X Games in Road Magazine

This month in Road Magazine I cover the famous X Games summer event held in Los Angeles. You got to check out the story and subscribe to Road as it's free and easy to read online from anywhere. Follow the link and enjoy the good reads this month in Road.

http://issuu.com/roadonlinemagazine/docs/road_18_small_v2

Photo credit thanks to Al Merion.

David Cheng's August Newsletter

Cool stuff coming up...

It's been a busy past couple of months. We now find ourselves in the peak of racing season. So many events and things happening now through the PRI show in December. There are some cool stories coming out soon.

I wrote an article on Conrad Grunewald and Matt Powers who are both amazingly talented drifters. Conrad drives the Hankook GMPP Camaro and Matt swapped an LSX into this Need for Speed Nissan. Both really interesting guys and I had the chance to interview them both at my home track in Monroe, WA, Evergreen Speedway for Round 5 on the Formula D circuit.

Road Magazine this month will feature my experience at X Games and Barrett Jackson. Be sure to sign up for Road if you're not already and tell your friends. It's online and it's free. http://www.roadmagazine.co.uk/

Lastly, there are updates and new content added to my website. www.ashleyvandyke.com Check out my contact page and you can send me a note on what you think. More updates and fun coming soon.

Share this blog and your friends will think you're cool. Thank you.

Weekend Get-A-Way

A few weeks ago, here in Los Angeles, we had what was referred to as Carmageddon. This was a weekend smack dab in the middle of summer in which the 405 freeway was closed. As I imagined what a nightmare this would be staying in town, I decided to get out of dodge and find a peaceful and relaxing place to retreat for two nights.

The destination was La Quinta Resort and I had a Spa Villa Suite to enjoy and do nothing but swim and watch my NASCAR races. What a perfect idea to come out to the resort and a nice way to get out of the mayhem taking place back home in L.A.

It was a beautiful landscape and the service was top shelf. I went back and forth from the pool to my room to check on the race and even got a little work done from the lap top on the resort's free wifi network. Next time I need another get-a-way spot you can bet you'll find me back here.

Here is some info on La Quinta:

La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA WEST® is a world-renowned desert destination featuring 796 elegantly appointed casitas, suites and villas; the 23,000-square-foot Spa La Quinta® with 41 pools and 53 hot spas; 23 tennis courts; and exceptional cuisine at Morgan’s in the desert, TWENTY6 and Adobe Grill. Known as The Western Home of Golf in America® and named ”North America’s Golf Resort of the Year,” it is home to five award-winning golf courses and four private courses – designed by legends Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Greg Norman and Tom Weiskopf. Golf instruction is offered at the Jim McLean Golf School. The resort is a member of Hilton Worldwide’s Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts. For more information, call 760-564-4111, or visit www.laquintaresort.com.

Road Magazine: Ashley Van Dyke does Barrett Jackson Auction

Road Magazine: Ashley Van Dyke does Barrett Jackson Auction: "Road's American correspondent, Ashley Van Dyke had to hold on tight to her dollars the other day – as she attended a huge, amazing car auction in Orange County, Cali."

Full story and more photos coming out next month in the August issue of Road Magazine.

To read more from Ashley on Road please visit, http://www.skiddmark.com/tag/ashley-van-dyke/.

DCR - Auto Journals

As the 2011 racing season is well underway, I catch up with driver David Cheng. Check out the link below to read what David had to say in our Q & A and be sure to share with your friends. See you at the races!

http://www.auto-journals.com/features/260

Check out my drift article in this issue of ROAD MAGAZINE

Back in April I was down at Long Beach taking in the big horsepower of my friend Conrad's GMPP Chevy Camaro for the Formula DRIFT opening round on the Grand Prix circuit.

You can read all about it in this issue of Road Magazine:
http://www.roadmagazine.co.uk/?p=1030

I also hope you follow along to Road's blog as they post great content about cars and racing all over the world. Always new and we keep it fresh!
http://www.roadmagazine.blogspot.com/

Thanks Phil and everyone at Road...great work!

Road Magazine: Ashley Van Dyke returns to Road Magazine

Road Magazine: Ashley Van Dyke returns to Road Magazine: "Hello boys! Road Magazine's first lady, Ashley Van Dyke ( www.ashleyvandyke.com ) returns to her Road role testing crazy cars in the next is..."

"You're such a petrol head race fan...how can you say you're green?!?"

I hear this all the time. In fact, it's not uncommon for most people I speak with to find the issue of being a motor racing fan and caring about the environment to be a contradiction. I would like to explain my thoughts on both of these subjects and try to bring some clarity.

Very few things out there get me more excited than racing. I even like the smell of race gas. The loud engines and exhausts giving off noise and vibrations...all very sexy to me. Automotive performance both in NASCAR, road racing, open wheel...you name it and I respect and love it. High performance in street cars like Porsche and Ferrari are appreciated and loved by myself and so many. It's my personal belief that these cars, race cars and performance street cars, have reason and practical use of burning petrol.

I also believe fossil fuel is a high performance fuel and it should be used for high performance applications. This may offend or confuse some or many of you out there, however, I stand firm in stating that burning fossil fuel in a mini van driving your kids to school or in a "so called" economy vehicle on your way to work is not efficient or even a practical use of said fossil fuel.

It's fair that everyone should have the choice to drive what kind of car or vehicle they want and desire. The freedom and liberty that we enjoy on the road way is an amazing thing. I would like to go on to guess that many people currently burning petrol in their daily driver, would change that fuel choice if they had other options that were cost relative and easy to access.

Regarding the subject of transportation, fossil fuel may or may not be the best way to ship and transport goods and it's possible there could be better solutions. In order for us to ever find other options we need to be open to looking at the questions and exploring more with technology.

Let the race cars burn the "race gas" and let petrol be used in high performance vehicles. For everyone else that doesn't desire the suck and blow of the ICE or wants other options for daily driving, I really hope our development of cleaner methods to commute and transport come sooner than later. We can find more options for the road than just simply fossil fuel for everyone.