title: MLS Cup

text: At the start of the 2006 season, MLS created their version of the "scudetto" (Italian for "small shield"), a symbol worn on the jersey by the team who won the previous season's Serie A (the top Italian league).


title: MLS Cup

text: The MLS scudetto was originally a curved, triangular badge featuring a backdrop of the American flag behind a replica of the Alan I. Rothenberg MLS Cup trophy. First worn by Los Angeles Galaxy in 2006, following their 2005 MLS Cup title, the Houston Dynamo wore the same triangular scudettos in 2007 and 2008 during their dual-cup run. It was redesigned after the 2008 season after the change to the MLS Cup trophy. It is now an oval-shaped black badge with the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy in the middle. The MLS scudetto is worn by the winning team the season following the victory. It is only during the subsequent season (two years after winning the championship), that the team adds a star – a common soccer signifier of titles won – above the team logo. The team can display the star on other items beside their jersey in the year after winning the Cup, but only if the scudetto is not shown. The Columbus Crew was the first team to wear the redesigned scudetto. Real Salt Lake would wear the scudetto in 2010 after winning their first MLS cup in 2009. A year after the Colorado Rapids would also wear the scudetto after their cup run in 2010 for the 2011 season. Finally the Los Angeles Galaxy would wear the scudetto after winning the MLS Cup in 2011, ironically it would be the last team to wear the redesigned scudetto. After the 2012 season, MLS decided not to use the scudetto for upcoming season and instead the defending MLS Cup champions would have a gold star above one or more silver stars indication the team's MLS Cup wins, followed by an additional silver star added to the lined stars the following season. The Los Angeles Galaxy were the first to receive the gold star above the team's three silver stars for the 2013 season.


title: MLS Cup

text: While the Galaxy earned their second MLS Cup trophy and the Houston Dynamo earned consecutive cups, the New England Revolution went on a run of making three consecutive MLS Cup finals, losing all of them. Two of their three losses were in extra time, while the other was lost on penalty kicks. The infamy gave the club the title of being the Buffalo Bills (an NFL American football team) of MLS. This was in reference to the Buffalo Bills Super Bowl games in the early 1990s, in which they lost in four consecutive appearances. In the 2005 final, they lost to the Los Angeles Galaxy, a rematch of 2002, in the final. Held at Pizza Hut Park (now Toyota Stadium) in Frisco, Texas, the Galaxy defeated the Revolution by a score of 1–0 thanks to a 105th-minute overtime goal from Galaxy midfielder and Guatemalan international, Guillermo Ramírez. Ramírez's goal sealed the Galaxy's second MLS Cup title, and left the Revs searching once again.


title: MLS Cup

text: In 2006, the championship was once again played in Frisco at Pizza Hut Park. This time the Revolution took on the Houston Dynamo. Both were coming off a successful season, in which they fell short of winning the Supporters' Shield. A sellout crowd of 22,427 attended the match, which is to date the largest crowd in the stadium's history. Revolution forward Taylor Twellman scored an overtime goal in the 113th minute to give the Revolution the 1–0 lead. However, Dynamo captain and forward Brian Ching immediately tied the score following the Revolution's goal. The match went to penalties, in which the Dynamo won 4–3. This left the Revolution for a second-consecutive year searching for league glory. It was also the first time in league history that a club made the MLS Cup final and lost consecutively.


title: MLS Cup

text: In the 2007 final, the Revolution and Dynamo played each other once again for the 2007 cup. Played in Washington, D.C. at RFK Stadium, a crowd just shy of 40,000 witnessed the championship. The announced crowd of 39,859 made it the largest MLS Cup crowd since 2002. The Revolution had a successful season, earning their first U.S. Open Cup title. The Revolution wanted their first MLS Cup crown, and wanted to win their first "Double" in club history. Houston, finishing just shy once again to D.C. United of winning the MLS Supporters' Shield were determined to finish their second season with some hardware, and to defend their MLS Cup title. The match went in the Revolution's favor early on, as the Revolution's captain, Twellman, netted in the 20th minute to give New England a 1–0 lead. However, midway through the second half, the Dynamo retaliated. Dynamo striker Joseph Ngwenya leveled things at one apiece in the 61st minute, and MLS Cup Man of the Match, Dwayne De Rosario gave the Dynamo a 2–1 lead in the 74th. The goal also proved to be the winning goal, as the Dynamo earned the first back-to-back MLS Cup titles since D.C. United in 1996 and 1997.


title: MLS Cup

text: Early in the 2008 Major League Soccer season, the league announced that the championship would be returning to The Home Depot Center (now known as Dignity Health Sports Park). Throughout the regular season, the league was dominated by the Columbus Crew, who finished the season with 57 points, and secured the Supporters' Shield title with three matches remaining before the 2008 MLS Cup Playoffs. Traditionally, the Shield winners only rarely made it to the league championship, in spite of usually being the heavy favorites going into the playoffs. However, for the first time in eight years, a regular season champion made it to the MLS Cup final. The Sigi Schmid-led club made their first run to the championship, along with their opponents the New York Red Bulls. For the Crew, being the Shield winners, their run to the final was a bit expected. The Red Bulls making the final was seen as a large surprise, possibly even a fluke. The Red Bulls did not qualify for the playoffs until the last day of the season, where they were the weakest team, in terms of regular season record, to qualify for the playoffs. The match ended up being dominated by the Crew as Columbus defeated New York with ease, 3–1. The point gap between the two clubs was the largest in history, and the scoreline between the two clubs made it tied for the largest margin of victory in MLS Cup history. New York's run to the finals was further emphasized as a fluke when the club had the worst record in 2009.


title: MLS Cup

text: The following championship saw two intra-conference clubs meet in the final for the second consecutive year, this time at Seattle's Qwest Field (later CenturyLink Field and now Lumen Field). The Western Conference regular season and postseason champions, Los Angeles Galaxy took on Real Salt Lake, who finished fifth in the West. Although the Sounders FC management had originally planned on capping the seats available in Qwest Field to 35,700, surging demand led to the release of an additional 10,000 seats, expanding the total capacity to roughly 45,700. The announced crowd was 46,011. The crowd size was the first championship crowd since 2002 to draw over 45,000 spectators. Televised on ESPN, it was the first time that the MLS championship match was televised on the cable network; the first thirteen were carried on ABC. In the 41st minute, Galaxy striker Mike Magee scored, only for Salt Lake's Robbie Findley to make the tying goal in the 61st. The stalemate was not broken in regulation nor overtime, requiring penalty kicks to decide the match. Thanks to a strike from Salt Lake's Robbie Russell, Salt Lake won their first major trophy. By winning the championship, they gained entry into the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League. There, they made it to the final, only to lose to Monterrey of Mexico.


title: MLS Cup

text: At the 2010 season's end, six teams from the Western Conference qualified for the playoffs, whereas only two clubs from the East qualified, making it the largest disparity between the two conferences in league history. The league's seeding at the time awarded conference winners earned the top seeds, the two weakest Western Conference teams, San Jose Earthquakes and Colorado Rapids were seeded against the Eastern Conference champion, New York Red Bulls and runner-up Columbus Crew, respectively. Some cited this as an unfair advantage for the Rapids and Earthquakes, as both teams made the semi-finals. In the end, the Rapids played FC Dallas for MLS Cup 2010, winning 2–1 in overtime.


title: MLS Cup

text: Between the 2011 and 2014 MLS Cups, the LA Galaxy appeared in three MLS Cup finals, having the most success in MLS Cup in a short period of time since United's late 1990s dynasty. The only final that the Galaxy did not win, came in 2013, where they lost in the 2013 Western Conference finals to eventual runner-up, Real Salt Lake. During that time, the Galaxy became the first MLS franchise to win five MLS Cups, when they won MLS Cup 2014. These teams contained several high-profile players including Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane, Gyasi Zardes, David Beckham and Omar Gonzalez.


title: MLS Cup

text: Some claim that the Galaxy's dynasty began in 2009, when they reached the playoffs for the first time since 2005, and marched to the finals, only to lose on penalties to Real Salt Lake. In 2010, and again, in 2011, the Galaxy won consecutive Supporters' Shield, and completed the league double winning both the Shield and MLS Cup in 2011. This was the first time this had been accomplished since the Columbus Crew achieved it in 2008. In the 2011 MLS Cup final, the Galaxy defeated the Houston Dynamo, 1–0 off a 72nd minute Donovan goal. The goal was scored off a Galaxy counter where Beckham fed a through ball to Donovan who slotted it past Hall. The 2012 final featured both the Galaxy and Dynamo again, making it the first since 2007 that an MLS Cup final was a rematch of the previous final. Again, the Galaxy won the final, this time coming from behind to defeat the Dynamo by a 3–1 scoreline. The match was Beckham's final MLS match.


title: MLS Cup

text: During the 2013 season, the Galaxy's chance to three-peat was thwarted by Real Salt Lake. Salt Lake defeated the Galaxy, 2–1 on aggregate, to advance to the MLS Cup final, where they eventually lost to Sporting Kansas City.


title: MLS Cup

text: The following season, the Galaxy reached the MLS Cup final again, playing the New England Revolution, making it a rematch of MLS Cup 2002 and MLS Cup 2005. In extra-time a Robbie Keane goal propelled the Galaxy to their fifth MLS match, a victory in the 2014 MLS Cup.


title: MLS Cup

text: The Portland Timbers won the 2015 MLS Cup, defeating the Columbus Crew 2–1. Portland's Diego Valeri scored the fastest goal in MLS Cup history at 27 seconds when Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark made a fundamental error after he miscontrolled his defender's back-pass while Valeri had advanced towards the ball to strike at the opportunity.


title: MLS Cup

text: The Seattle Sounders FC faced Toronto FC in the 2016 MLS Cup, which was played at BMO Field in Toronto on the evening of December 10, 2016. The temperature at the start of the match was (, when adjusted for wind chill), with strong winds coming off Lake Ontario. The field was watered shortly before the match, and resultant field was described as icy by players. Seattle Sounders FC defeated Toronto FC 5–4 in a penalty shoot-out after a scoreless match of 90 minutes regular time and 30 minutes overtime. The Sounders did not register a single shot on goal, becoming the first MLS club to do so in a match, regular season or otherwise. The Sounders, despite a very poor start and mid-season managerial change, became the second team from the Pacific Northwest to win the cup, after Portland in 2015.


title: MLS Cup

text: In the 2017 MLS Cup, Toronto FC and Seattle faced off in a rematch of the previous edition, also at BMO Field. Toronto FC won the match 2–0, and became the first Canadian team to win the MLS Cup, and the first MLS team to complete a domestic treble, after winning the Canadian Championship and Supporters' Shield earlier in the year.


