Scion’s in Super Street!

Mark’s tC and my tC is featured in the latest issue of Super Street in the SEMA coverage. Check it out. Thanks JDMWong!

Rampage is back!

Last night’s UFC Ultimate 2008 was the biggest fight card of the year with Frank Mir vs. Antonio “Minatauro” Nogueira, Rashad “Suga” Evans vs. Light heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin, and Wanderlei “the Axe Murderer” Silva vs. Quentin “Rampage” Jackson.

I was mostly excited to see Rampage vs Silva 3.  Silva had beaten Rampage in their last 2 meetings in PRIDE and the wins were pretty brutal and in one of the previous contests Silva distributed 22 knees to Rampage before knocking him out!  I am a fan of both fighters, but Rampage is my boy so I was in his corner for this fight.

With less than 2 minutes left in the 2nd round…Rampage threw a left hook that knocked Silva the fuck out! Then proceeded to give him a couple extra punches to the dome for good measure.

Spoilers - Mir defeats Nogueira via ref stoppage due to punches (first in Nogueira’s career) and Evan stops Griffin to win the championship via TKO.

Congrats Rampage! See you in Vegas next month!

The Weekend Re-Cap

Friday night was pretty mellow. Headed out to San Diego for a X-mas party.

With about 4 hours of sleep got up and got ready for the first snowboarding trip of the season. California has recorded some record low’s lately and the snow keeps on coming! Headed out to Mt. High for some good times with my buddy Aaron. The conditions were great with new packed and groomed snow. It was crowded, but didn’t seem that bad. Tried out my new Burton gear and love it. I messed around with my binding adjustments all day with the new ICS system and still haven’t found the “perfect” set-up, but will have fun trying. Can’t wait to head up again this week!

Got home tired and a little sore and watched “Anchorman” for the hundreth time…cause that’s how I roll. Then headed out to Sutra for the Social Group Holiday party and also to celebrate Team Fred’s b-day. Some of the usual suspects came out to play and it was great seeing everyone.

Eddie (Mackin), Jerry (Pac Rim), me, Steph (Papadakis / Rockstar Racing), and Jonny Wong (Super Street)! Not pictured: Fred was probably either smoking or taking another shot.

Saw this on the way out…that’s the toughest XB I’ve ever seen.

After another 4 hours of sleep got up and got ready to go to Knott’s Merry Farm. This weekend was the annual Toys for Tots event and they gave out free admission when you bring a toy. I haven’t been to Knott’s in years and D and I decided to bring her nieces and nephews. When we got there it was PACKED! The line to receive a ticket for admission literally wrapped halfway around the entire park! The wait had to be at least 2-3 hours! We didn’t want to dissapoint the kids, so the decision was made to just purchase tickets. But I still wanted to donate the toys I bought, since I have no need for a couple dolls, toy trucks, and a spy kit (well the spy kit was cool). Walked up to the front told the army/navy/marine guy (not sure what service he was in) that I just wanted to donate the toys and will purchase tix and homeboy hooked me up with the tickets anyway without waiting in line. Good looking out! I must have good karma or something.

this was the middle of the line…

Short summary of day. Kids had a great time! I had a great work-out carrying one kid after another. Waited in long lines for both food and rides. Boomerang broke while in line to ride it. Log Ride is still a classic.

Lots of people

someone’s hungry

the brats kids

Log Ride (I’m only making that face cause my hair was getting messed up)

Overall great day and awesome ending to an amazing weekend plus the Chargers won and still have a chance to make the Playoffs - more on that later (crossing fingers). Hanging out with kids can be exhausting, but so fulfilling at the same time. They were so stoked on everything. I wish things could be that simple again.

Another Red Bull Drifting World Championship Video

Clash Production sent me this video from the Red Bull Drifting World Championship.  If you missed the Red Bull Drifting World Championship episode on SPEED yesterday this should hold you over until the re-air…plus you can’t go wrong with music by JUSTICE.

Tis the Season…

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than 15 seconds to go to their site and click on the purple box ‘fund food for animals’ for free. This doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

The Bailout Ad…

I’m sure many of  you have seen this ad parody before, but it’s pretty dead on.  Everyone is being effected from this economic crisis not just the automotive industry and this is on a global level.  Close friends have been laid off from their jobs and it’s sad to see, especially at this time of the year.  I appreciate the companies that are being pro-active in not cutting costs by simply doing lay-offs, but rather finding alternative answers such as: No holiday bonuses, employees must use their vacation time, closing down the company for a few extra days -  (Oakley alone saves about a $1M by shutting down for a couple days extra in operating costs alone), and no extravagant holiday party…may suck for some, but may also help others save their jobs.

Motorsports across the board is hurting.  Subaru and Suzuki pulled out recently from World Rally Championship, which is crazy as Subaru has the nickname of the “Ferrari of the WRC!” Honda has pulled out of F1 and has cancelled their plans to produce the new NSX. And Audi has pulled out of the ALMS.

At least F1 is working on major changes that will save the teams money so they are able to compete in the coming seasons.  Read the changes HERE

I’m not sure what the “right” solution would be for these problems, but awareness should be part of the answer.

Check out this music video to set the mood

NERD - Sooner or Later Video w/ cameo by Rob Dyrdek

Red Bull Drifting World Championship to Air this Sunday on SPEED

Red Bull Drifting World Championship Episode to Air this Sunday on SPEED

Long Beach, Calif. – December 17, 2008 – The highly anticipated Red Bull Drifting World Championship program will air this Sunday, December 21 on SPEED at 1 PM (PST). The 1 hour episode will feature all of the highlights of the largest drifting event in history that took place on November 15-16 at the Port of Long Beach.

