Ford Mustang captures Grand-Am Koni Challenge

2009 SPEED World Challenge GT at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca - Click above for a high-res image gallery

With various racing series coming to a close this month, the Mustang has proven its worth on track by bringing home two major road racing championships. This past weekend Brandon Davis secured the 2009 SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT title in only his second season with a fourth place finish at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Davis, who was racing in the new 2010 ACS Mustang that debuted a few weeks earlier at Road Atlanta, only needed to finish in eighth place to guarantee the championship and beat out Porsche driver James Sofronas.

In the Grand-Am Koni Challenge series, the Mustang FR500C also captured not only the driver title, but also the team and manufacturers' championships for the second straight year. Rehagen Racing sat atop the driver and team points lead with a sixth place finish at Virginia International Raceway, and the win by JBS Motorsports helped put Ford just one point ahead of BMW in the manufacturers' standings. Mustangs won five races during the 2009 season and finished on the podium eight out of eleven races.

We didn't make it out to VIR for the Koni Challenge race, but we were on hand at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to watch the SPEED World Challenge race with cameras at the ready. Check out the high-res gallery below, or tune into SPEED TV on November 3 at 2:00 pm EST to watch the race yourself.

Gallery: 2009 SPEED World Challenge GT at Laguna Seca

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China says Hummer paperwork not submitted yet

2009 Hummer HX concept – Click above for high-res gallery

Last week, it was reported that General Motors had signed a definitive agreement to sell Hummer to Chinese machinery manufacturer Tengzhong. The Chinese company and its partner in the deal, Lumena Resources Corp., would pay $150 million and receive Hummer and its intellectual property, ownership of U.S. franchise agreements, and manufacturing, business, and component assistance during a four- or five-year transition period.

The questions being raised now concern what is happening on the other side of the Pacific. The Chinese Commerce Ministry reportedly hasn't received Tengzhong's application to officially bring Hummer home, which has led observers to wonder if there will be a holdup or reversal of the deal. According to a Hummer representative, however, Tengzhong had to finalize the deal with GM before it could present it for approval to the Chinese authorities:

Gallery: Detroit 2009: HUMMER HX in the design studio

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drifting with Tanner Foust in NASCAR-powered Scion tC!

Autoblog goes drifting with Tanner Foust – Click above for high-res image gallery

"It feels like I'm down on power!" yells Tanner Foust in the general direction of the gathered throngs containing both his crew and assorted media. Tanner and myself are currently five-point bolted into his new stock car-engined Formula D Scion tC. We've just exited an aborted lap around the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale because something – so says Foust – is amiss with the car.

Rockstar Energy Drink Drift captain Stephan Papadakis comes charging towards the Scion and begins earnestly, if not frantically, checking the car's vitals through the steering wheel's digital readout. Steph floors the motor a few times, checks the numbers and exasperatedly tells Foust that everything looks fine. "Oh," says Tanner, patting me on my beer belly. "Must be him." Very funny, jerk.

Gallery: Autoblog Goes Drifting with Tanner Foust

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Introduction to Karting - Part 2 2009

Welcome to the second installment of our Introduction to Karting series. Hopefully the first piece piqued your interest with tales of tiny machines pulling 3 g in the corners then hitting 60 in under three seconds on their way up to over 140 MPH. (Well over, as it turns out; one commenter indicated he hit an indicated 156 this season.) That kind of performance is unequaled outside of top-level formula motorsport, yet is available to anyone with some disposable income and a passion for going quick.

However, karting isn't for everyone so suitably endowed. The physical demands placed on a kart racer are hard to comprehend until you're in a fast turn, holding your breath because you can't inhale, feeling like your head is going to fly off and land somewhere in the pits. Chances are it won't, but whether or not you can withstand that while maintaining a good racing line and keeping an eye on a swarm of opponents is an important thing to find out before breaking out the charge card. The best way is, of course, to try it, and given the big up-front cost to buy a kart, a rental is the way to go.

To get our first real experience we signed up for an afternoon's racing school. We walked the track, worked with multiple instructors, got a lot of advice, had an impromptu race, and stuck it out for way more seat time than was probably advisable for a newbie. How'd we do? Read on to find out, and see some videos of our on (and, occasionally, off) track antics.