title: MLS Cup

text: Atlanta United FC, in their second season as an expansion team, won the 2018 edition of the MLS Cup by defeating the Portland Timbers 2–0. The match, hosted in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, was attended by 73,019 spectators and broke the MLS Cup attendance record set in 2002 by New England. The club became the second-youngest to win an MLS Cup, behind the 1998 Chicago Fire, and brought the first professional sports championship for the city of Atlanta since 1995.


title: MLS Cup

text: In the 2019 MLS Cup, Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders FC both overcame underdog status in their respective conferences to contest a third final in four years, this time playing at Seattle's home ground. Seattle Sounders FC duly won their second MLS Cup, taking the final match 3–1 at CenturyLink Field in front of a Sounders record attendance of 69,274.


title: MLS Cup

text: The 2020 edition, which marked the end of a season dramatically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, saw the Sounders return to the MLS Cup Final, this time facing Columbus Crew SC at the latter's home of Mapfre Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew won 3–0 in front of a crowd restricted to 1,500, in the stadium's last playoff game.


title: MLS Cup

text: The MLS Cup Final was aired on English-language networks ABC from 1996 to 2008, and ESPN from 2009 to 2014. ESPN and Fox alternate as MLS Cup Final broadcasters since 2015, with ESPN airing MLS Cup 2019 on ABC, their first MLS match since 2008. The MLS Cup Final has also been aired on Spanish-language networks TeleFutura in 2007 and 2008, Galavision from 2009 to 2011, TeleFutura / UniMás from 2012 to 2018, and Univision in 2019. ABC previously had Spanish announcers under secondary audio program.


title: MLS Cup

text: Since 2015, all MLS Cup playoff games are televised on ESPN, Fox Sports, or Univisión networks. UniMás will air two exclusive playoff matches, while ESPN and its affiliated networks will split the rest of the contests – including MLS Cup – with Fox Sports. Univision, UniMás and TUDN also airs the MLS Cup playoffs in Spanish.


title: MLS Cup

text: MLS Cup coverage in Canada started in 2007, with the addition of Toronto FC to MLS. The MLS Cup bounced around different networks in the first three seasons of the league's presence in Canada; what was then the bold network aired the 2007 Cup Final, with CBC airing the next year's Final and GolTV Canada airing the Final the year after that. Since 2010, TSN has aired the MLS Cup Final on its networks; this includes Toronto FC's victory in 2017.


title: MLS Cup

text: In 2000 and 2001, the three division winners plus the next five teams with the next best records made the playoffs.


title: MLS Cup

text: In 2007, the top two teams per conference plus the next four teams with the next most points qualified.


title: MLS Cup

text: At the 2008 season's end, the top three teams of each conference made the playoffs; in addition the clubs with the next two highest point totals, regardless of conference, were added to the playoffs. In the first round of this knockout tournament, aggregate goals over two matches determined the winners; the Conference Championships were one match each, with the winner of each conference advancing to MLS Cup. In all rounds, the tie-breaking method was two 15-minute periods of overtime, followed by penalty kicks if necessary. The away goals rule was not used.


title: MLS Cup

text: At the 2009 and 2010 season's end, the top two teams of each conference made the playoffs; in addition the clubs with the next 4 highest point totals, regardless of conference, were added to the playoffs. In the first round of this knockout tournament, aggregate (total) goals over two matches determined the winners; the Conference Championships were one match each, with the winner of each conference advancing to MLS Cup. In all rounds, the tie-breaking method was two 15-minute periods of extra time, followed by penalty kicks if necessary. The away goals rule was not used.


title: MLS Cup

text: At 2011 season's end, the top three clubs in each of the league's two conferences earned the six automatic spots in the Conference Semifinals. The wild card entrants, seeded seventh through tenth, entered based upon their overall position in the overall league standings. The new format was assembled so that the lowest seed to qualify out of the wild card rounds will play against the Supporters' Shield winner. The highest wild-card seed remaining will played the conference champion that did not win the Shield. The play-in games and Conference Finals were single matches, with the higher seeded club hosting. The conference semi-finals were two-leg aggregate series. The MLS Cup was held at a predetermined venue.


title: MLS Cup

text: From the 2012 season through 2014, the playoff structure was further tweaked with the elimination of the wild cards slots. The ten playoff berths were awarded to the top five teams in each conference. The No. 4 seed in each conference hosted the No. 5 seed in a single match for a place in the conference semi-finals against the top seed in its conference. The Conference Semifinals remained two-legged while the conference finals changed from a single match to a two-leg aggregate series. Finally, the MLS Cup final was held at the home field of the finalist with the highest point total during the regular season. The away goals rule was used but did not apply after extra time.


title: MLS Cup

text: From the 2015 season through 2018, the top six teams per conference qualified for the playoffs (12 total teams). The first round involved each conference's No. 3 seed hosting the No. 6 seed, and the No. 4 hosting No. 5. In the Conference Semifinals, the top seed played the lowest remaining seed, and the No. 2 seed played the next lowest seed.


title: MLS Cup

text: In the 2019 seasons, and 2021 & 2022, the top seven teams per conference qualified for the playoffs. Each round is still single-elimination. The top team in each conference earned a bye to the Conference Semifinals. The playoff brackets were fixed, as the league abolished re-seeding. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the top ten teams from the Eastern and top eight teams from the Western conference qualified for the playoffs in the 2020 season, with single-elimination remaining intact. The top six Eastern teams earned byes to the first round. The seventh through tenth-seeded teams competed in play-in games. The lowest-ranked team to advance from the play-in round advanced to play the conference's first-placed team while the highest-ranked remaining team from that round advanced to face the conference's runner-up. The Western Conference had no byes, and the top eight teams competed in their first round.


title: MLS Cup

text: Come 2023, in order to maintain a minimum 50% of the league qualifying, an eighth-seeded team will be added to each conference, and the top-seeded team will have a home game against that team. That means the conference leader must now play in the conference quarterfinals.


title: MLS Cup

text: The winner of Major League Soccer's MLS Cup, the final match of the MLS Cup Playoffs, determines that season's league champion. The playoff tournament is organized by the league at the conclusion of the regular season in a format similar to other North American professional sports leagues. The tournament is open to the top seven clubs of the Eastern and Western Conferences.


title: MLS Cup

text: The first MLS Cup final was played on October 20, 1996. To date, the record for the most championships is held by the Los Angeles Galaxy with five cup titles. The record for the most championships lost is held by the New England Revolution, who lost the game five times during their history. The championship has been won by the same team in two or more consecutive years on three occasions.


title: MLS Cup

text: As of the 2022 season, a total of 30 teams have competed in MLS. Nineteen of these teams have appeared in a cup final, with fifteen of these teams having won the MLS Cup. In the table below, teams are ordered first by the number of appearances in an MLS Cup Final, then by the number of wins, and finally by alphabetical order. In the "Years of Appearance" column, bold years indicate a winning MLS Cup appearance.


title: MLS Cup

text: For most of the league's history, the MLS Cup champions and runners-up have earned berths into the CONCACAF Champions League, though only U.S. teams are eligible to fill these slots. Canadian teams, even MLS Cup participants, must qualify by winning the separate Canadian Championship; , the only Canadian winner has been 2017 MLS Cup champion Toronto FC, who also won the Canadian Championship that year.


title: MLS Cup

text: Culminating the championship, the winning team is presented with a trophy, known as the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, named for the contributions and investment to American soccer and MLS by Philip Anschutz. Typically, the award presentation is held on a podium in the center of the field, where the league commissioner will award the team with the cup.


title: MLS Cup

text: Before the actual award presentation, the finalists are awarded with silver medals with the league's logo imprinted on them. The champions are then presented with gold medals, before the trophy is handed to the winning team's captain.


title: MLS Cup

text: In cup history, the MLS Cup champions have been awarded with three different trophies. For the first three MLS Cup finals, the winning team was awarded with the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy, named for Rothenberg's contributions to American soccer. The Rothenberg Trophy was a dark gold trophy that had two handles around a soccer ball, with the league's logo imprinted on the plaque. In 1999, the Rothenberg Trophy was redesigned with a soccer ball placed on a beacon. In 2008, the trophy was redesigned again to its present state and renamed the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy.


title: MLS Cup

text: In MLS Cup history, seven matches have been played in the Greater Los Angeles area (once at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California and six times at Dignity Health Sports Park (formerly StubHub Center and Home Depot Center) in Carson, California. Four markets are tied for having hosted the MLS Cup final the second-most number of times, with three matches each: the Greater Boston metro area (twice contested at Foxboro Stadium and once at Gillette Stadium, both in Foxborough, Massachusetts), Washington, D.C. (all played at RFK Stadium), Toronto (all held at BMO Field) and Columbus (all held at the Historic Crew Stadium).


title: MLS Cup

text: Through the 2011 season every MLS Cup had been played at a predetermined site (i.e., announced before the playoff participants were known). On the day before the 2011 Cup, MLS announced that starting in 2012, Cup finals would be hosted by the participant with the highest point total during the regular season. As is the case with awarding the Supporters Shield, if the two finalists are tied on points, the team with the most wins hosts the final. For example, at MLS Cup 2022, Los Angeles FC and the Philadelphia Union both finished with 67 points, but LAFC had two more wins and thus hosted the final.


title: MLS Cup

text: Before the 2012 Cup and the change to awarding the final to the participant with the higher point total, only three teams played the match on their home field. In the 1997 MLS Cup final, D.C. United won the match in their home stadium over Colorado Rapids, RFK Stadium. The same occurrence applied in the 2002 MLS Cup final, where the Los Angeles Galaxy defeated the New England Revolution 1–0, in the Revolution's home stadium Gillette Stadium. As a result, the 1997 and 2002 MLS Cup finals drew the largest crowds in MLS Cup history prior to the 2012 change to the higher seed hosting.


title: MLS Cup

text: In 2011, the LA Galaxy won their 2011 MLS Cup match in their home stadium (Home Depot Center), 1–0, over the Houston Dynamo. The Galaxy became the second team (and first since D.C. United in 1997) to win the Cup at home.