Relive the competition as 17 past and present drifting champions from the top drifting organizations in the world were brought together by Formula DRIFT for the inaugural Red Bull Drifting World Championship. Watch as the competitors slide sideways at speeds over 100 mph and within inches of the wall to battle for the largest prize purse in drifting history and the title of Drifting World Champion.

State of the art technology was used to capture each intense round of competition to take drift programming to the next level. The Red Bull Drifting World Championship program was shot in HiDef and is the first drifting show to incorporate the use of 16 mm video to vividly capture each dramatic moment of the event. The use of an “Ultimate Arm,” often used in Hollywood for specialized vehicle photography, was utilized for a dramatic opening sequence while aerial helicopter footage will showcase the unique venue and spectacular head-to-head action.

“With this level of technology and resources used for this event we were able to capture, cut, edit and deliver the single greatest drifting program ever,” said Ryan Sage, vice president of marketing and co-founder of Formula DRIFT. “This is one episode of drift programming that fans will not want to miss.”

For more information visit: www.formuladrift.com.

Random Rainy Day

This past weekend was filled with Christmas shopping, holiday parties, and some sports.

Saturday headed to the Honda Center for the John Wooden Classic. Stan from Toyo sent me a few tickets and said there would be some free food and drinks. Naturally, I scheduled this in between all the Christmas shopping as I never turn down free food or drinks. I made it for the 2nd game UCLA vs. DePaul. It was a blow-out! 72 to 54 in favor of the Bruins (who I would like to mention have some cute cheerleaders.)

I was super disappointed in the Ultimate Fighter Finale with both my picks Vinny and Phillipe losing their matches. And actually Junie Browning looked very impressive with his win. I still think that Phillipe Nover will bounce back and have a great career in the UFC…just needs to work out his wrestling and take down defense and maybe also learn to adjust his game during a match. His entrance song showed his Filipino pride and also rocked the crowd…

Children of the Sun - Deep Foundation

More shopping Sunday…and ending with the ID Agency Holiday Party. We invited a few friends, family members, and clients to come out and chill with us. Rather than spend a ton on a dinner at a restaurant or poppin’ bottles a club, we wanted to have a more intimate and fun atmosphere so we decided to rent out the clubroom at the condo and have it there. Entertainment was provided by Pam’s intensive iPod list, the Sat. night football game, Laker game, pool, and of course Wii Sports! Food was catered by Bouchee’s Bistro with homemade chips and dip and amazing Sliders! If you’re in Downtown Long Beach be sure to check this spot out. We also had drinks pouring all night and it was overall a great time. Good to see everyone there and everyone that could not make it “Happy Holidays”.

I got my first X-mas present of the year from Vic (iD) and he was able to score me a limited edition “Righteous Kill” poster framed and autographed by Mister Cartoon and Estevan Oriol! Amazing present and this will look great in the loft or the office.

Woke-up this morning to the sounds of rain. Normally, I’m not big into rain, but that only means one thing in the winter - SNOW! I can’t wait to go boarding this season. Just picked up some new Burton gear and pulled my stuff out of storage…it’s on!

Rainy Day Weather in Long Beach

Every now and then a movie or TV show is filmed in Downtown LB

Let the games begin

Tanner Foust to Team with Carl Edwards for Team USA

Tanner Foust To Team With Carl Edwards For Team USA
At Race Of Champions In London

Foust Replaces Injured Travis Pastrana For This Weekend’s Race
At Wembley Stadium

December 10th, 2008, London, UK— Tanner Foust was picked today as a last minute alternate to Travis Pastrana for the all-star Race of Champions at Wembley Stadium in London, England this coming weekend. Pastrana was injured this week in California. The Race of Champions pits the world’s fastest drivers from the sport’s top race series including Formula One, World Rally Championship, and Touring Car Racing. Featured drivers this year include championship winners, Sebastien Loeb, Michael Schumacher and Mattias Ekstrom.

Rockstar Energy Drink driver Tanner Foust joins NASCAR phenom Carl Edwards to represent Team USA in the ROC Nations Cup. Tanner Foust is the 2008 and 2007 US Formula Drift champion and also a championship winning rally driver who took the gold medal in the 2007 X Games Rally and silver behind Pastrana in this year’s X Games. Foust is also an on-air TV host currently presenting Speed TV’s Supercars Exposed and one of the three hosts for the coming US version of BBC’s Top Gear.

Tanner is ecstatic about participating and said “The investigation will reveal I had nothing to with Travis’ injuries and of course I wish him a speedy recovery. More seriously though, I’m honored to have this opportunity to represent the USA on the world stage racing against guys who are heroes to me.”

The Race of Champions pits the best race drivers in the world against each other in head-to-head races on a tarmac course inside Wembley Stadium. The drivers race various identical cars including, for this year,KTM X-Bows, Ford Focus WRC cars and Abarth Assetto Corsas. The winner of the Race of Champions will be crowned Champion of Champions. The event is anticipated to have fifty thousand plus live spectators and millions of TV viewers worldwide. broadcast of the event. This is the twenty first year of the Race of Champions. ROC will air on Discovery HD early in the New Year.

More details on Race of Champions at www.raceofchampions.com

For more on Tanner Foust go to www.tannerfoust.com

**** in my pants

enjoy…happy friday