100 Acre Wood Photo Contest Winners

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Mitsubishi Evolutions dominated the 100 Acre Wood Rally photo contest taking the top three fan and judging votes.

1st PLACE
From 3rd to 1st place, Scott Rains from Sturgis, MI takes a first place win in the 100 Acre Wood Rally photo contest! Previously, he took 3rd place in the Sno*Drift Rally photo contest. But his amazing journey to winning the 100 Acre Wood contest first began with finding a competitor’s rear bumper on a Sno*Drift Rally stage.

Scott happened upon the bumper when leaving a stage and wondered who it could belong to. After some Internet searching, he found a video of Andrew Comrie-Picard missing his brightly colored bumper and he called the team. Andrew said they would like the bumper back but did not have a way of retrieving it. So they asked Scott if he could bring it to the 100 Acre Wood Rally and in return they would give him a rally car ride at the testing stage.

Scott jumped at the chance. He took some time off work, arrived at the rally to give back the bumper, and got the ride of his lifetime. Afterwards, Scott was allowed on the testing stage where he captured his winning photo contest shot.

“I remembered this bump when I was in the car,” explained Scott. “I went back there and was able to take a series of shots and see what it looked like when I was jumping off that spot.”

For his first place win, Scott gets a free subscription to Subiesport Magazine and a Drivingsports DVD.


2nd PLACE
Dan Rabbitt from O’Fallon, MO took 2nd place in the 100 Acre Wood Rally photo contest with his stunning photo of Andrew Comrie-Picard powering through a corner.

“I thought this was a great photo because the car was spraying dirt and you could see the hills through the trees,” said Dan. “It just looked fast!” I think rally fans would agree with Dan, the picture is fast.

In his 5th year volunteering for the 100 Acre Wood, Dan shot the photo as a road marshal. He served an important purpose for the event organizers by keeping the stage secure from unauthorized access and was also given his own private corner. “I get a spot where other people don’t get to see!” exclaimed Dan.

It certainly was worth the effort since he captured a beautiful picture of ACP in one of the best rally environments. Dan expects to take some vacation time to take a trip to LSPR later in the year. He will be going to LSPR in style as the Rally America store is going to send him a shirt for his 2nd place photo.



3rd PLACE
Stephen Kempf from Ballwin, MO completes the winner’s circle with his photograph of Tanner Foust motoring through an afternoon stage with snow just beyond the horizon. Stephen explained that even the roads to the stage were icy, but the stage itself was devoid of any snow. Of course this played havoc with rally team’s tire choices and rally strategy. Some teams switched to snow tires only to find clear stages and lost time to teams who did not add snow tread.

Stephen comes from a family of gearheads, yet this was his first time to a rally race. “I’ve know the event chairman and his wife the past 25 years,” said Stephen. “They convinced me to come out and I volunteered as a road marshal. I have lots of family involved in short track racing, so going to a rally race has been a new experience for me.”

Though Stephen is used to seeing an entire track configuration from one viewing location, he had a great time in his marshal position and expects to return to the 100 Acre Wood Rally next year. “Rally is different. I appreciate the fans and the level of respect they had with the volunteers.”