title: MLS Cup

text: After MLS adopted its current criteria for awarding the MLS Cup match, the first three Cup finals were won by the hosts. The 2012 MLS Cup saw a rematch of the 2011 Cup at the same site, with the Galaxy successfully defending the title with a 3–1 win. In 2013, Sporting Kansas City became the third team to win the cup in their home stadium (Sporting Park) when they beat Real Salt Lake in the penalty kicks, which was the longest shootout in MLS Cup history. Then, in 2014, the Galaxy defeated the New England Revolution 2–1 at the renamed StubHub Center in a match that was also notable as the final competitive match for U.S. national team all-time leading goal scorer Landon Donovan. The pattern was broken in 2015, however, when the Portland Timbers defeated the Columbus Crew in the Crew's home stadium.


title: MLS Cup

text: Through the 2011 season, MLS typically announced the championship location either prior to the start of its respective season, or even a few weeks into the campaign. For the 2011 championship, the league selected Home Depot Center in Carson, California, making it a fourth time the league's championship had been hosted at the venue.


title: MLS Cup

text: To date, the coldest MLS Cup final was the 2013 championship game played in Kansas City, Kansas at Sporting Kansas City's Sporting Park where the temperature was . The hottest MLS Cup final was the 2005 championship game played in Frisco, Texas at FC Dallas's Pizza Hut Park where the temperature was 75 °F (23 °C).


title: MLS Cup

text: The 2010 edition of the MLS Cup was the first final in league history to be played outside of the United States. The match was played in Canada at Toronto's BMO Field, the home ground of MLS club Toronto FC.


title: MLS Cup

text: Following each championship, a player on the winning club is awarded with the title of being the Most Valuable Player (MVP). Usually, but not necessarily, the winner of the award is the player who scores the game-winning goal, or sets up the game-winning goal. This is the case of the 2007, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2019 and 2020 recipients, who all scored game-winning goals, or assisted multiple goals for the winning side.


title: MLS Cup

text: Exceptions to this occurred in 2000, 2009, 2016, and 2021 where the Most Valuable Player award went to goalkeepers Tony Meola, Nick Rimando, Stefan Frei, and Sean Johnson, respectively. Meola and Frei, with the Kansas City Wizards and Seattle Sounders FC, both earned shutouts for their respective teams in the cup. Rimando and Johnson made two saves in a penalty shoot-out to give Real Salt Lake the title over the Los Angeles Galaxy and New York City FC the title over Portland Timbers, respectively.


title: MLS Cup

text: At least 40 players have won two MLS Cups, mostly for teams with sequential or near-sequential titles (D.C. 1996–1999, San Jose 2001 and 2003, LA Galaxy 2002 and 2005, and 2011–2012, and Houston 2006–2007). Brian Mullan is the only player to have won the Cup with four different teams, while players that have won it with three different teams include: Craig Waibel, Alejandro Moreno, Ezra Hendrickson, and Darlington Nagbe.


The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Texas were held on November 8, 2022, to elect the 38 U.S. representatives from Texas, one from each of the state's projected 38 congressional districts. The elections coincided with other elections to the House of Representatives, other elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections. Primary elections took place on March 1, with primary runoffs scheduled for May 24 for districts where no candidate received over 50% of the vote.


title: 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Texas

text: The 1st district encompasses Tyler, Longview, and Texarkana. The incumbent is Republican Louie Gohmert, who has represented the district since 2004 and was reelected with 72.6% of the vote in 2020. On November 22, 2021, Gohmert announced that he would run for Texas Attorney General against incumbent Ken Paxton.


text: The 2nd district encompasses The Woodlands, Spring, Kingwood, Humble, and Atascocita. The incumbent is Republican Dan Crenshaw, who has represented the district since 2019 and was reelected with 55.6% of the vote in 2020.


text: Incumbent Representative Dan Crenshaw, who had maintained a high profile since his election, faced three primary challengers. All three ran as more conservative alternatives to Crenshaw, criticizing him for his vote to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.


text: The 3rd district encompasses much of Collin County and Hunt County. The incumbent is Republican Van Taylor, who has represented the district since 2019 and was reelected with 55.1% of the vote in 2020. On March 2, 2022, after being forced into a runoff, Taylor announced he would end his reelection campaign amid allegations of infidelity with a former jihadist. Former judge Keith Self became the Republican nominee following Taylor's withdrawal, canceling the runoff.


text: The Republican primary runoff was canceled following Taylor's withdrawal. Self became the Republican nominee.


text: The 4th district encompasses counties along the Red River. The incumbent is Republican Pat Fallon, who has represented the district since 2021 and was elected with 75.1% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 5th district encompasses Mesquite, Anderson, Cherokee, Henderson, Van Zandt, and Kaufman. The incumbent is Republican Lance Gooden, who has represented the district since 2019 and was reelected with 62% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 6th district encompasses Ellis County and Palestine. The incumbent is Republican Jake Ellzey, who has represented the district since 2021 and was elected with 53.3% of the vote in 2021 after the previous incumbent, Ron Wright, died of complications from COVID-19 on February 7, 2021.


text: The 7th district encompasses the suburbs of Houston such as Gulfton and Alief. The incumbent is Democrat Lizzie Fletcher, who has represented the district since 2019 and was reelected with 50.8% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 8th district includes northern suburbs and exurbs of Houston such as Conroe and Willis. It is represented by Republican Kevin Brady, who is retiring, leaving the 8th as an open seat.


text: The 9th district encompasses the southern Houston suburbs such as Missouri City. The incumbent is Democrat Al Green, who was reelected with 75.5% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 10th district stretches from northwestern Austin to Bryan–College Station. The incumbent is Republican Michael McCaul, who was reelected in 2020 with 52.6% of the vote.


text: The 11th district is based in midwestern Texas, including Lamesa, Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, Granbury, and Brownwood. The incumbent is Republican August Pfluger, who was elected with 79.7% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 12th district is in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and takes in Parker County and western Tarrant County, including parts of Fort Worth and its inner suburbs of North Richland Hills, Saginaw, and Haltom City. The incumbent is Republican Kay Granger, who was reelected with 63.7% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 13th district encompasses most of the Texas Panhandle, containing the cities of Amarillo, Gainesville and Wichita Falls, as well as northern Denton County. The incumbent is Republican Ronny Jackson, who was elected with 79.4% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 14th district takes in the southern and southeastern region of Greater Houston, including Galveston, Jefferson County and southern Brazoria County. The incumbent is Republican Randy Weber, who was reelected with 61.6% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 15th district stretches from western Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley, northward into rural counties in the Greater San Antonio area. The incumbent was Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, who was reelected with 50.5% of the vote in 2020. On October 26, 2021, Gonzalez announced that he would run for election in the neighboring 34th district, while still serving District 15 until 2023. The district was also significant as, despite its historical Democratic lean, Donald Trump came within two points of winning it in 2020, and the newly drawn 15th is even more Republican than its predecessor.


text: This district was included on the list of Democratic-held seats that the National Republican Congressional Committee was targeting in 2022.


text: The 16th district is entirely within El Paso County, taking in El Paso, Horizon City, and Anthony. The incumbent is Democrat Veronica Escobar, who was reelected with 64.7% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 17th district covers parts of suburban north Austin stretching to rural central and eastern Texas, including Waco and Lufkin. The incumbent is Republican Pete Sessions, who was reelected with 55.9% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 18th district is based in Downtown Houston and takes in the heavily black areas of Central Houston. The incumbent is Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee, who was reelected with 73.3% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 19th district encompasses rural West Texas, taking in Lubbock and Abilene. The incumbent is Republican Jodey Arrington, who was reelected with 74.8% of the vote in 2020. He is running for reelection against Independent Nathan Lewis of Lubbock.


text: The 20th district encompasses downtown San Antonio. The incumbent is Democrat Joaquin Castro, who was reelected with 64.7% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 21st district extends from north San Antonio to central and south Austin, taking in rural parts of the Texas Hill Country. The incumbent is Republican Chip Roy, who was elected with 52.0% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 22nd district encompasses the south-central Greater Houston metropolitan area, including the southern Houston suburbs of Sugar Land, Pearland, and Webster. The incumbent is Republican Troy Nehls, who was elected with 51.5% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 23rd district covers southwestern Texas, including the Big Bend, the southern and western San Antonio suburbs, and the southwestern El Paso suburbs. The incumbent is Republican Tony Gonzales, who was elected with 50.6% of the vote in 2020.


text: This district is included on the list of Republican-held seats the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting in 2022.


text: The 24th district encompasses the suburbs north of Fort Worth and Dallas, including Grapevine, Bedford, and Park Cities. The incumbent is Republican Beth Van Duyne, who was elected with 48.8% of the vote in 2020.


text: This district is included on the list of Republican-held seats the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting in 2022. But due to redistricting, the seat became much safer, so it is unlikely that it will be targeted to the same degree.


text: The 25th district runs from Arlington out to rural exurbs of southern Fort Worth such as Granbury. The incumbent is Republican Roger Williams, who was reelected with 55.9% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 26th district is based in the northern portion of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, centering on eastern Denton County. Before redistricting, the district comprised almost all of Denton County and part of Tarrant. In the newly approved map, Denton, the county seat of Denton County, was removed from the district as well as parts of Frisco, to the 13th and 4th congressional district, respectively. Additionally, Cooke County and parts of Wise County were added to the district. With Denton's removal from the district, Lewisville is the district's largest city. The incumbent is Republican Michael C. Burgess, who was reelected with 60.6% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 27th district stretches across the Coastal Bend, from Corpus Christi up to Bay City. The incumbent is Republican Michael Cloud, who was reelected with 63.1% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 28th district is based in the Laredo area and stretches north of the Rio Grande Valley into east San Antonio. The incumbent is Democrat Henry Cuellar, who was reelected with 58.3% of the vote in 2020.


text: This district is included on the list of Democratic-held seats the National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting in 2022.


text: On the evening of the runoff election, the count had Cuellar leading Cisneros by 177 votes (0.4%). Cuellar’s lead increased to 281 votes (0.6%) after provisional and cured ballots were counted. Cisneros filed for a recount on June 7, 2022. The recount confirmed Cuellar's victory by an increased margin of 289 votes.


text: The 29th district encompasses parts of northern and southeastern Houston, taking in the heavily Latino areas of the city. The incumbent is Democrat Sylvia Garcia, who was elected with 71.1% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 30th district encompasses Downtown Dallas as well as South Dallas. The incumbent is Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson, who was reelected with 77.5% of the vote in 2020. In 2019, Johnson announced that she would not seek reelection after her next term.


text: The 31st district encompasses the exurbs of Austin to Temple, including parts of Williamson and Bell counties. The incumbent is Republican John Carter, who was reelected with 53.4% of the vote in 2020.


text: The 32nd district covers northern and eastern Dallas and its inner northern suburbs. The incumbent is Democrat Colin Allred, who was reelected with 51.9% of the vote in 2020.


