`s own X Games Gold medalist Liam Doran who is gearing up to show what he`s made of. As Ken`s only drive in the UK this year be sure not to miss the opportunity to see this superstar in action, you`ve watched him along with millions of others in the Gymkhana series sensation now be one of the few to catch the main man as he puts pedal to metal in the flesh.
ARE YOU READY !
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RELLY
3 FOR 3: KEN BLOCK AND ALEX GELSOMINO WIN ALL THREE OF THE THREE NORTH AMERICAN RALLIES THEY ENTERED IN 2012 Monster World Rally Team driver 9th overall at WRC New Zealand stage. I was able to really put all of Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gel- and prior to suffering a mechanical those refined skills to work in Missomino are having their best-ev- DNF at WRC Finland on the final souri earlier this year at the Rally er stage rally season this year. The day of racing, they were sitting in of the 100 Acre Wood and I came duo has dominated all three North 10th overall). away with my 6th consecutive win American Rallies they competthere, and then followed that up ed in (Rally America’s 100 Acre “I’m really stoked on how well I’ve with the other stage rally successes. Wood, Canada’s Rally Défi and done at stage rallies this season,” I am stoked and looking forward Rally America’s Olympus Rally) said Block. “My development as a to hopefully getting out and doing adding three more first place tro- driver over the past couple of years more North American stage rallies phies to the wall. These wins come in the WRC has really pushed my next year.” on top of the pair finishing in top- driving skills to a higher level. It’s 10 point scoring position in two of also helped with my ability to write In addition to his North American their three WRC starts this season much better notes, which is one stage rally dominance, Block also as well (9th overall at WRC Mexico, of the big keys to speed on a rally added a silver medal at
the X Games GRC event this summer to his list of 2012 successes, and currently sits 6th overall in the GRC standings (and with the numerical potential to finish the season in first place) with two races left to go in the season. Global RallyCross was a new focus for Block this season and he’s contesting the full championship. Schedule-wise, however, this meant that he was only able to enter in select stage rallies during 2012. Block’s next competitive event is round five of the Global RallyCross Championship, taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday,
September 29th. Be sure to follow along as he finishes out his 2012 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and at monsterworldrallyteam.com
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KEN BLOCK GYMKHANA DC SHOES
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Ken Block United StatesUnited States In 1993, alternative sports industry tycoon Ken Block decided to take a breather from his business activities and take up the sport of rally, and immediately took to the sport so well and so quickly that within a couple of years he helped put the sport on the map – and at the X Games, where won a Silver Medal – and found himself in 2008 runner up for the US Rally Championship. All that being said, Mr. Block’s adventures have a dark and the madness all began on November 16, 2006, when Block hookedup the Discovery Channel TV show, Stunt Junkies. Though Block’s highlight each year is always the much-anticipated release of his amazing Gymkhana video (installment No. 5 shot in San Francisco was released July 9th, 2012 and was viewed 5.1 million times in 24 hours!), he was also pumped with his Silver Medal in Rallycross at X Games 18 in Los Angeles. In addition Block scored some difficult points on the elite World Rally Championship (WRC) tour, with top ten finishes in Mexico and New Zealand. Block’s also featured in the late Colin McRae’s Dirt 3 video game with the Monster Energy World Rally team vehicles.
Ken Block’s latest piece of precision-driving gold has been making the rounds (find it here in case you’re the Philistine who hasn’t seen it yet), and it’s perhaps no surprise that his antics inspired some lateral thinking on our parts. Supposing for a moment that you had at least a modicum of Block’s ample skills behind the wheel, what heavily reworked car would you kick around? AND for bonus points, what would be your venue? (Block has so far raced at Autodrome de Montlhér, the Port of Los Angeles dockside, and the airbase at El Toro.)
