ATTENTION NEWS AND AUTOMOTIVE EDITORS
ACP puts on extreme show at X Games
LOS ANGELES, CA (August 7, 2006) – Canadian rally driver Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard and his grassroots team showed the world just how extreme car racing can be at the first ever X Games rally this past week in Los Angeles.
The driver set competitive times on the rally’s individual stages, including the “big air” Super Special Stage in the Home Depot Center in urban Los Angeles. But a misstep in the mountainous desert terrain north of Los Angeles put the team out of medal contention.
“It was a classic rally ‘off,’” said Comrie-Picard. “We were sliding around a banked corner when the tail dug in and the front of the car popped over the edge.”
The team ended up with their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV stuck in a gully some 150-feet (50 metres) below the road, on a flat tire. At first it looked bleak, but there was a definite upside to the situation in a competition where big drama is the main attraction for fans.
“Trust Andrew to slide off the road when a media helicopter was overhead and another camera from a mountaintop was trained on us” said co-driver, Marc Goldfarb. “Certainly we can’t tell any fibs about what happened!”
The “off” got heavy coverage on the X Games rally broadcast on ESPN and ABC networks, and an on-camera interview of Comrie-Picard focused on the never-quit attitude that makes rally car racing such a compelling sport.
The team changed the tire and found a place to rejoin the road by jumping a bank about one quarter of a mile back on the road.
“You do what you have to,” said Comrie-Picard, “and you never, never quit.”
The team had been pegged as medal contenders at the X Games after a terrific performance the previous weekend at the Maine Forest Rally, where they qualified to enter the Los Angeles contest. Comrie-Picard had set stage times faster than Travis Pastrana, the eventual winner of the X Games rally over World Rally Championship legend Colin McRae.
“Andrew was on fire at Maine,” said crew chief Francois Veillieux, “but we showed up at the X Games a week later with the same car and the same setup only to find that the competition had upped their game considerably.”
Only 12 drivers were invited to compete at the inaugural X Games rally. Comrie-Picard finished between Hollywood stunt drivers Rhys Millen and Tanner Foust, the pair who drove the cars in the films The Dukes of Hazzard and The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. On the final Super Special, the three set the track on fire and had the audience on the edge of their seats as they drifted their cars in front of the TV cameras that framed the X Games broadcast to 190 million viewers -- over a million of them for the live rally portion.
“This is such a fantastic opportunity for rally racing and for the teams competing in the championship,” said Comrie-Picard. “And for us, it’s a great chance to be on the leading edge as this growing sport gains new fans in North America.”
Comrie-Picard’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV was prepared with the generous assistance of the Losier family at Boisvert Mitsubishi in Blainville, Que. He was co-driven by Marc Goldfarb.
British-Columbia-based board game maker Headz Gamez International is a key supporter of this grassroots Canadian team in their X Games effort. Comrie-Picard has been proud to display the "Griddly Headz" brand on his competition car for this event.
Special thanks also to Slowboy Racing, Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada, Yokohama Canada, Sherwin-Williams and Vibrant Performance for joining ACP and his crew at the last minute to help get them to the X Games.
The team is now planning its next steps, and Comrie-Picard says he’s optimistic about a new partnership that will see them take on the rest of the season.
For an insider’s look about the team’s X Games experience, visit www.flatovercrest.com and click on the link to “ACP’s X Games journal.” ACP accepted an invitation by the site’s editors to document his experience on the popular rally webzine and thousands of fans clicked through all week to follow the story.
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ABOUT THE DRIVER: The Edmonton-born Andrew Comrie-Picard is running a season of selected events in the United States and Canada in 2006. The privateer won the U.S. season-opener in February, over the factory-supported Subaru Rally Team USA.
When he isn’t racing, Comrie-Picard is the co-host of the 2006 Canadian Rally Championship broadcast, airing nationwide this fall on the Chum network. He is also the host of the Global TV show War of the Wheels, airing now on Prime.
The Alberta-born, British Columbia-raised Comrie-Picard now lives in Toronto.
ABOUT RALLY CAR RACING: Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.”
This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 kilometres of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.
THANKS TO: Headz Gamez International (www.griddlyheadz.com), Yokohama Canada (www.yokohama.ca), Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada (www.mitsubishimotors.ca), Slowboy Racing (www.slowboyracing.com), Vibrant Performance (www.vibrantperformance.com), Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes (www.sherwin-automotive.com), Inside Track Motorsport News (www.insidetracknews.com), DMS North America (www.dmsnorthamerica.com), and Works (www.worksevo.com).
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FOR MORE INFORMATION: Andrew Comrie-Picard 416-882-5253 / musketeerracing@yahoo.com
PHOTO: Canadian ACP and Mark Goldfarb take on the X Games Rally in Los Angeles.