text: This district is included on the list of Democratic-held seats the National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting in 2022. But due to redistricting, the seat became much safer, so it is unlikely that it will be targeted to the same degree.


text: The 33rd district is in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, encompassing Downtown Fort Worth, western Dallas, and parts of Grand Prairie, Irving, Carrollton, and Farmers Branch. The incumbent is Democrat Marc Veasey, who was reelected with 66.8% of the vote in 2018.


text: The 34th district stretches from McAllen and Brownsville in the Rio Grande Valley, northward along the Gulf Coast. The incumbent is Republican Mayra Flores, who was first elected with 50.9% of the vote in 2022. On March 22, 2021, former incumbent Filemon Vela announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022. On October 26, 2021, Vicente Gonzalez, the representative for Texas's 15th congressional district, announced that he intended to run in the new 34th district after the 15th became more Republican and his residence was put into the 34th.


text: The 35th district connects eastern San Antonio to southeastern Austin, through the I-35 corridor. The incumbent is Democrat Lloyd Doggett, who was reelected with 65.4% of the vote in 2020. On October 18, 2021, Doggett announced that he would run for reelection in the new 37th district, leaving the 35th open.


text: The 36th district encompasses parts of Southeast Texas, including the Clear Lake region. The incumbent is Republican Brian Babin, who was reelected with 73.6% of the vote in 2020.


text: The new 37th congressional district is centered on Austin. Incumbent Democrat Lloyd Doggett, who previously represented the 35th district, will run here. He was reelected with 65.4% of the vote in 2020.


text: The new 38th district is based in the north and northwest Harris County Houston suburbs such as Jersey Village, Cypress, Tomball, Katy, and Klein. This is a new district. There is no incumbent.


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: Brendan O'Carroll (born 17 September 1955) is an Irish actor, comedian, director, producer and writer. He is best known for portraying foul-mouthed matriarch Agnes Brown on stage and in the BBC and RTÉ television sitcom "Mrs. Brown's Boys". In 2015, O'Carroll was awarded the Irish Film and Television Academy Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the Irish television.


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: The youngest of 11 children, O'Carroll was born in Finglas, Dublin. His mother, Maureen, was a Labour Party TD and his father, Gerard O'Carroll, was a carpenter. His father died in 1962 when O'Carroll was six, and Brendan's mother raised their eleven children with little money. He attended Saint Gabriel's National School and left at the age of 12. He had a string of occupations; these included being a waiter and a milkman.


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: Having become well known as a comedy guest on "The Late Late Show", O'Carroll released four stand-up videos, titled "How's your Raspberry Ripple", "How's your Jolly Roger", "How's your Snowballs" and "How's your Wibbly Wobbly Wonder".


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: O'Carroll wrote the screenplay to "Sparrow's Trap", a boxing movie. The film, which had Stephen Rea cast in the lead role, ran into financing difficulties midway through the shoot when the distributor withdrew and it was abandoned. Incurring debts of over €1 million, O'Carroll became bankrupt and the film has never been produced.


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: O'Carroll presented a quiz show, called "Hot Milk and Pepper", on RTÉ One, with long-term collaborator Gerry Browne.


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: In 1992, O'Carroll performed a short radio play titled "Mrs. Brown's Boys" and shortly afterwards he wrote four books titled "The Mammy", "The Granny", "The Chisellers" and "The Scrapper". In 1999, a movie named "Agnes Browne", starring Anjelica Huston, was released, based on his book "The Mammy". O'Carroll also co-wrote the screenplay. He then decided to put together his own family theatre company, "Mrs. Browne's Boys", and dressed up as a woman to play his part, as the actress he had originally hired didn't show up.


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: From 1999 to 2009, he wrote and performed in five plays. Since 2011, the stage shows have been re-toured across the UK. In 2011, his plays were adapted into a television sitcom (with the name "Browne" shortened to "Brown"). So far, from 2011, 28 episodes have aired, across three series, several Christmas-special episodes and a one-off live episode that aired in 2016 on RTÉ One and BBC One. "Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie" was released on 27 June 2014, and was a significant success in the UK, staying at number one in the box office for two consecutive weeks. However, the film had negative reviews; one saying it was not just unfunny but "close to anti-funny". O'Carroll's wife, his sister Eilish, his son Danny, and his daughter Fiona all appear or have appeared on episodes of "Mrs. Brown's Boys".


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: It was announced in January 2015 that the BBC wanted O'Carroll to do "other stuff", due to the fact that "Mrs Brown's Boys" had become so successful. He revealed plans to adapt his first ever written play, "patser grey" into a television sitcom.


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: O'Carroll was married to Doreen O'Carroll from 1977 to 1999. He married Jennifer Gibney in 2005. They live in Davenport, Florida. O'Carroll has three surviving children: Fiona, Danny, and Eric. Their first son Brendan died of spina bifida at just a few days old.


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: O'Carroll's paternal grandfather Peter O'Carroll, a father of seven and a prominent republican, was shot dead on 16 October 1920 at his home in Manor Street, Dublin. Two of his sons were Irish Republican Army volunteers. The incident was investigated in the television series "Who Do You Think You Are?"


title: Brendan O'Carroll

text: In March 2016 O'Carroll appeared in the BBC2 documentary "Brendan O'Carroll – My Family at War", which explored the involvement of three of his uncles—Liam, James and Peadar O'Carroll—in the Easter Rising.


title: Porsche 917

text: The Porsche 917 is a sports prototype race car developed by German manufacturer Porsche to exploit the regulations regarding the construction of 5-litre sports cars. Powered by a Type 912 flat-12 engine which was progressively enlarged from 4.5 to 5.0 litres, the 917 was introduced in 1969 and initially proved unwieldy on the race track but continuous development improved the handling and it went on to dominate sports-car racing in 1970 and 1971. In 1970 it gave Porsche its first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a feat it would repeat in 1971. It would be chiefly responsible for Porsche winning the International Championship for Makes in 1970 and 1971. Porsche went on to develop the 917 for Can-Am racing, culminating in the twin-turbocharged 917/30 which was even more dominant in the role. Porsche drivers would win the Can-Am championship in 1972 and 1973. 917 drivers also won the Interserie championship every year from 1969 to 1975.


title: Porsche 917

text: In an effort to reduce the speeds at Le Mans and other fast circuits of the unlimited capacity Group 6 prototypes (such as the seven-litre Ford GT40 Mk.IV and four-litre V12 Ferrari P) the Commission Sportive Internationale (then the independent competition arm of the FIA) announced that the International Championship of Makes would be run for three-litre Group 6 prototypes for four years from 1968 through 1971. This capacity reduction would also serve to entice manufacturers who were already building three-litre Formula One engines to adapt them for endurance racing.


title: Porsche 917

text: Well aware that few manufacturers were ready to take up the challenge immediately, the CSI also allowed the participation of five-litre Group 4 sports cars, of which a minimum of 50 units had to be manufactured. This targeted existing cars like the ageing Ford GT40 Mk.I and the newer Lola T70 coupe.


title: Porsche 917

text: In April 1968, facing few entrants in races, the CSI announced that the minimum production figure to compete in the sport category of the International Championship of Makes (later the World Sportscar Championship) was reduced from 50 to 25, starting in 1969 through the planned end of the rules in 1971. With Ferrari absent in 1968, mainly Porsche 908s and Ford P68s were entered there, with the Ford being a total failure. As a result, old 2.2-litre Porsche 907s often won that category, with John Wyer's 4.7-litre Ford GT40 Mk.I taking wins at faster tracks.


title: Porsche 917

text: Starting in July 1968, Porsche made a surprising and expensive effort to take advantage of this rule. As they were rebuilding race cars with new chassis every race or two anyway, selling the used cars to customers, they decided to conceive, design and build 25 versions of a whole new car with 4.5-litre for the sport category with one underlying goal: to win its first overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 14, 1970. In only ten months the Porsche 917 was developed, based on the Porsche 908.


title: Porsche 917

text: When Porsche was first visited by the CSI inspectors only three cars were completed, while 18 were being assembled and seven additional sets of parts were present. Porsche argued that if they assembled the cars they would then have to take them apart again to prepare the cars for racing. The inspectors refused the homologation and asked to see 25 assembled and working cars.


title: Porsche 917

text: On March 12, 1969, a 917 was displayed at the Geneva Motor Show, painted white with a green nose and a black No. 917. Brief literature on the car detailed a cash price of DM 140,000, approximately £16,000 at period exchange rates, or the price of about ten Porsche 911s. This price did not cover the costs of development.


title: Porsche 917

text: On April 20 Porsche's head of motorsports Ferdinand Piëch displayed 25 917s parked in front of the Porsche factory to the CSI inspectors. Piëch even offered the opportunity to drive any of the cars, which was declined.


title: Porsche 917

text: The car's chassis was designed by Helmuth Bott and the engine was designed by Hans Mezger, both under the leadership of Ferdinand Piëch. The car was built around a very light spaceframe chassis () which was permanently pressurised with gas to detect cracks in the welded structure. Power came from a new 4.5-litre air-cooled engine designed by Mezger, which was a combination of two of Porsche's 2.25L flat-6 engines used in previous racing cars. The 'Type 912' engine featured a 180° flat-12 cylinder layout, twin overhead camshafts driven from centrally mounted gears and twin spark plugs fed from two distributors. The large horizontally mounted cooling fan was also driven from centrally mounted gears. The longitudinally mounted gearbox was designed to take a set of four or five gears.


title: Porsche 917

text: To keep the car compact despite the large engine, the driving position was so far forward that the feet of the driver were beyond the front wheel axle. The car had remarkable technology. It was Porsche's first 12-cylinder engine and used many components made of titanium, magnesium and exotic alloys that had been developed for lightweight "Bergspider" hill climb racers. Other methods of weight reduction were rather simple, such as making the gear shift knob out of birch wood, some methods were not simple, such as using the tubular frame itself as oil piping to the front oil cooler.


title: Porsche 917

text: There are at least eleven variants of the 917. The original version had a removable long tail/medium tail with active rear wing flaps, but had considerable handling problems at high speed because of significant rear lift. The handling problems were investigated at a joint test at the Österreichring by the factory engineers and their new race team partners JW Automotive. After exhaustive experimentation by both groups, a shorter, more upswept tail was found to give the car more aerodynamic stability at speed. The changes were quickly adopted into the 917K for "Kurzheck", or "short-tail".