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The recipe seems simple enough – the car definitely needs to be able to smoke tires at will and without hesitation, and control a drift with surgical precision. Nearly any car could be modified to accomplish this, but it’ll be significantly harder to get a Ford Tempo to do it well than, say, a Nissan 240SX. But most gymkhana cars seem to be rally cars, or at least use cars that have rally careers as a base. So I’m going to stick with the rally heritage for my suggestion, rather than going with something completely bonkers like a Toyota Sports 800 motivated by a Suzuki RE-5 rotary. Instead, let’s say my base would be a Subaru Justy, and I’d slap an EJ205 out of an early Impreza WRX into it, with a massive rear-mounted turbo to help with weight balance. This seems like a rational choice. Now, what venue should get covered with burnt rubber? I’m thinking Tokyo, particularly Shibuya. Those giant crosswalks and neon lights would make a great backdrop for a screaming, smoke-belching exercise in excess. The possibilities, however, are endless. What would you pick, and where would you take it?
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DOWNHILL TROY BROSNAN
Starting to ride a bike at the age of two and a half, it was certain that Troy Brosnan was going to be in the cycling scene. Born July 13th, 1993 - Troy was brought into a cycling family with both mum and dad racing road bikes. One year after getting his first bike, Troy was racing BMX and went on racing for another 8 years all over Australia. At the age of 13 is when it all started, being introduced into the sport of Downhill Mountain Bike Riding. Since then Troy has won State Championships, National Championships and in 2010, Troy went on to win the Junior World Championships in Mont St Anne, Canada. 2011 Troy had a lot to prove and so he did! Starting off the season with a few crashes and bad results, Troy turned it around in the second half of the season to getting top tens in elite. Troy had the best result of his career with a 4th place at the world cup finals in Italy, Val Di Sole and clenching the Jr World cup overall and placing 8th overall in the elite category. Heading into the World Championships in Switzerland, Champery Troy was the favorite to win the Jr Title back to back. Troy took to the Muddy, Steep Swiss track and road it like it was dry to claim his 2nd consecutive Jr World title and to put the icing on the cake his time would of put him second in elite men!
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TROY BROSNAN is a pint size kid who blasted onto the
2010 World Cup scene like a ton of bricks and showed no signs of being a rookie. Troy blasted down the hill faster than any other junior on the World Cup circuit, and showed a majority of the Elite field how to get down a hill FAST! In doing so, Troy managed to win back-to-back UCI Junior World Cup Championship and the UCI Junior World Championships! Troy is a perfect blend of his own personality combined with riding traits he’s picked up from his idol Sam Hill and he’s already media savvy, has a youthful image, combined with a complete package of raw speed, technique, and style… dubbed the “Next Big Thing”!
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ENJOY !
mountain
Downhill biking (DH) is a time trial mountain biking event held on a course with a net decrease in elevation. As the name of this discipline implies, downhill races are held on steep, downhill terrain, resulting in high speed descents and, most commonly, with extended air time off jumps and other obstacles. A continuous course is defined on each side by a strip of tape. The width of the course can vary greatly over the length of the course, but it is typically between about 2m and 10m wide. Riders have one attempt to reach the finish line in the shortest amount of time while remaining be-
Bike
tween the tape. The rider must choose their path (or line) by compromising between the shortest possible line and the line that can be travelled at the highest speed. If a rider leaves the course by crossing or breaking the tape, he must return to the course at the point of exit. Riders start at intervals, often seeded from slowest to fastest. Courses typically take two to five minutes to complete and winning margins are often less than a second. Riders are timed with equipment similar to that used in Downhill skiing
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RED BULL RAMPAGE
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Red Bull Rampage 2012 Red Bull Rampage 2012 continued the unique tradition of the world’s premier big-mountain event, bringing progressive moves and creative line selection to a world-renowned venue in southwestern Utah and pushing the evolution of what riders believe is possible. Canada’s Kurt Sorge topped an already impressive first run -- one that put him in the lead -- with a second run that pushed him even further ahead, destroying any doubt that the 2012 title belonged to him. A confident approach to the upper section of his line (with a no-handed drop high on the course), a big drop before a shot through the Oakley Icon Sender and a superman jump and backflip stepdown all combined to make Sorge’s run tops for the day.
