Monza Rally Show.

Kimi Raikkonen's switch to the WRC may have caught many by surprise but competing across various motorsport disciplines is really nothing new. In the past drivers, well, they just drove whatever, for money or for sport. Jim Clark drove F1, F2 but also Lotus Cortinas and Ford Fairlanes not to mention Indy. Vic Elford was a Rally World Champion with Porsche and an F1 driver with a number of teams. He drove 908 and 917 in endurance races and even won the Nürburgring 84 hr (that's right, 84 hours) of 1967 in the Porsche's first car with a semi automatic transmission. Of course there is John Surtees who was both a 350 and 500cc bike champion and a Formula 1 World Champion.

In this hyper corporate era it's always nice to see some of the biggest names in motorsport letting loose and having fun. In Monza last week we got to see Valentino Rossi and Audi's "Dindo" Capello tear it up in WRC cars. Great Idea the Monza Rally Show, a friendly competition on a special stage created using the Monza circuit. Especially cool is the use of the old abandoned banked track.

Capello is obviously as comfortable with the handbrake on this Citroën as he is with the big Audis at LeMans. This may be a friendly competition but make no mistake, they are still racers: Capello, after he crosses the finish line what he chuckles to navigator Gigi Pirollo roughly translates to: "F-it, If I didn't win with that one I'll cut my nuts off!".

At the end of the highlight clip, Rossi and Capello are speaking and Valentino congratulates the Le Mans winner, "Now we try on motorcycles". But then he tells Dindo they should do some enduros together. Capello suggests an R8.... I'm guessing it might happen. Cool!

More Clips after the jump