Off Road Accessory Review

NASCAR milestones have fallen twice this year already. Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon have put their stamp on NASCAR history forever.

Kyle Busch recently scored his 50th win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Busch now has the most wins of all drivers to compete in NASCAR’s second highest level of competition. Busch bumped Mark Martin from the top spot in 2011 passing the old record of 49 wins.

Jeff Gordon won his 85th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Tuesday. The win placed him in sole possition of 3rd place on the all time win list. Gordon only trails Richard Petty (200 wins) and David Pearson (105 wins) for the title of most wins in a career.

Kyle Busch is still in the prime time of his career and will likely add more wins to his Nationwide total. Still in his mid twenties, Kyle could have twenty more years of wins to add to the total.

Jeff Gordon is slowly nearing the end of his career. The forty year old driver has an outside chance of catching Pearson’s 105 wins in the next 10-15 years of his career.

Although we are dedicated to off road motorsports and dirt bike gear we still like to pay our respects to the greats of motorsports as a whole. Who will be the next driver to cross a milestone in NASCAR? Jimmie Johnson has 5 Championships, can he tie Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty at 7 before the end of his career?

Chad Reed and his Two Two Motorsports team had a better season then most critics expected in 2011. Reed started his own team for 2011 whenhe was without a ride for 2011. The team battled for both the Supercross and Motocross Championships taking event wins in both. The Australian born rider may have exceeded his own expectations but was still left disappointed by not taking either championship.

No worries. In 2012 the 22 dirt bike gear will be back and stronger than before. With a year of experience the Honda rider can come back and have a better shot at the title. We call 2011 a success for Reed even if he won’t be wearing the number 1 plate.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers were not able to run their 25th event of the season at Atlanta this weekend. Rain delayed the start of the event and eventually was moved to Tuesday. Why Tuesday? Why not Monday? You know the day that the whole country has off?

Well, the weather was not expected to improve on Monday either. Some say Tuesday’s forecast is only a little better. Many of the fans could not wait out the rain. A large percentage of the fans headed home.

The drivers and teams will also have added stress as they are racing in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday night. Only 4 days after they leave Atlanta.

We feel bad for the fans who are going to miss the race but paid for admission. The teams will deal with the hardship just as any other business would deal with unexpected circumstances. If it was a motocross race, it would have happened as scheduled. Only down fall would be the muddy dirt bike gear. No lost admission cost for fans.

Aussie rider Brett Metcalfe took his very first overall win this past weekend at Southwick. Metcalfe beat RV, Dungey, and the struggling Chad Reed in some very wet conditions. Lots of rain changed the outlook on the event and left it wide open for riders like Metcalfe.

Every rider’s dirt bike gear was covered in mud and Metcalfe came out on top without winning either Moto. RV extended his point lead over Dungey by 1 point. Chad Reed is now 65 points out of first place with only 2 events to go. Better luck next year for Two Two Motorsports.

Actor Tom Cruise got to do what many of us racers and race fans will never do. We’re not talking about being the most sought after male actor for the last 20 years. We’re talking about driving an Red Bull F1 car!

The Days of Thunder star got to turn laps at Willow Springs Raceway in Southern California under the supervision of ex-Formula 1 stand out David Coultard. Although Cruise could have worn a dirt bike helmet considering the percentage of track time he spent in the dirt along side the racing surface, he was still complemented by Coultard.

Red Bull Racing made a stop at the Austin, Texas race track also. Much like Cruise, Coultard spent a lot of time in the dirt with the F1 car. However, in Coultard’s case there was no pavement laid out yet. Red Bull stopped by to preview the track’s layout minus the asphalt. Then Red Bull Racing took a 1-2 finish at Belgium to wrap up the eventful week.

Sonoma, California’s Infineon Raceway played host to many big races in 2011. Some NASCAR, some 2 wheel racing, and even dirt bike gear saw action at the huge motorsports complex. The season at Infineon wrapped up this past weekend with the Indy GP.

Indy Car title contender Will Power made the news this week for a much better reason then he did two weeks ago. Aussie racer Power won the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.

With the win Power stays within striking distance of point leader Dario Franchitti. Power dominated the race and headed up a Penske 1-2-3 finish.

Two weeks ago Will Power was getting negative media attention and a 30,000 dollar fine for raising his middle fingers in the direction of Race Control and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The video was run over and over on network TV, Speed Channel, ESPN, and many blog sites. Either way, attention has been drawn back to Will Power’s strength rather than his weakness.

Marcos Ambrose won Monday’s Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen. The win was Ambrose’s first in the Cup series. Ambrose is now in his second full season of Sprint Cup competition, moving up from the Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series in the last 5 years. Ambrose is a 2-time V8 Supercar Champion who came to the US from Tasmania. Ambrose is the first Aussie to win a Sprint Cup event.

Marcos Ambrose led the most laps on Monday but had to pass Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch with 2 laps to go in order to seal the victory. The Australian driver has won 3 events at Watkins Glen in the NASCAR Nationwide Series as well as just missing a Cup win at Sonoma in 2010.  The very eventful race at Watkins Glen saw 2 major wrecks and a scuffle between Boris Said and Greg Biffle at the end of the race. As always, the NASCAR drivers provided a great show on a road course.

Ok, lets get back to dirt bike gear.

With 4 events left in the Lucas Oil Motocross season, Ryan Villopoto is in the points lead. Chad Reed was the early leader but has faded has the terrible crash at Millville. Ryan Dungey has won the last 2 events overall.

Chad Reed has had sometime to recover from the crash and will come back strong. Chad Reed needs a strong finish at Unadilla to stay in the fight for the season championship. See this weekend’s race on Speed and NBC. Put on the motocross boots and win Chad Reed!

Liam Doran came to the X Games and made a name for himself in the US. Doran who is already well known in the European Rally Cross scene introduced himself to America with a gold medal in Rally Car competition.

Doran was fastest in most of races and practices throughout the weekend. He almost had double gold but was punted by Tanner Foust going into turn 1 of the Rally Cross final.

Doran straps on his off road helmet on a regular basis in the FIA European Rally Cross Championship where he is currently third in points. Doran intends to compete in the US at some of the Rallycross America events and Gymkhana Grid events. Welcome Mr. Doran to the list of exciting Rally racers we need to keep tabs on.