Driving Sports

For the fourth year in a row, it was Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino’s turn to shine at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood. But the competition also proved that there are other stars in the Rally America sky, and they’re not all on the Subaru constellation.

For this rally, Mitsubishi Evo pilot Andrew Comrie-Picard teamed up with co-driver Robbie Durant, who formerly rode shotgun with Australian contender Andrew Pinker. Pinker’s former teammates Tanner Foust & Chrissie Beavis drove their 2009 Mitsubishi Evo X to the podium, and earned a tie with Comrie-Picard for first place in the season points standings. SRTUSA’s newest member, Dave Mirra, assisted by WRC veteran co-driver Derek Ringer, showed that he can get the job done in the new Super Production class.

Now you’re probably wondering, “Where’s Travis Pastrana in all this?” Well, together with co-driver Christian Edstrom, he was the shooting star of the event, rocketing to the top of the standings for 3 short stages before ending his day upside down in a ditch. The three-time Rally America champ had vowed to beat Block/Gelsomino this time, or crash in the attempt. That’s never a good line to say out loud before a rally; it tempts the gods to take you down a notch, and that’s what happened.

With Block/Gelsomino leading the rally from the first stage and Pastrana/Edstrom out of the picture, the big news from this event is the continuing strong performance by a number of teams, including Comrie-Picard/Durant, Foust/Beavis, and a pair of newcomers to the top of the Open class standings.

Standout teams include William Bacon and Peter Watt in a 2006 Mitsubishi Evo IX. This team finished a strong fifth at Sno*Drift, and they come to the game with a strong history in Canadian rally racing with Suzuki, including a P2 national class championship in 2004. This team came to 100 Acre Wood and picked up a pair of second place and another pair of third place stage results and earned the fourth place position in class and overall. Keep an eye on this team to break onto the podium as the season matures.

Andi Mancin and Maciej Wislawski drive a 2007 Mitsubishi Evo, and they finished fourth at Sno*Drift. They dropped to fifth at 100 Acre Wood, but that’s mainly owing to the strong performance by Bacon/Watt. The big noise from this team is that they won the final two stages outright, which is one more than Foust/Beavis claimed. Smart competitors will be checking their mirrors for this team as the season rolls on.

When all the mud-flinging was done, third place overall went to Foust/Beavis. The duo won just one stage, but turned up second on three stages and found third place in four more. That wasn’t enough to compete with Comrie-Picard/Durant’s four stage wins, three seconds, and five thirds, however. But an unlucky break on stage 5, including two spins, made Comrie-Picard’s margin over Foust just 15.5 seconds when all the stages were counted. The critical point here is that Block’s victory margin over Comrie-Picard was only 43 seconds on what has always been Block’s strongest rally of the calendar, so Comrie-Picard has to be wondering just how much time he lost with those spins.

No matter how you look at it, though, it seems that the Mitsubishi drivers may have SRTUSA’s number this year.

The other great groundswell of 2009 is the strong showing of the new Super Production class. Top performers in this class are contending near the top of the leaderboard – an area that was formerly the sole province of Open class cars.

The class results at 100 Acre Wood placed veteran PGT champions Matthew Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey first in their 2003 WRX, followed by Mirra/Ringer, and Piotr Wiktorczyk/Grzegorz Dorman third in their Super Production 2007 STI.

But that’s not the whole story. Mirra/Ringer led the class through most of the rally before falling to second place after a disastrous performance on Stage 14, losing over a minute to the competition. But along the way, Mirra and Ringer picked up an overall third place and four fourth place overall stage finishes – that’s including the Open cars, not just in the SP class. Furthermore, Wiktorczyk/Dorman picked up a second place overall stage finish on stage 9.

This year, even proven champions have to give all they’ve got to squeak out a class win in SP. With competition that close, SP has created another exciting championship battle right up at the top of the standings. That’s exactly what Rally America officials hoped it would do.

In the 2WD championship, victory at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood was claimed by Burak Tuglu and Carrie Wilburn, driving a 2001 Ford Focus. Second place in class went to Dillon Van Way and Joshua Knott, also in a Focus. Third place in class was won by Jim McClelland and Jon Price in a 1987 Toyota MR2.

The Rally America series now takes a break for the month of March and reconvenes in the Pacific Northwest, traveling to eastern Washington for the Olympus Rally on April 18-19.