title: Porsche 917

text: In 1971, a variant of the 917K appeared with a less upswept tail and vertical fins, and featured the concave rear deck that had proved so effective on the 1970 version of the 917L. The fins kept the clean downforce-inducing air on the top of the tail and allowed the angle of the deck to be reduced, reducing the drag in direct proportion. The result was a more attractive looking car that maintained down force for less drag and higher top speed.


title: Porsche 917

text: By this time the original 4.5-litre engine, which had produced around 520 bhp in 1969, had been enlarged through 4.9-litres (600 bhp) to 5-litres and produced a maximum of 630 bhp.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917K models were generally used for the shorter road courses such as Sebring, Brands Hatch, Monza and Spa-Francorchamps. The big prize for Porsche however, was Le Mans. For the French circuit's long, high speed straights, the factory developed special long tail bodywork that was designed for minimum drag and thus highest maximum speed. On the car's debut in 1969, the 917L proved to be nearly uncontrollable as there was so little down force. In fact, they generated aerodynamic lift at the highest speeds. For 1970, an improved version was raced by the factory and for 1971, after very significant development in the wind tunnel, the definitive 917L was raced by both factory and JW.


title: Porsche 917

text: In 1969 Jo Siffert raced an open-top 917PA Spyder (normally aspirated) in the 1969 CanAm series. There is also the "Pink Pig" aerodynamic research version (917/20), and the turbocharged 917/10 and 917/30 CanAm Spyders. Porsche 917s also raced in the European Interseries in various configurations. In the 1973 Can-Am series, the turbocharged version Porsche 917/30 developed .


title: Porsche 917

text: There were a number of versions of Porsche 917 made over the years; at least eleven different versions have existed.


title: Porsche 917

text: The original Porsche 917 was first run at the Le Mans Test in March 1969 and right from the start showed considerable handling problems due to aerodynamic lift. The original specification of the car included a detachable long-tail (Langheck), that was designed using experience from the previous 907 long-tail coupes for minimum aerodynamic drag, with suspension controlled moving flaps on the tail. At Le Mans the CSI baulked at this, moving aerodynamic aids having been banned in motorsport. It was only when Rolf Stommelen demonstrated how undriveable the car was without the moving flaps that they relented and allowed them for Le Mans only. Throughout 1969 the car's speed was countered by the handling problems and it won only one race, the Zeltweg 1000km. Following that event, JW Automotive, who would be acting as a semi-works team in 1970, requested a test session with Porsche to try and sort out the car's problems.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917PA was an open-topped and short-tailed version of the original 917 and was built to compete in Can-Am racing. Only two cars were built by Porsche. The first never raced, and later became a test mule for an experimental flat-16 engine. The second car was entered in the 1969 Can-Am season by Porsche Audi, the North American distributors for Porsche (hence the PA designation), and driven by Jo Siffert. Compared to the dominant McLarens, the car was underpowered and overweight. Siffert's best result was 3rd at Bridgehampton, and he finished 4th in the championship. For 1971 the car was obtained by Vasek Polak who ran it for the next three years with the car gaining ever more aerodynamic aids, until by 1973 it resembled the 917/10 variant.


title: Porsche 917

text: The design of the 917PA's gently upswept tail was one of the contributors to the search for better handling of the 917 coupes, resulting in the 917K variant.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917K was an evolution of the original 1969 car. After the first 917s were run in 1969, it was clear the car's aerodynamics made it nearly undriveable at higher speeds. After the 1969 championship season had finished, John Wyer requested a 3-day test session at the Austrian Österreichring course. The Porsche technical team turned out ready to do some serious panel work on the coupe and in order to make a comparison, brought along the Can-Am 917PA Spyder. The drivers present instantly preferred the PA and together, the JW Automotive and Porsche engineers came up with the idea of a more upswept tail (as on the 917PA). The JW team had had similar high speed handling problems with the early Ford GT40 models. With gaffer tape and aluminium sheet, a completely new short tail was evolved at the racetrack. This was quickly converted into a 'production' design back at Porsche and the 917K (Kurzheck) made its public debut at the season opening 1970 24 Hours of Daytona. Such was the improvement in the stability of the car at high speed, the 917K became the standard configuration for all races except Le Mans, the Nürburgring 1000km and the Targa Florio. This car was raced at every event by JW Automotive and Porsche Salzburg in the 1970 season except the Targa Florio and the Nürburgring 1000 km. The smaller, more nimble and generally better suited 908/03s were used for those races, but privateers used the 917K at the Nürburgring 1000 km, and Vic Elford drove a lap of the 44-mile Targa Florio course in the 917K at Ferdinand Piëch's request. The 917K won 7 out of 10 races; all the races it competed in. Later on in the 1970 season, the 4.5 litre flat-12 was bored out to 4.9 litres, then 5 litres.


title: Porsche 917

text: This long tail, low drag version of the 1969 917L was purpose-built for the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans. Le Mans in 1970 was almost entirely made up of long straights and this version was designed to maximise the speed capability resulting from the increased power developed by the flat-12 engine over the previous Porsche types. The 1970 917L was largely based on the initial 1969 car. Nevertheless, factory driver Vic Elford had found the car's ultimate speed an advantage enough over its still questionable handling in the braking and cornering sections of Le Mans. It was 25 mph faster down the straights than the 917K and the Ferrari 512Ss. Two were entered in the 1970 Le Mans race, one by Porsche Salzburg and the other by Martini Racing. The Porsche Salzburg 917L was qualified in pole position by Elford, but retired with engine failure after 18 hours and the Martini 917L finished 2nd, five laps behind the winning Salzburg 917K of Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood.


title: Porsche 917

text: In an effort to keep up with other more powerful cars in the Can-Am championship, a 6.6 litre, 750PS (551kW, 739 bhp) flat-16 engined prototype was developed. It was tested in the original 917PA chassis, with the wheelbase extended by 270mm to take the longer engine. Although more powerful than the flat-12, it was also 80 kg heavier. Porsche decided that turbocharging the flat-12 would be more profitable, and the flat-16 was shelved.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917K was further developed for the 1971 season, and the car had vertical fins and two airboxes on the tail section for better aerodynamics and cooling. The fins retained the airflow over the rear part of the bodywork, allowing the deck height to be reduced for a given level of downforce. As a result, the 'finned' 1971 917Ks were faster than the 1970 versions and proved just as successful, winning seven of the eleven WSC races. A version of this model with a lightweight magnesium chassis won the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 1971 model was a further development of the 1970 917L and was also made specifically to compete in only one race: the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car was also more stable than its 1970 predecessor because ofa revised suspension set up and new bodywork with partially enclosed rear wheel covers and a redesigned front section. Two were run by JW Automotive and one by the Martini International team. Although Jackie Oliver qualified one of the JW 917LHs on pole position, none of the three cars finished the race.


title: Porsche 917

text: Three Porsche 917 Spyders were built for use in the German Interserie championship, rebuilt from 917s that had been crashed or otherwise written off. These cars were very successful, winning the 1971 Interserie championship.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917/10 was built for Can-Am racing, with a 5 litre engine, new bodywork and weight pared to a minimum. It was run in the latter part of the 1971 Can-Am season by Jo Siffert, with moderately successful results.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917/20 was a one-off experimental R&D car. It was made as an intermediate car to combine the low drag of the "Langheck" and the stability of the "Kurz", and was also a test-bed for future Can-Am parts and aerodynamic low-drag concepts. It was only raced once, at the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans where it was entered by the Martini International team and driven by Reinhold Joest and Willi Kauhsen. Known as the "Pink Pig" for its broad proportions, it was given a pink livery with names of meat cuts running over the bodywork. Although it qualified seventh and ran as high as third, it retired from the race after an accident caused by brake failure at Arnage while Joest was driving.


title: Porsche 917

text: The revised 917/10 was Porsche's first full-scale attempt at Can-Am for 1972. This car ran the 5.0 litre flat-12 and was modified to accommodate additional compression; two turbochargers were added to give the car tremendous horsepower. George Follmer won the championship in the Roger Penske car.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917/30, the final official iteration of the 917, is one of the most powerful sports racing cars to have ever existed. The car had all new bodywork, and the twin turbocharged engine was bored out to 5.4 litres giving it 1100–1580 horsepower, depending on the state of tune. These cars dominated Can-Am racing to such an extent that the series lost popularity in the United States. A total of six chassis were built.


title: Porsche 917

text: In testing, it soon appeared that the Porsche 917 did not work well on the race track. Porsche factory driver Brian Redman recalled that "it was incredibly unstable, using all the road at speed." Many thought that the 4.5-litre engine was too much for the frame. The suspension and the stability of the frame were suspected, but modifications did not improve the problem. It was finally determined that the "long tail" body was generating significant lift on the straights, as the 917 was faster than anything previously built for Le Mans . As with former under-powered Porsches, the 917 aerodynamics had been optimized for low drag in order to do well on the fast straights of Le Mans, Spa, Monza and elsewhere. The significance of downforce for racing was not yet fully realised although Can-Am and F1 cars were using wings by that time.


title: Porsche 917

text: Before its competition debut on 11 May 1969 in the 1000km Spa, the weather conditions prevented further improvements in tests. The Jo Siffert/Brian Redman car managed to clock an unofficial lap time of 3:41.9 which would have beaten the pole of 3:42.5 set by a Lola, but they chose to use the 908LH long tail with which they won the race and set the fastest lap at 3:37.1. Gerhard Mitter/Udo Schütz actually started the race from 8th, but their already ailing engine failed after one lap.


title: Porsche 917

text: Three weeks later for the 1000km Nürburgring, all works drivers preferred the 908 over the 917 which was, despite some modifications, not suited for the twisty track. As it was necessary to promote the car in order to sell the surplus ones, Porsche asked BMW for the services of their factory drivers Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester. They practised, but Munich declined permission to have them race, so Englishman David Piper and Australian Frank Gardner were hired on short terms. They drove the 917 to an eighth-place finish behind a Ford and an Alfa, while the factory's armada of six 908/02 spyders scored a 1-2-3-4-5 win after the only serious competition, a sole Ferrari 312P, failed.


title: Porsche 917

text: At the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 917s were quickest in practice. Soon after the start the poor handling of the 917 and the inexperience of one of the drivers resulted in drama: British gentleman-driver John Woolfe crashed his Porsche 917 at Maison Blanche on lap 1, dying as a result. Woolfe was the first privateer to race a 917. The works #14 917 led early, but succumbed to an oil leak, while the #12 dropped out of the lead and the race in the 21st hour with a broken gearbox, despite leading by nearly 50 miles. At the end, Hans Herrmann's 908 remained as the only Porsche that could challenge for the win, but Jacky Ickx's more powerful Ford won once again, by a mere .


