Driving Sports

When they landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, the Puritans who settled in New England believed that one’s soul could be stolen if one wandered alone into the woods. While they were mistaken about the soul thing, they certainly had no idea what else could be lost in the dense forests of America - including season points, bragging rights, and a shot at the X Games.

Before we get into the blow-by-blow, let’s introduce Niall McShea, who hopped over the pond to give Rally America a try. McShea, of Enniskillen, Ireland, is a past P-WRC champion from 2004 with a list of European rally credentials as long as your arm. His co-driver, Marshall Clarke, also brings P-WRC experience with McShea, including a win at Rally Ireland in November of 2007. The pair arrived to compete in a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

It may have been simple coincidence that brought McShea and Clarke to New England for this event, but this rally was also the last chance qualifier for next month’s X Games rally in California. As such, the top-finishing team not already qualified for the X Games would walk away from this event with the coveted X Games invitation in hand. Series regulars Andrew Pinker and Robbie Durant were definitely hoping for that slot, having been frustrated throughout the first half of the season.

Also notable before the rally got underway, championship contenders Tanner Foust and Chrissie Beavis, Nathan and Brandye Conley, and Kyle Sarasin and Mikael Johansson did not make the northeast leg of the 2008 championship. So the event started out missing three of the brightest stars in the Rally America firmament. These teams have already secured their X Games invitations and so their absence may have been strictly strategic in advance of the media festival at the X Games.

Still, points leaders Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb came to solidify their lead, and Ken Block/Alessandro Gelsomino came to regain their early season momentum after a chain of hard luck incidents in Oregon and Pennsylvania. The SRTUSA teammates recently won the Canadian Baie de Chaleurs rally, but while that certainly feels good, it does not confer any points in this championship. Two-time champion Travis Pastrana and new co-driver Derek Ringer (himself a WRC veteran) also came to gain some momentum in what has been a difficult season so far. Subaru Rally Team USA again brought the new 2008 WRX STI cars to New England Forest after a disappointing first outing at Susquehannock Trail in June. 

It seems the roads to Los Angeles and to the season championship both run straight through Bethel, Maine.

With all that hanging in the balance, New England Forest covers 103.2 stage miles in two days, on technical roads through some of the most beautiful territory in North America.  With the level of competition in the Rally America series dialed up to eleven this year, anything could happen, and that’s just how it worked out.

The rally started with a pair of short Super Special stages at ½ mile apiece. Pinker/Durant came out strong, winning stage 1. But Block/Gelsomino were right on their heels just .4 seconds behind, joined by the newcomers McShea/Clarke who scored the exact same time. Antoine L’Estage/Nathalie Richard came fourth in their 2007 Hyundai

Tiburon, followed by Pastrana/Ringer and Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb. At the second stage, Block/Gelsomino took the win, with Otis Dimiters and Dominik Jozwiak in their 2007 Subaru Impreza taking second place just 0.2 seconds behind, and Pastrana/Ringer matching that time. McShea/Clarke dropped to 9th on this stage, but still just 1.6 seconds behind the winning time.

As the real forest stages got underway, Pinker/Durant came back to the top, winning the 9.9-mile South Arm S. stage. McShea/Clarke finished second, just 2.6 seconds behind, and Block/Gelsomino came in third, a scant 0.4 seconds behind the Irishmen. On stage 4, a reverse of South Arm S., McShea/Clarke claimed their first stage win of the rally, followed by Block/Gelsomino a full 12 seconds behind. L’Estage/Richard showed their mettle here, finishing a half-second behind Block/Gelsomino. 

The 5.6-mile Concord Pond stage was won by Block/Gelsomino, who had no intention of laying down to let the newcomers run away with the rally. But the Irish duo came in a strong second, 1.6 seconds out of the stage win. L’Estage/Richard were third, 4.3 seconds off the leader’s pace.

On the 15.1-mile Dillon-Success stage, L’Estage/Richard brought home the win for Hyundai, followed by McShea/Clarke 6 seconds later. Block/Gelsomino delivered a solid third place performance 0.8 seconds behind McShea/Clarke. But stage 7, the reverse Success-Dillon run, saw McShea/Clarke back on top, followed by L’Estage/Richard 5 seconds back, and Block/Gelsomino 9 seconds behind the leaders.

At the end of Stage 7, McShea/Clarke were leading the rally, with Block/Gelsomino just about 19 seconds down in second. L’Estage/Richard sat in third position, another 5 seconds behind. Pinker/Durant languished in fourth place, almost a minute behind the leaders, with their X Games hopes rapidly fading. 

Notably missing from the top of the stage standings was Pastrana/Ringer, finishing no higher than fourth place except on stage 2, where they finished third. But that was to change on stage 8, which the champ won  the 17.4-mile South Mountain stage. Pinker/Durant came back to finish second with the exact same stage time as Pastrana/Ringer, with L’Estage/Richard 5.1 seconds behind. McShea/Clarke finished fourth, 13.2 seconds behind Pastrana/Ringer.

But the joy at SRTUSA was over, because Block/Gelsomino fell out of the race on Stage 8, sidelined with a suspension failure after striking a large rock. The team’s hopes were now pinned solely on Pastrana/Ringer, trusting the champ’s ability to pull a New England Boiled Lobster out of his hat.

But it wasn’t to be, as stage 9 saw McShea/Clarke solidify their lead over 13.7 hard miles, beating L’Estage/Richard by 1.2 seconds. Pinker/Durant took third on the stage, 6.9 seconds behind the leaders. Pastrana/Ringer finished a disappointing 6th, over 35 seconds late to the finish control.

The final stage of the rally was the 15.5-mile Middle Dam Out road, and McShea/Clarke dominated again to bring home the win and an invitation to L.A. The pair beat Pinker/Durant by a staggering 25.7 seconds, with Pastrana/Ringer in third, 50.1 seconds behind the former P-WRC champ.

When the scores were totaled up, McShea/Clarke had won the rally by 1:18.9 over Pinker/Durant. Pastrana/Ringer claimed third place, 2 minutes and 43 seconds behind McShea/Clarke. Former points leaders Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb finished in 12th place, 23 minutes and 28.8 seconds behind the leaders. However, it should be noted that 10 minutes of that deficit was a penalty for illegal (but necessary) service after breaking a driveshaft early in the event.

Group 5 honors went to Christopher Duplessis and Catherine Woods in their 1990 Volkswagen GTi, and the Production GT win went to Rally America stalwarts Amy BeberVanzo and Ole Holter in their 2006 Subaru WRX. Jen Horsey and Jim Dechamp took the Production win in their 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer. No Group 2 cars finished the national portion of the event.

Among the DNFs were L'Estage/Richard, who retired on the last stage due to a mechanical issue. Block/Gelsomino were sidelined with suspension damage, as were “Cowboy” Kenny Bartram and Dennis Hotson. Series regulars Matthew Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey retired with a blown engine in their Hankook Tire-sponsored WRX.

As the teams pack up for the long drive to the California coast, Niall McShea and Marshall Clarke have earned that last chance invitation to the X Games in their Mitsubishi Evo, Travis Pastrana and Derek Ringer have moved into first place in the season points standings on the strength of their podium finish, with Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb falling to second. The once-unstoppable Ken Block and Alessandro Gelsomino currently sit third in the season points.

After the X Games extravaganza, which carries no season championship points, Rally America gets back to business with the Ojibwe Forest Rally, held in Bemidji, Minnesota on August 22-23. Only three events remain in the 2008 championship season, and as the first 6 events have shown, absolutely anything can yet happen.