Various news sites are totally blowing a small accident Richard had over the weekend in the Britcar 24 hour race at Silverstone out of proportion. Don’t fret — it was just a small collision he had with another car. Things like that happen during racing. They are just hyping it up to sell more papers and such.

That’s right, those lucky bastards down in Australia are going to be able to see the MPH show themselves, a car show / live Top Gear thingy hosted by Clarkson, Richard, and James reports GoAuto.com.au. It will be sometime within the next 18 months according to the article.

For those who don’t remember or weren’t around at the time, shortly after Richard’s crash in the dragster, we collected donations and used them to buy a helmet and have it custom painted just for Richard. It took a while, but we finally got it to him earlier this year (full backstory there as well).

In an upcoming episode of Top Gear, Richard will be using a Bugatti Veyron for a segment (I won’t spoil why, but it’s pretty damn cool). Photos have emerged online of him in the car and he just happens to be wearing a familiar helmet.

Sweet, huh? I’m giddy with pride. More photos and discussion right here.

Photos of our helmet after the jump »

GQ, a popular men’s magazine, has voted Richard their TV personality of the year. Congratulations, Richard!

Back in September, not long after Hammond’s terrifying crash, we started a donation fund in order to get something nice for him. After a long discussion on what to get him, we finally decided to get a custom painted racing helmet.

Well after months of work (coordinating, airbrushing, etc.), Hammond has finally received his helmet! No word back from him yet, but you can get more details and see pictures in this thread on our forums.

Thanks again to all who donated and helped us get him this gift!

Someone was kind enough to upload the following video to YouTube. It’s been squished to the wrong proportions by YouTube and is kinda crap quality, but it’s the only rips we can find of the other commercials that are airing for the show, so take it or leave it.

Images of Richard Hammond’s 288 MPH crash from last year are in this month’s Top Gear magazine. A preview can be found at TopGear.com. An article by Richard (and some photos) are also in today’s Daily Mirror. You can discuss both on our forums.

Video of the crash will not be shown (as far as I know) until the first episode of the new season of Top Gear which starts on January 28th. Details on that episode can also be found on our forums.

Richard won’t be on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross until tomorrow, but BBC News has a preview up now. I’ve taken the liberty of ripping it and uploading it to YouTube for you all:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/richard_hammond_thanks.shtml

Hammond says thanks

After the accident you flooded us with messages of support and in some cases, offered body parts (including a testicle or two), should Richard need them. As it turned out, Richard had no use for an extra testicle (his were unharmed in the crash). He did however appreciate all your messages.

“I’d just like to say a sincere thank you to everyone. If you send a ‘get well soon’ message to someone who’s on the telly, it’s easy to think it doesn’t matter. But it DOES make it difference. When I was in hospital lying there all propped up, the cards and well-wishes I received really did make a huge difference. Thank you again very, very much.”

Yeah, this article is a few days old, but I still thought I’d point it out to those of you who haven’t seen it (I forget that not everyone visits our forums).

Richard Hammond celebrated his first day of filming for the new series of Top Gear by attending the TG Cars of the Year Awards last Thursday.

Lego’s Andy Woodman presented Richard with a scale model of the infamous Vampire jet car and a Lego version of the Top Gear studio set, complete with presenters and, of course, a tiny Stig. This followed Richard’s recent announcement that playing with Lego blocks had aided his swift recovery.

More details and pictures at TopGear.com.