title: Porsche 917

text: In June 1969, Enzo Ferrari sold half of his stock to FIAT, and used some of that money to build 25 cars powered by a 5-litre V12 in order to compete with the Porsche 917: the Ferrari 512 would be introduced for the 1970 season.


title: Porsche 917

text: At that time, the 917 already had several races under its belt, yet no success. The first win came in the last race of the championship season, the 1000 km Zeltweg. Jo Siffert and Kurt Ahrens succeeded in the privately entered Porsche 917 of German Freiherr von Wendt. At that time, the factory had started to focus on development, leaving the time-consuming trips to races to customer teams.


title: Porsche 917

text: Disappointed by the poor results of the 917 in 1969, and facing new competition, Porsche concluded an agreement with John Wyer and his JWA Gulf Team, which became the official Porsche team, and also the official development partner. During tests at the Österreichring at Zeltweg, works drivers Redman and Ahrens tested the car, and the car still performed like it did before. The Österreichring was the circuit where the car had won its only race at that time, Wyer's chief engineer John Horsman noticed that the bodywork had a pattern of dead gnats dashed against it, revealing the airflow. The tail was clean—the lack of dead gnats indicated that the air was not flowing over the tail. A modification to the tail was cobbled-up on the spot in the pits with aluminium sheets taped together. This new short tail gave the 917 much needed downforce. The plastic engine intake cover had already been removed. Redman and Ahrens were doing only one lap at a time before, they each did 10 laps and were satisfied with the improved performance. The new version was called 917K (, or "short tail").


title: Porsche 917

text: In addition to the heavier and powerful 917, the lightweight and compact Porsche 908/3 were developed for the slow and twisty tracks of the Nürburgring and the Sicilian mountain roads used in the Targa Florio, providing wins while the factory-backed 917 remained in the garages, as these cars were not suitable for these tracks. The 908/3 was built to the FIA's 3-litre Group 6 Prototype regulations whereas the 917 was now officially a Group 5 Sports Car following another FIA review of its racing classes, applicable from 1970.


title: Porsche 917

text: Wyer was surprised to discover that another team was carefully preparing for the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans with close support from Porsche. As in 1969, the Porsche Salzburg team was a "de facto" works team under control of members of the Porsche family. The Martini Racing team also gained support from Porsche AG; obviously Porsche made efforts to win the race by supporting more than one team.


title: Porsche 917

text: Also, a new low drag version of the 917 was developed for Le Mans with support from the external consultant Robert Choulet. The 917LH (Langheck) featured a spectacular new long tail body which had very low drag, yet more rear downforce than the 1969 long tail. A 4.9-litre engine, introduced at 1000km Monza, was available but these proved to be unreliable for longer distance races.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917 did not compete at all the races of the season, however. Porsche's previous competition model, the 908, was redesigned with an all-new chassis and designated 908/03 so it would be used at the Targa Florio and Nurburgring 1000 km events- two twisty, narrow and slow tracks the 917 was not competitive at. Vic Elford drove a 917 during practice for the 1970 Targa Florio and it proved to be so physically demanding and difficult to drive around the circuit that he had to be lifted out of the car, although he set the 5th fastest time. The 908/03 was very effective at these two races. Porsche's dedication was such that they were building cars for each type of track- the 908/03 for the slow, twisty tracks, the 917K for the medium and high-speed tracks, and the 917L for the fast straights of Le Mans.


title: Porsche 917

text: The favourite team to win, Gulf-backed JW Automotive, lined up three 917Ks, two with the 4.9-litre engine and one with the 4.5-litre unit.


title: Porsche 917

text: Two 917 LH were entered in Le Mans, one in white and red trim by Porsche Salzburg. Driven by Vic Elford and Kurt Ahrens, the pole sitter's 4.9-litre engine dropped an inlet valve after 225 laps. Both drivers had also been entered on the team's other car, a red and white 917 K with the 4.5-litre engine, qualified by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood in rather low 15th spot, but they did not drive after their own car failed.


title: Porsche 917

text: The other LH was entered by Martini Racing, qualified by Willi Kauhsen and Gérard Larrousse on 12th position. The spectacular livery of this car was elaborate whirls and swoops of light green on a dark blue background. The car with the 4.5L engine gained the nickname of the "Hippie Car" or the "Psychedelic Porsche" from the team and media.


title: Porsche 917

text: Early in the race, most of the works Ferrari 512 entrants eliminated each other in a shunt. The two Porsche factory teams, Gulf-Wyer and Porsche Salzburg, continued to battle each other, but all Wyer cars were out after 12 hours. At the end it was the red and white #23 917K of Porsche Salzburg, with the standard 4.5-litre engine, carefully driven by Stuttgart's own Hans Herrmann and Englishman Richard Attwood through the pouring rain, that finally scored the first overall win at Le Mans, in a wet race that saw only 7 ranked finishers. Martini's 917LH came in 2nd. Both cars were later paraded across Stuttgart. In addition to Porsche's triumphant 1, 2 victory, a Porsche 908 came in third overall, a Porsche 914-6 came in sixth overall (plus it won the GT class), and a Porsche 911S was seventh. (Two Ferrari 512s took fourth and fifth place overall.)


title: Porsche 917

text: Towards the end of the 1970 season, Ferrari entered some races with a new version of the 512, the 512M (Modificata). The 512M had a new bodywork built on a similar aerodynamic doctrine as the Porsche 917K. At the end of 1970 the 512M was as fast as the 917s, but still lacked in reliability.


title: Porsche 917

text: During the 1970 season the FIA announced that Group 5 Sports Cars would be limited to a 3-litre engine capacity maximum for the newly renamed World Championship of Makes in 1972, so the big 917s and 512s would have to retire from the championship at the end 1971. Surprisingly, Ferrari decided to give up any official effort with the 512 in order to prepare for the 1972 season. A new prototype, the 312 PB, was presented and entered by the factory in several races. But many 512s were still raced by private teams, most of them converted to M specification.


title: Porsche 917

text: By the end of 1970, Porsche had stamped their authority on endurance racing by convincingly dominating the championship that year. Of the 10 races in the championship (plus some other non-championship events), the works teams (JW Automotive and Porsche Salzburg) had won every race except Sebring (which was won by Ferrari) that year with the two models of cars they used, the 917K and the 908/03; with the 917K winning 7 of 8 events it was entered in; and the 908/03 winning at the Targa Florio and the Nürburgring (the 917K was not entered by the works teams at these two events). Still having some of their 25 cars remaining unsold, Ferrari offered them to customers at a bargain price – a move that had hardly been imaginable less than two years previously. For Porsche, the original production series of 25 917s could not satisfy demand. Over 50 chassis were built in total. An underdog for 20 years, Porsche had turned itself into the new leader of sports car racing with the 917.


title: Porsche 917

text: The season began with the JW Automotive team scoring a 1-2 finish at the Buenos Aires 1000km, Jo Siffert and Derek Bell leading Pedro Rodriguez and Jackie Oliver home. At the 24 Hours of Daytona, much was expected of the Roger Penske Ferrari 512M which qualified on pole, almost 1.3 seconds ahead of the fastest 917. However, mechanical problems plagued the Ferrari and it finished third, 14 laps behind winners Rodriguez and Oliver. At the 12 Hours of Sebring it was the turn of the Martini Racing team to triumph, Vic Elford and Gerard Larrousse taking the honours.


title: Porsche 917

text: The first upset came at the Brands Hatch 1000km. Ferrari and Alfa Romeo had turned their attention to developing cars for the forthcoming 3-litre regulations and the 312 PB and Tipo 33-3 were proving as fast as the 917s. At Brands Hatch, a large grid on the twisting, damp track suited the Italian cars and Porsche finished third behind the Alfa Romeo of Andrea de Adamich and Henri Pescarolo and the Ferrari of Jackie Ickx and Clay Regazzoni. The high-speed circuits at the Monza 1000km and Spa 1000km played to the 917's strengths and the JW-Gulf cars finished 1-2 in both races, Pedro Rodriguez and Jackie Oliver being the winners in both events.


title: Porsche 917

text: Throughout the season Porsche continued to develop the 917, introducing new versions of the short and long-tailed bodywork, and trying out a magnesium chassis, with which they would win the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans. The most interesting development was the 917/20, built as test-bed for future Can-Am parts and aerodynamic "low-drag" concepts. The 917/20 had done well in the early-season Le Mans Test and, following uncomplimentary remarks about its size and shape, was painted in pink for the 24 hour race itself, with names of cuts of meat written in German across it in a similar fashion to a butcher's carcass diagram. This earned it the nickname "Der Trüffeljäger von Zuffenhausen" (The Trufflehunter of Zuffenhausen, or just plain "Pink Pig". It qualified 7th and ran as high as 3rd, but during the night Reinhold Joest, co-driving with Willi Kauhsen, crashed the car at Arnage after its brakes failed.


title: Porsche 917

text: Also at Le Mans the revised Langhecks, now cured of their earlier vices, all failed to finish, although Pedro Rodriguez set a fastest qualifying lap which, partly due to circuit changes, still stands today. The winning car was the Martini Racing 917K of Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep, equipped with a magnesium frame, which set an overall distance record that stood until 2010. All in all, four separate Le Mans track records were broken that year: fastest qualifying lap, fastest in-race lap, highest top speed, and longest distance covered, all set by 917s.


title: Porsche 917

text: The Targa Florio and Nurburgring 1000km were again missed out by the works teams, although privateer Willi Kauhsen, partnered by Reinhold Joest took 5th place at the Nurburgring. The next race was another high-speed circuit, the Österreichring, where Pedro Rodriguez and Richard Attwood brought the only 917 finisher home in 1st place. The last race of the season, and the last race under the 5-litre capacity regulations, was the Watkins Glen 6 Hours. The Penske Ferrari again beat the 917 to the pole, but again suffered mechanical problems and failed to finish. However, the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 of Andrea de Adamich and Ronnie Peterson beat the JW Porsches to the flag by a margin of two laps. And with that, the 917's World Sportscar career was over. JW Automotive took a car to the non-championship Barcelona 1000km and the 1000 km of Paris, Derek Bell and Gijs van Lennep winning the latter event.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917's swansong came in 1972, when Wilson Fittipaldi won the last race in the Copa Brasil series in the ex-Zitro Racing 917K.


