This event is all about a complex course. On this course you have different barriers, a drag strip (like a ¼ mile) from the start, drift and slide. The fastest time on both sides (left and right) are the winner of the heat. For sure there were many drivers who made just a clean run and others you made tire smoke. After the first qualification on the begin of the week where the BEST 16 was qualificated for the big fight on Saturday, the main day.

For Petter Solberg (Mr. Hollywood) was this event one of his special 2019 Farewell Tour, because he will retired his amazing active racing carrier and will be more focus on his son Oliver, who get the first 2 championship overall titel in rallying last weekend at the Estonia Rally, the “17. Lõuna-Eesti Ralli 2019”. There he drove the VW Polo R5, to be the first person who won a championship with this car. He is now Latvian Rally Champion 2019 and Baltic Rally Champion 2019. If the time and car is in perfect condition after his WRC2 debut at Wales Rally GB, he will fight for the 3rd championship as well, as he has a big lead in the Estonia Rally Champion too.

This event was also part of the Cossie v2 World Tour from Mr. Ken Block, who is the initiator of this special kind of event. He just drove his Cossie in Gymkhana specification and made just few show runs for the media and spectators. For sure he made a lot of smoke out of his special build tires.

“I wanted to create a special kind of events, where many different drivers and cars from different discipline can be competing together” said Ken Block during the interview session. “I liked it when I saw the big crazy driving from the legendary Colin McRae on stage rallying. That is that I came up with and it is become more and more interest.”

The whole competition is divided into RWD and AWD classes, where you have different type of cars and combine engine. From typical drift cars, modify street legal cars to rally cars, like the Hyundai i20 R5, Mini Cooper R4 and rallycross super cars like the VW Polo RX and Citroen DS3 RX from the Solberg family. It is a wide open event, where you can build your own car which you like. For sure you had to be safety equipment inside the car.

There was another WRC contender, Mr. Yates who drove one of the two Hyundai i20 R5 cars. He qualification was very good on the 3rd place, just behind the amazing Super RX cars from the two Solbergs. His colleague in the 2nd Hyundai was a real legend, Sir Chris Hoy, who has the biggest torque as a non-machine – incredible 700Nm he told us during the Press Conference. With his power, he had circle bicycle racing and tried many different motorsport categories after his retirement from the bicycle sport.

The big Solberg family come-together party will take place not so long away. Mainly you would think, it will be in their home, but this is not true. The family party will be at the Wales GB Rally 2019, where Hennig Solberg will drive a Skoda Fabia R5, Petter and Oliver Solber in the VW Polo R5 and Pontus Tideman will drive the 3rd Ford Fiesta RS WRC on the dirty, slippery gravel stages in Wales. This means the debut from Oliver Solberg in the WRC.

This year race track was the longest and wideset ever. Very unique was the decoration of the course, which was held on many parts from the latest Gymkhana 10 video from Ken Block, where he drove in 5 different vehicle in 5 different locations, all around the world. We loved it and the drivers as well.

At the Grande Final father and son Solbergs made an incredible drive in the meanwhile night track, which was just lighted up. The 2 cars had not any lights at all. Finally Mr. Hollywood wins as it should be before the new generation of high quality and professional driver, just waiting around the corner. Oliver was 2nd and very happy about the result, after his 3rd place in South Africa in 2018.

As a conclusion, I can tell you all that this is an very special event, where the fun fact is the first priority. For sure if you want competing, your aim will be to finish on the top step of the podium – but sometimes it will not work out for you. One of the coolest cars on the track was the 2019 Toyota Supra from the Japanese Drift Hero Saito Daigo.

We hope that the next Gymkhana GRiD 2020 will take again place in middle Europe.

All timings can be found at: http://gymkhanagrid.com/news/live-timing-gymkhana-g-ri-d

Following you will find few videos, where you can see moving action

• Ken Block Ford Escort RS Cossie V2

• Complete 4h31min livestream action:

• Qualification:

• Fan FINAL Movie: