“We’ve had success running our clean diesel TDI powered vehicles at the Dakar Rally, Baja 500, Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and also in our Jetta TDI Cup series,” said Clark Campbell, motorsport manager, Volkswagen of America, Inc. “This entry of a new, purpose-built Touareg TDI Trophy Truck is the next step in the evolution of our motorsport program and showcases our commitment to racing clean diesel vehicles and to SCORE International.”

The Volkswagen-Red Bull Baja Race Touareg TDI will roll off from the 14th position when the race starts on Friday, November 21, the positions were announced at a drawing held October 11 in Temecula, California. “The first 10 starting positions are reserved for the top 10 series point’s leaders competing in the SCORE Trophy Truck class,” said Campbell. “With this being our first time competing in the SCORE Trophy Truck class, drawing 14th actually gives us a very good starting position.”

The Volkswagen-Red Bull Baja Race Touareg TDI will be driven by the Baja veterans Mark Miller, Cave Creek, Ariz. and Ryan Arciero, Foothill Ranch, Calif. Arciero and Miller have seven career SCORE Trophy-Truck race wins between them, including three wins driving together. Willie Valdez Jr. a seasoned off-road racer and Baja competitor will be navigating for Miller and Benny Metcalf Jr. a veteran of off-road and SCORE series racing will navigate for Arciero.

The Volkswagen-Red Bull Baja Race Touareg TDI is sponsored by Volkswagen of America, Inc., Red Bull, BFGoodrich Tires, Dow Automotive, Oakley, KMC Wheels and Fox Shocks.

We still currently have over 1000 shots to go through and add to the photo gallery.

You can get to our photo gallery by clicking here or by clicking Photo Gallery on our site navigation bar.

Thank you for your on-going support of Street Import Online.

Pre-event activities for the Red Bull Drifting World Championship include a parade of the competition drifting cars from the Port of Long Beach and through to Downtown Long Beach on Pine Ave on Thursday November 13 at 5:45 PM. The cars will be displayed until 9:30 PM on Pine Ave. A driver autograph session will be held before the draw party on Pine Ave at 6:00 PM featuring the Top 32 Drivers. A “draw” party will be held immediately following the parade of cars and the autograph session inside of Smooth’s Sports Grill and will feature the official announcement of the qualifying order for the main event on Sunday, November 16.

“We are excited to have Formula DRIFT’s hometown Long Beach as the host city for this historical event,” says Jim Liaw, president and co-founder of Formula DRIFT. “Long Beach has been very supportive of drifting and holding this event on the Port of Long Beach will be very monumental.”

A special purpose built drifting track will be unveiled on the Port of Long Beach. The course will feature (6) turns and a high speed right-hand entry that will push the drivers into the 100+mph range. The course will be the first of it’s kind and will be both fast and technical and will push the drivers to their limits for the ultimate drifting competition.

32 of the world’s best drifters will gather on Saturday and Sunday on the Port of Long Beach to compete for the largest prize purse in drifting history. The top 32 will compete in a head-to-head tandem bracket format with the winner from each bracket advancing onto the next round on his way to becoming the first ever Red Bull Drifting World Champion.

The Red Bull Drifting World Championship will feature the Formula DRIFT Pro/Am competition on Saturday and a special opening ceremony by the Red Bull Air Force skydiving team on Sunday. A special half-time performance by the band, “Crooked X.” will be another highlight on Sunday. In addition to the drifting action, there will be some of hottest cars in the Country on display like the Scion Fuse Concept Car, the Tomei Time Attack Subaru Impreza, the Lexus IS-F’s of Import Tuner & 0-60 Magazines and the R35 Skyline & Lamborghini LP640 of SP Engineering.

Tickets and special VIP tickets for the Red Bull Drifting World Championship are still available and can be purchased on-line at www.formuladrift.com.

Of course that doesn't mean that there weren't any big players at the show. Ford has an enormous display featuring a Dewalt pickup truck, a classic Ford F-100 pick-up in near mint condition with an original 20 miles on it.

The show cars at this years show is just amazing. From custom built rides, concept vehicles, drifters, sport compacts, and good ol' American muscle cars. Dodge Challengers, and Nissan GT-Rs are big hit items at this years show. We've got a few hundred shots from the show that we are working on prepping for viewing on the site.

The show wraps up Friday, and with any luck we'll be able to finish running through the 2 million square foot Las Vegas Convention center and provide you with a quality photographic over view of the show.

Look for additional updates in the near future!

**UPDATE** Nov. 10 - We've got a few thousand photographs to go through and decide which photo's to post here on the site. We've also got an interview with Kasunori Yamauchi the creator of the Gran Turismo franchise that we are working on getting posted for you as well.

Please bear with us, we will have photos posted as soon as we can, and more details on the show as well.

Todd Hershberger, director of the Dunlop brand in North America, said this week’s SEMA Show exhibit “highlights Dunlop’s passion for performance and its focus on sports car tuning and people who love to drive. We are well-positioned to show enthusiasts that Dunlop is a great European performance brand that empowers consumers to enjoy their driving experience.”

Dunlop's exhibit space has a handful of impressive vehicles:
• Corsa Motorsports/ZYTEK American LeMans Series (ALMS) Hybrid Race Car
• 1985 Porsche 962C, winner in the 1987 24 Hour of LeMans
• 2003 Mitsubishi Evolution 8, SCCA ProSOLO competition car on Dunlop Direzza Sport DZZ1 Star Spec tires
• 2008 Nissan GT-R, featuring Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST tires (OE fitment)
• HPA Motorsports’ highly tuned Volkswagen R32
• Jason Britton’s stunt motorcycle from Team No Limit

HPA Performance Volkswagen R32

Dunlop's global reach amongst performance enthusiasts is steadily growing, and with the new offerings that will be hitting the streets in 2009 there is no doubt that trend will continue. Dunlop is a key supplier to sport compact enthusiasts and features "tuner" tire sized and race series sponsorships.