title: Porsche 917

text: As the new rules for the 3-litre prototypes were not favourable to their existing low-weight, low-power Porsche 908, Porsche decided against developing a new high power engine that could keep up with the F1-based engine designs of the competition — at least in naturally aspirated form. In 1976 they would return to sport-prototype racing with the turbocharged Porsche 936 race cars after the engines were tested in Porsche 911 versions.


title: Porsche 917

text: After their successes with the 917 mainly in Europe, Porsche instead decided to focus on the North American markets and the Can-Am Challenge. For that series, larger and more powerful engines were needed. Although a 16-cylinder engine with about was tested, a turbocharged 12-cylinder engine with comparable power output was ultimately used. The 917 chassis also had to be lengthened to accept the longer 16-cylinder engine, and drivers complained that this longer chassis did not handle as well.


title: Porsche 917

text: The turbocharged 917/10K entered by Penske Racing won the 1972 series with George Follmer, after a testing accident sidelined primary driver Mark Donohue. This broke the five-year stranglehold McLaren had on the series. The further evolution of the 917, the 917/30 with revised aerodynamics, a longer wheelbase and an even stronger 5.4 litre engine with around in race trim, won the 1973 edition winning all races but two. Charlie Kemp won the Mosport race, George Follmer won Road Atlanta and Mark Donohue won the rest. Most of the opposition was made of private 917/10K as McLaren, unable to compete against the 917 turbos, had already left the series to concentrate on Formula 1 and the Indy 500.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917's domination, the oil crisis, and fiery tragedies like Roger Williamson's in Zandvoort pushed the SCCA to introduce a 3 miles per U.S. gallon maximum fuel consumption rule for 1974. Due to this change, the Penske 917/30 competed in only one race in 1974, and some customers retrofitted their 917/10K with naturally aspirated engines.


title: Porsche 917

text: The 917/30 was the most powerful sports car racer ever built and raced. The 5.374-litre 12 cylinder (90.0 x 70.4 mm) twin-turbocharged engine could produce around at 7,800 rpm in race trim. The 917/30 dominated the Can-Am series during the 1973 season. The 917 was also the only championship winning car in Can Am not to be powered by Chevrolet.


title: Porsche 917

text: The car raced at Le Mans qualifying in the top 10 but retired after seven hours after a collision with a back marker led to a loss of oil and withdrawal.


title: Porsche 917

text: The final chapter though was to be at Brands Hatch where the car ran in the 6 hours at the end of the season. The car was competitive and ran at or near the front, including a spell in the lead until a suspension failure led to retirement.


title: Porsche 917

text: In 1969–71 production consisted of 43 naturally aspirated cars (36 K, 5 LH and 2 Spyders) and 16 turbocharged (13 917/10 and 3 917/30), for a total of 59 917s built. The table below summaries the racing history of each chassis. Multiple winners have each win listed, but otherwise only the best result for each chassis is mentioned.


title: Porsche 917

text: On 9 August 1975, Porsche and Penske would give the Can-Am car its final send off in style, when they took their 917/30 to Talladega to break the FIA speed record on a closed circuit. With Mark Donohue driving, the average speed reached was . As well as being the last official outing for the 917, it was the last major accomplishment for Donohue before his fatal accident in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix a week later. The record would stand until 1980.


title: Porsche 917

text: Several 917 coupés as well as 917/10s (powered by turbos or NA engines) were run in Europe's Interserie until the mid-1970s.


title: Porsche 917

text: Many 917 leftover parts, especially chassis, suspension and brake components, would be used to build the Porsche 936 in 1976.


title: Porsche 917

text: Several high end replicas that use the flat-6 from the 911 have been also be made. One is built in Australia by Kraftwerkz, another in the US by Race-Car Replicas.


title: Porsche 917

text: In addition, a grass roots "replica," the Laser 917, which is essentially a rebodied VW Beetle, was featured in the film "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo".


title: Porsche 917

text: The Gulf Oil liveried 917 "Kurzhecks' are also prominently featured in the Steve McQueen film "Le Mans" competing against Ferrari's 512 Coda Lunga.


title: Porsche 917

text: Aurora slot cars released some of these Porsche 917s in their AFX line-up, replicated to their original colours and markings. They were widely available in the early to mid-70s and were raced completely stock.


title: Gail Kim

text: Gail Kim-Irvine (born February 20, 1977) is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where she serves as a producer. In Impact Wrestling she was the inaugural and record setting seven-time Knockouts Champion and she also was a one-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion where Madison Rayne was her tag team partner winning the belt alongside her. She is also known for her two stints in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where she won the WWE Women's Championship in her first match.


title: Gail Kim

text: Kim began her career wrestling on the Canadian-American independent circuit, before joining WWE in 2002. She became the first WWE Diva in history to win a championship in her debut match. After being released by WWE in 2004, Kim joined TNA in September 2005. There, she joined the tag team America's Most Wanted as their valet. After the dissolution of the group, Kim performed as a singles wrestler, eventually becoming the inaugural TNA Knockouts Champion in October 2007. During her time in TNA, she had an acclaimed feud with Awesome Kong, which is generally considered one of the greatest women's wrestling feuds of the 2000s. She later left TNA in August 2008, to return to WWE three months later, where she remained until 2011. The following October she returned to TNA. In 2012, "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" named Kim the number one female wrestler in the world and in 2016 she was announced as the first female inductee into the TNA Wrestling Hall of Fame.


title: Gail Kim

text: After obtaining her degree from Ryerson University, Kim decided to become a professional wrestler and joined Ron Hutchison's School of Pro Wrestling in Toronto. She received supplementary training from Rob Etchevarria at the Squared Circle Pro Wrestling Gym. She debuted in December 2000, wearing a mask and wrestling as "The Queen of the Cats" La Felina in the Southern Ontario-based Apocalypse Wrestling Federation. She, however, was eventually unmasked by Tracy Brooks in a "Mask versus Hair" match. Kim worked on the Canadian independent circuit for two years, wrestling for promotions such as Border City Wrestling.


title: Gail Kim

text: After her release from WWE, Kim would make an appearance for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling on January 22, 2005 in South Korea, teaming with Lollipop in a tag team match, where they defeated Malia Hosaka and Nidia. On June 26, Kim made her debut for World Series Wrestling (WSW) in Melbourne, Australia, losing to Nidia in a singles match. Two days later at another WSW event in Sydney, Kim defeated Nidia in a rematch. The following night, Kim teamed up with A.J. Styles to defeat Nidia and Christopher Daniels in a mixed tag team match.


title: Gail Kim

text: Kim was introduced to World Wrestling Federation (WWF) employee Nora Greenwald (known on-screen as Molly Holly) by Jason Sensation in 2001; Greenwald encouraged Kim to send her videos and tapes to WWF officials. In October 2002, she was hired by the WWF, now renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). She spent eight months training in their then-developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and wrestled house shows and dark matches before being called up to their main roster. After several weeks of vignettes showcasing "Matrix"-like effects aired on "Raw", Kim debuted on June 30 as a fan favorite, with a "Matrix"-inspired outfit.


title: Gail Kim

text: Her first televised WWE match was a seven-woman battle royal on the June 30, 2003 episode of "Raw" with the WWE Women's Championship, then held by an injured Jazz, on the line. Kim won the match by lastly eliminating Victoria. Kim held the title for four weeks, successfully defending it once against Molly Holly, before losing it to Holly on the July 28 episode of "Raw". The following week, Kim turned heel on Trish Stratus, which stemmed from a previous "Raw" episode where Stratus cost Kim and herself a tag match against Victoria and Holly; Kim subsequently formed an alliance with Holly to take on Stratus, defeating her and various partners on several occasions, until Stratus was later assisted by Lita. At WWE's Unforgiven pay-per-view event on September 21, Stratus and Lita defeated Kim and Holly in a tag team match. The four women continued to feud until November, when Kim was sidelined with a broken right collarbone.


title: Gail Kim

text: Kim returned to "Raw" in April 2004 and immediately reforged her alliance with Holly. In May 2004, Kim submitted then-Women's Champion Victoria twice, in singles match and a six-woman tag match, earning herself a title shot at Bad Blood. However, Lita pinned Kim on the June 7 episode of "Raw", and Lita and Trish Stratus were added to the championship match. At Bad Blood on June 13, she faced Lita, Stratus, and Victoria in a Fatal Four-Way match for the WWE Women's Championship, which was won by Stratus.


title: Gail Kim

text: Kim participated in a battle royal on October 19 at Taboo Tuesday, which was won by Stratus. Kim, however, was released by WWE on November 3, 2004 as a result of cost cutting. Kim was caught off guard by her release and was told that management wanted to take the women's division in a new direction.


title: Gail Kim

text: Following her release from WWE and the expiration of her 90-day no-compete clause, Kim made sporadic appearances on the independent circuit, including at Michigan's All World Wrestling League and in Japan. She also competed in Korea and Mexico before being signed by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) on September 6, 2005. She made her TNA debut on the October 8, 2005 episode of "TNA Impact!", aligning herself with Jeff Jarrett and America's Most Wanted (AMW) (Chris Harris and James Storm) and taking on the role of AMW's and Jarrett's manager, and regularly got physically involved in the wrestlers' matches. Kim made her in-ring debut on July 16, 2006 at TNA's Victory Road pay-per-view in a Six Man Mixed Tag Team match with AMW against A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, and Sirelda. However, her team ended up on the losing end of the contest. At Hard Justice on August 13, Kim defeated Sirelda in a singles match.


title: Gail Kim

text: In early 2007, after the dissolution of AMW, Kim began a more active role as an in-ring competitor in TNA. This began with an on-screen feud with her former alliance, James Storm, and his new manager Jacqueline. The first encounter between the group was on February 11 at Against All Odds in a mixed tag team match, which Kim and her partner, Petey Williams, lost. On March 11 at Destination X, Storm and Jacqueline won a rematch against Kim and Williams in a Double Bullrope match. Kim went on to defeat Jacqueline in a Six Sides of Steel cage match on April 15 at Lockdown. Their feud came to an end on the May 3 episode of "TNA Impact!", when Kim defeated Jacqueline under street fight rules.


title: Gail Kim

text: After the conclusion to her feud with Jacqueline, Kim made two minor pay-per-view appearances in a short feud against Robert Roode, before outlasting nine other competitors in a ten-woman gauntlet match to become the inaugural TNA Women's Knockout Champion on October 14, 2007 at Bound for Glory. She made her first title defense on November 11 at Genesis, where she retained the renamed TNA Women's Knockout Championship by defeating Roxxi Laveaux, ODB, and Angel Williams. Kim then began a feud with Awesome Kong over the championship. Their first encounter occurred on December 2 at Turning Point, which resulted in Kim retaining the title due to a disqualification by Kong. On January 6, 2008 at Final Resolution, Kim defeated Kong in an acclaimed second encounter to retain the championship under no disqualification rules. In their third and final encounter in the main event of the January 10 episode of "TNA Impact!", Kong defeated Kim to win the TNA Women's Knockout Championship, however also suffering a concussion at the hands of Kong after being powerbombed in the ring three times.