France’s Antoine Bizet ran into trouble early in his first run but still managed to rile up the crowd as he casually made his way down to them, which only increased everyone’s anticipation for his second attempt. He scored redemption then with a hard and fast line in the upper section of the course which included a quick backflip in tight quarters, following with a big flip over the jump after the Oakley Icon Sender. As a result, Bizet rocketed into second place in his rookie Red Bull Rampage appearance. St. George, Utah local Logan Binggeli (pictured above) landed on the podium in third with traversing lines across the upper canyon, huge flips and a launch into the quarterpipe/ wallride. Spain’s Andreu Lacondeguy earned his second consecutive fourth-place finish at Red Bull Rampage, and Tyler McCaul rounded out the top five with a fast line peppered with multiple burly drops. Other highlights included Kyle Norbraten’s back-to-back 360 drops, Kyle
Strait’s inverts over drop sections, Nico Vink’s solid style throughout his runs, and Cameron McCaul’s step-down flip near the end of his run, which earned him the Utah Sports Commission’s Best Trick Award. Event favorites Brandon Semenuk and Darren Berrecloth had ambitious plans for their runs, with each landing the more dangerous sections (Semenuk’s wild transfer drop and Berrecloth’s near-vertical routes) only to suffer from minor missteps later in their runs that hurt their scores. Semenuk was able to take solace in the fact that he still earned the year-end FMB World Tour title, however.
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FREESTYLE MOTOCROSS
Freestyle Motocross (also known as FMX) is a variation on the sport of motocross in which motorcycle riders attempt to impress judges with jumps and stunts.
the original freestyle motocross. It has no structure, and is traditionally done on public land. Riders look for natural jumps and drop-offs to execute their tricks on. Some freeriders prefer to jump on sand dunes. In many ways, freeriding requires more skill and menThe two main types of freestyle events are: tal ability. Notable freeriding locations include Ocotillo Wells and Glamis Dunes in California, Beaumont, Big Air (also known as Best Trick), in which each rider Texas, and Cainville, Utah gets two jumps — usually covering more than 60 feet (18 m) — from a dirt-covered ramp. A panel of judges evaluates the style, trick difficulty, and originality and produces a score on a 100-point scale. Each rider’s highest single-jump score is compared; top score wins. Freestyle Motocross, the older of the two disciplines. Riders perform two routines, lasting between 90 seconds and 14 minutes, on a course consisting of multiple jumps of varying lengths and angles that generally occupy one to two acres (.4 to .8 hectres). Like Big Air, a panel of judges assigns each contestant a score based on a 100-point scale, looking for difficult tricks and variations over jumps. Notable Freestyle motocross events include Red Bull X-Fighters, NIGHT of the JUMPs, the X-Games, Gravity Games, Big-X, Moto-X Freestyle National Championship, and Dew Action Sports Tour Freeriding is
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TAKA HIGASHINO
Takayuki “Taka� Higashino born 13 March 1985 is a Japanese freestyle motocross rider that has competed in international events including the X Games. Higashino began competing in the United States in 2006, appearing in his first X Games in 2007. His motocross career took off in 2010, when he finished first at the Dew Tour Salt Lake City FMX Contest,Red Bull XRAY,and earned a bronze medal for his FMX Best Trick performance at X Games XVI. [3] That year, Transworld Motocross named Higashino the Breakout FMX Rider of the Year. In 2011, Higashino took first place at the ASA World Championships of FMX and competed in his fifth consecutive X Games competition. He also performed on the Nuclear Cowboyz Freestyle Chaos tour, a North American motocross exhibition, and will ride on the tour again in 2012.
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Motorcycle Modifcations
Riders use modified motocross bikes with after market parts to lower weight and improve performance. Riders will often shave down the seat foam to give a wider range of motion and better grip on the seat. Steering stabilizers are also common, and help keep the front tire running straight when tricks requiring the rider to let go of the handle bars are performed. Many riders will also shorten the width of the handle bars, to make it easier to put the legs around the bars, like such tricks as the ‘heelclicker’ or ‘rodeo’. Excess cables, such as brakes and clutch cables are usually redirected away from the bars, to avoid riders getting their boots caught on the bike. The engine and mechanical details of a FMX bike are fairly stock, not needing the fine tuning of a racing bike. Riders may also choose to have ‘lever’ on their handlebars to help then when performing ‘Kiss Of Death Backflips.’ A ‘lever’ is usually a metal plate or pipe coming off the handle bars, and going in front of the riders wrist or lower arm to stop the rider from rotating during the flips, but letting the bike continue to move. Bikes have after market performance pipes that give more power. The bike must have very strong suspension and very high quality tires. Also most riders have graphic kits on their bikes to show off
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