The 100 Acre Woods Rally is on its second day of competition and there are already some cool stories developing. Times are in thru stage 9 – “Westover Pandora” and yes, David Higgins and Craig Drew are winning.
FY Racing had an oil leak resulting in a fire that took them out of the race.
But their teammate David Sterckx is in second place and roughly 4 minutes off Higgins. Piotr Fetela is in third place overall and another 4 minutes behind Sterckx, putting him 8 minutes off the lead.
Brenten Kelly and Niall Burns are in 4th place overall and only a minute and 15 seconds or so out of 3rd place and a national podium spot. They had some drama yesterday with fuel and a control arm as Brenten explained on Facebook:
“We did have some drama today. Ran out fuel just a few miles before getting back to the first service. No time lost and no penalties. Also we managed to break a control arm bit at some point on the last stage of the first loop. Luckily the guys swapped it out like it never even happened. Sitting 4th national now.”
Brenten and Niall are the guys I’m watching today to see if they claw back a minute and spray some champagne. If you want to know more about these guys check out this cool interview they did last week for rally.
Nick Roberts and Rhianon Gelsomino are normally is at the top of the field with their awesome looking Subaru but had a bizarre map sensor failure:
“Unfortunately today when we were in the control waiting to start stage 2 and the map sensor that we had swapped over from the old car failed. We started the stage and stopped just after the beige board. After several minutes playing around with the car we were able to get the car moving again and to the finish of the stage. But unfortunately we had to retire on the transport to stage 3.”
Now we get to the craziest part of the rally. The two slowest classes in the series are in 6th and 7th place overall! Cameron Steely and Preston Osborn R1 Fiesta(roughly 120hp or potentially 155hp if he has the cams and other upgrades) is in sixth place! Photo below is from Sno*Drift but it was all that was on his Facebook page.
Even wilder is that James Robinson and Brian Penza in a B-spec Honda fit are in 7th place overall! So awesome that arguably the slowest car in the rally is now in the top ten and will finish 2nd on the podium in 2WD if they can maintain their lead!
Returning 2WD champion Andrew Comrie-Picard had a rare moment and clipped a log yesterday costing him approximately 20 minutes. I saw a rare moment as I can’t remember the last time Andrew didn’t have a perfect rally. The guy keeps the car on the road and while he drives fast, he keeps it under control. They made repairs and he currently sits 4th in 2WD and 14th overall, and about 18:30 seconds back from 1st in 2WD. But if he can pick up 8 minutes today he might grab a podium spot. Press on Andrew!
The regional component of a National Rally is run as two separate events(by the way, that is the only difference between the regional and the national other than the entry fee and where their times show up). So the first of the two Regionals finished after stage 9 and Justin Pritchard and Ryan Scott finished 1st overall in their Open Light Class 1993 Subaru Impreza. Matt Conte and his wife Laura Conte finished second in their 1991 Subaru Legacy. Justin and Ryan haven’t posted any pictures to their Facebook page so here is 2nd place finisher Matt Conte.
Henry Krolikowski and his wife Cynthia Krolikowski finished third in their 2000 Subaru Impreza. Again no pics on Facebook but this is their rally car.
If you’re looking for more info on the stories going on during the rally check out the Jim Beaver Down and Dirty Show from the Service Park. And if you missed the last rally, check out FY Racing’s recap of their event at Sno*drft below. Super well done and fun to watch. Enjoy. The next rally in the United States is NASA Rally Sport’s Sand Blast Rally next week on March 7, 2015.
Photos from Facebook and Jerry Winker(ComicOzzie).
Good stuff Bill, Thank you for putting this together.
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