title: Gail Kim

text: During the January 24 episode of "TNA Impact!", Kim was awarded the 2007 TNA Knockout of the Year award. Kim competed in a three-way match on March 9 at Destination X against Kong and ODB, which Kong won. On April 13 at Lockdown, she teamed with ODB to defeat the team of Raisha Saeed and Kong in a tag team match. On May 11 at Sacrifice, Kim won a TNA Knockouts Makeover Battle Royal, which involved a battle royal and then a ladder match with the two remaining competitors, to become new one contender TNA Women's Knockout Championship. Kim competed for the championship on the May 15 episode of "TNA Impact!", however failed to win the title. At Slammiversary on June 8, Kim teamed with ODB and Roxxi to defeat The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky) and Moose in a six woman tag team match. Kim then went on to defeat Love on July 13 at Victory Road. Kim then teamed with ODB and Taylor Wilde to defeat the team of Kong and The Beautiful People on August 10 at Hard Justice, in her last TNA pay-per-view match. Kim's final match with TNA aired on the August 21 episode of "TNA Impact!" in a losing effort to Kong under street fight rules. Kim left TNA in mid-August 2008 after her contract expired.


title: Gail Kim

text: After leaving TNA, Kim re-signed with WWE in late 2008. She made her return as a fan favorite on the March 27, 2009 episode of "SmackDown", interrupting a WWE Divas Championship match between the villainous Diva's Champion, Maryse and Michelle McCool by attacking both competitors. Kim made her in-ring return on the March 30 episode of "Raw" in an 18-Diva tag team match. She made her first WrestleMania appearance in the 25-Diva Miss WrestleMania battle royal on April 5, 2009 at WrestleMania XXV. On the April 17 episode of "SmackDown", Kim defeated then-Divas Champion Maryse. This earned her a championship match the following week, which she failed to win.


title: Gail Kim

text: On the June 29 episode of "Raw", Kim was traded to the Raw brand as part of a 15 wrestler tri-branded trade between Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. A few weeks later on the August 10 episode of "Raw", she became number one contender for the Divas title by winning a Fatal 4-Way match against Beth Phoenix, Kelly Kelly, and Alicia Fox. She, however, was unsuccessful in winning the championship on the August 17 episode of "Raw", when she faced then-champion Mickie James. At Bragging Rights on October 25, Kim, with Melina and Kelly Kelly, represented Raw in a losing effort to Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix, and Natalya, representing SmackDown.


title: Gail Kim

text: In early 2010, a tournament was held for the newly vacated Divas Championship, and Kim defeated Jillian Hall and Alicia Fox en route to the finals. The finals were held on the February 22 episode of "Raw", which Maryse won to become the new champion. The finals were originally to be held on February 21 at Elimination Chamber, but the match was changed to the team of Maryse and Kim versus Team LayCool (Michelle McCool and Layla), which was won by LayCool as a result of Maryse abandoning Kim during the match. Kim was a part of the losing side of a 10-Diva tag team match, against Team LayCool, Alicia Fox, Vickie Guerrero, and Maryse, at WrestleMania XXVI on March 28. At Fatal 4-Way on June 20, Kim challenged for the Divas Championship in a Fatal 4-Way match that also involved then-champion Eve, Maryse, and Alicia Fox, which Fox would win to become the champion.


title: Gail Kim

text: In early 2011, Kim participated in fewer matches on television, as she became the on-screen girlfriend of Daniel Bryan. She also began accompanying him to the ring during his matches. At that time, Bryan was managed by The Bella Twins (Nikki and Brie), and after they discovered Bryan kissing Kim backstage, they started a feud with her. The night after the Royal Rumble, Kim accompanied Bryan to ringside for his match against Tyson Kidd. After the match, the Bellas ended their association with Bryan.


title: Gail Kim

text: For the first half of 2011, Kim feuded with Melina, due to Melina's claims that Kim was a "horrible friend". The matches between the two mainly took place on "Superstars", and saw Kim emerging victorious in two singles matches on May 30 and June 23. On the August 1 episode of "Raw", Kim participated in a battle royal to determine the number one contender for the Divas Championship, however, shortly after the match began, she eliminated herself. Kim later explained that WWE had instructed her to get eliminated from the match within the first minute, so she decided to just eliminate herself. On August 5, Kim announced on her Twitter account that she had quit WWE following the incident. Kim later indicated that WWE did not grant her release, but would instead force her to stay with the promotion for the remainder of her contract. Kim's WWE.com profile was removed on September 30, indicating that she had officially left the company, and that her contract expired.


title: Gail Kim

text: Kim returned to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) on the October 20 episode of "Impact Wrestling", attacking TNA Knockouts Champion Velvet Sky and aligning herself with Madison Rayne and Karen Jarrett, thus establishing herself as a villainess. On the October 27 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Jarrett named Kim the #1 Contender to Sky's title, before she went on to defeat Tara in her first match back with the promotion. On the November 3 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kim and Rayne defeated TnT (Tara and Brooke Tessmacher) to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship. The following week they made their first title defense, defeating Velvet Sky and Mickie James. On November 13 at Turning Point, Kim defeated Sky to win the TNA Knockouts Championship for the second time, making her a double champion and only the second woman in TNA history, after her partner Madison Rayne, to hold both the Knockouts and the Knockouts Tag Team titles simultaneously. She made her first title defense on December 11 at Final Resolution, defeating Mickie James following interference from Madison Rayne. On the December 29 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kim retained her title against James following another interference from Rayne.


title: Gail Kim

text: On the January 5, 2012 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kim and Rayne retained their tag team titles against James and Traci Brooks. Three days later at Genesis, Kim defeated James by disqualification to retain the Knockouts Championship. On February 12 at Against All Odds, Kim successfully defended the Knockouts Championship against Tara, during which Madison Rayne walked out on her Knockouts Tag Team Championship partner. On the following episode of "Impact Wrestling", Rayne won a battle royal to become the number one contender to Kim's Knockouts Championship. In the following weeks, tension between Kim and Rayne began to be teased with the two negatively interfering in each other's matches. On the March 8 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kim and Rayne lost the Knockouts Tag Team Championship to Eric Young and ODB. On March 18 at Victory Road, Kim successfully defended the Knockouts Championship against Rayne. On the March 29 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kim and Rayne reconciled and remained together as a team. On April 15 at Lockdown, Kim defeated Velvet Sky in a steel cage match, following a distraction from Rayne, to retain her title. Afterwards, Kim went on a losing streak against Brooke Tessmacher, which led to TNA naming Tessmacher the number one contender to her title. On May 13 at Sacrifice, Kim defeated Tessmacher, pinning her with her feet on the ropes, for another successful title defense. On the following episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kim successfully defended her title against Tessmacher and Velvet Sky in a three-way match. On May 20, Kim became the longest reigning TNA Knockouts Champion in history by breaking Madison Rayne's previous record of 188 days. On June 10 at Slammiversary, Kim lost the title to Miss Tessmacher, ending her reign at 210 days. Kim received her rematch for the title on the July 12 episode of "Impact Wrestling", but was again defeated by Tessmacher.


title: Gail Kim

text: On January 13, 2013, at the Genesis pay-per-view, Kim competed in a five-woman gauntlet match to determine the number one contender to the TNA Knockouts Championship. Kim eliminated Miss Tessmacher, ODB and Mickie James but was eventually eliminated by Velvet Sky after referee Taryn Terrell failed to notice Kim's foot under the ropes. Kim was defeated on the February 21 episode of "Impact Wrestling", in a fatal four–way elimination match for the Knockouts Championship against champion Tara, Miss Tessmacher, and Velvet Sky after physical involvement from referee Taryn Terrell.


title: Gail Kim

text: On March 10 at Lockdown, Kim unsuccessfully challenged Sky for her Knockouts Championship, after interference by referee Taryn Terrell. Kim then attacked Terrell backstage during an interview. On the following episode of "Impact Wrestling", Terrell was placed on probation due to her actions. Later that night, Kim and Tara were defeated by Mickie James and Velvet Sky in a match officiated by Terrell, after Terrell violated her probation by slapping Kim. On the March 21 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Terrell was terminated as Knockouts referee by Brooke Hogan, who then immediately signed Terrell to the Knockouts roster. On the April 4 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kim and Tara defeated Terrell and Sky, with Kim pinning Terrell for the win. The rivalry between Kim and Terrell culminated in a Last Knockout Standing match on June 2 at Slammiversary XI, which Terrell won.


title: Gail Kim

text: On the July 11 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kim defeated Terrell in a ladder match to become the number one contender to the Knockouts Championship. Kim received her title opportunity on the July 25 episode of "Impact Wrestling", against champion Mickie James; Kim lost the match and afterwards, confronted referee ODB after she failed to see a dirty pin, beginning a feud between the two. On August 15 at "Impact Wrestling: Hardcore Justice", ODB pinned Kim in a three-way hardcore match, which also included James. Kim and ODB faced off once again in a number one contender two out of three falls match on the August 29 episode of "Impact Wrestling", which ODB won after making Kim submit for the first time ever in her career, to score the last fall. On October 20 at Bound for Glory, Kim defeated ODB and Brooke in a three-way match, following interference from her new ally Lei'D Tapa, to win her third TNA Knockouts Championship.


title: Gail Kim

text: Kim made her first televised defense on the October 31 episode of "Impact Wrestling", defeating ODB in a rematch. When Kim and Tapa attacked ODB on the December 12 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kim's former tag team partner Madison Rayne returned to help ODB.


title: Gail Kim

text: Rayne received her championship match on January 16 at "Impact Wrestling: Genesis", which she won, ending Kim's reign at 88 days. The rivalry between Kim and Rayne continued as the two competed in a street fight on the February 20 episode of "Impact Wrestling", which Kim won after a distraction by Tapa. At Lockdown, Kim was unsuccessful in regaining the Knockouts Championship in a steel cage match. On the March 13 episode of "Impact Wrestling", tension between Kim and Tapa began to show when Kim lost to the debuting Brittany after Tapa accidentally attacked Kim. After the match, a brawl between Kim and Tapa ensued, disbanding their alliance.