Bids for lunch with Warren Buffett were holding at $502,400 yesterday morning. But the under-bidder tells Observer he still has some dry powder.

Mohnish Pabrai runs a $300m value investing fund in California. "If there weren't a Warren Buffett, there wouldn't be a Pabrai Investment Funds," he says. "There's a big tuition bill due and there's no way to repay that properly."

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The proceeds will go to the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco charity for the poor and homeless praised by Buffett for its effectiveness. This year's bids have already put last year's $351,100 in the shade. Pabrai thinks Buffett's pledge this week to give away almost $40bn may have increased interest, and he expects a flurry of bids as today's deadline approaches.

He declined to share his strategy or limit with Observer. If he ends up winning the lunch Pabrai, 42, plans to take his wife and two daughters, aged nine and 10, with him.

He is bidding with New York-based fund manager Guy Spier, another disciple of the Oracle of Omaha. Spier, 40, who is president of the Oxford Alumni Association of New York, also plans to bring his wife along for what, by the reported accounts of previous winners, is a convivial occasion.

My friend Myles MacInnes aka as Mylo is touring the US to promote his album Destroy Rock n' Roll that has become one of the most talked about records in Europe and played in nightclubs across the world. Elton John has described Destroy Rock n’Roll as the best album of 2005 along with the Killers’ album (but no it doesn't sound like Elton John!). He is performing on Wednesday May 10th at Hiro Ballroom.

Mylo's Dr. Pressure reached no. 3 in the UK charts. Mylo is the closest i've ever been to a polymath (a form of genius), son of Cambridge academics, superb guitar player, Oxford University prize winner for his essays on analytic philosophy, marketing genius, you name it. He composed the album during his free time on his Mac importing guitar riffs and solos and remixes. He did it for fun, spending 2000 pounds on the project.

The details for the event: http://upcoming.org/event/73400/.

Tix at: http://giantstepstore.net/gistgbhreprm.html .

ps. our own man Oren Schneider described Mylo as a genius. Cheers and hopefully i'll see some of you there.

Details as follows:
GRACE CLOUTIER, Concert Harpist
Solo Debut Concert
Carnegie Hall
New York
May 13, 5:30pm
Tickets:
or one hour before the concert at the Weill Hall (at Carnegie Hall) box office available by internet: http://www.carnegiehall.org/ available by telephone: (212) 247 7800

Known for her passionately rich sound and expressive musicality, the young concert harpist Grace Cloutier, who trained at The Juilliard School, Yale University and in France, has performed solo, chamber and orchestral répertoire within the major concert halls of the United States and Europe in addition to performances in the Middle East. She will give her solo debut at Carnegie Hall on 13 May, 2006 5:30pm.
A recipient of numerous prestigious awards, Miss Cloutier's solo performances have graced the World Harp Congress in Prague 1999 and Geneva 2002. She has appeared as a soloist with both the Biava and the Calder String Quartets, holds a performing residency at UCLA and regularly appears in recital for the American Harp Society. Miss Cloutier, guest soloist for the Ukrainian National Music Festival, recently co-founded the first international harp competition based in the Ukraine.
As featured principal harpist on tour with the United Nations' Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, 2000-2002, Grace also recorded for German national television's Stars von Morgan, while the publication Saarbrücker Zeitung described Miss Cloutier's performances as possessing "...inspiring artfulness."
Privileged to serve under the baton of many respected maestros including
Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, Julius Rudel, Andrew Litton, Alexander Vedernikov, amongst others, Miss Cloutier is an advocate of new music and has appeared numerous times as principal harp for the New Juilliard Ensemble, New Music New Haven, Continuum, Look and Listen Festival and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Miss Cloutier has recorded with composer Paul Halley at Tanglewood, performed with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall and has served since 2002 with the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.
An active proponent for increased public awareness concerning the intrinsic value of music for all people at every stage of life, Grace Cloutier regularly gives workshops for the young and has received the Gluck Fellowship from The Juilliard School for her work with victims of AIDS, the elderly and children in the NYC metro region. In addition, she has been honored with a Presidential Point of Light Award for her contribution of musical inspiration at CT Hospice.
Miss Cloutier gratefully acknowledges Nancy Allen, Dr. Carrol McLaughlin,
Isabelle Perrin, Susann McDonald, Sarah Bullen and Letizia Belmondo for their support and insight.
A dynamic and engaging musician, Grace maintains an active concert schedule worldwide and celebrates her recording “Radiant” which was released by
HIP Records in 2004. For more information about Miss Cloutier, please visit her website at www.gracecloutier.com.