See you at...
- Sunday, February 1, 2009
the 100 Acre Wood National Rally in Salem, MO on February 27-28.
Super Production...
- Sunday, February 1, 2009
Top three winners in the inaugural champagne spray.
Open Class...
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
Top three winners in open class celebrating at the champagne spray.
Car 319 Greenhouse/DeRose take inaugural 2WD win
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
Car 319 Greenhouse/DeRose took the inaugural win the new 2WD class. "We did not
do well in the two regionals, we got third and fourth, but we are really happy
with our finish in 2wd" stated co-driver Don DeRose.
Car 55 Sarasin/Kihurani got second; Car 600 Van Way/Knott finished 3rd in only
their 2nd Rally America event!
Pastrana gets vindication for last years deer faux pas
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
Car 199 Pastrana/Edstrom have unofficially won the 2009 Sno*Drift National
Rally. This is the first time that the two have been together since this event
last year. At that time, Pastrana and Edstrom were leading when a deer crash
ended their evening and hopes for a win - one year later, they have overcome.
Car 34 Foust/Beavis, in an unfamiliar Hyundai, have finished second overall.
They will be appearing in the future events in a Mitsubishi.
Car 20 Comrie- Picard/Goldfarb have succeeded in their goal of securing the
third and final podium spot.
short notes -
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
Car 93 Olson/Ketelson had a rough evening last night; specifically, on SS5 at
about 5.8 miles in, they got so stuck that all four wheels were off the ground.
They required a tug to get out after about 5-7 minutes in the snowbank. The
team was hopeful today to try and have a clean run.
Car 323 Zenz/Parps were hoping for a better day today than they had yesterday
(when they had three offs - one on SS2, SS3, and SS4); but it was not to be.
They turned their time card into the scoring department and have been listed as
a DNF. Despite going off three times yesterday, the team would like to thank
the workers and spectators, specifically, Matt Fischer and his crew. The team
was very confident in their Nokian tires.
Car 418 Keeney/Keeney are driving a new car that they debuted at Rally Colorado
a few months ago. This the first ice rally from Keeney and his frustration was
evident in the early stages today after several offs in the early stages
yesterday.
Car 585 Bell/Hyde went off on SS12 twice and looked as if those were not the
only two times; the wood bumper on the front was indicative to additional
problems.
Car 55 Sarasin/Kiruhani quite obviously lost time on the latter stages today;
however, after the battery finally failed on SS16, the team made a great amount
of time up even considering the lack of light pod!
Car 68 Bacon/Watt had been running in the 3rd position early, but spun on SS15
and SS17. Rally karma was alive and well as Matthew Johnson pulled Bacon out of
the snowbank as Bacon had done for him yesterday.
Car 40 Mirra/Ringer has been flying under the radar this weekend. The team is
busily working on learning to work together inside the car and are coming off
Mirra's first ever rally win at the Team O'Neil Rally in Dalton, NH last
weekend. The car appeared to have mechanical issues this morning ater several
stages. The crew reports it to be a bad transmission. Unlike the quick change
transmissions in Pastrana and Block's cars, the crew will still try and change
it in record time so as to get the car out of the 20 minute service on time.
Car 13 Pepp/Stang win first ever Super P contest
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
Car 13 Pepp/Stang are running this first Super P event in their former PGT car
with only the restrictor changed to meet s Car 13 Pepp/Stang wanted to maintain
their lead today. They brought out their former PGT car with only the restrictor
changed. They were able to maintain and have in fact won their class - followed
by Car 61 Wiktorczyk/Dorman and Car 811 Sozanski/Sozanski With the current
economic climate, the team is taking one event at a time, but are hopeful they
will be able to run the full season. If things go well, they have plans to build
a new Super car.
Car 55 Sarasin/Kihurani trying to get through the day
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
Car 55 Sarasin/Kihurani having been experiencing starter problems throughout
last evening and into today. Last evening, Kihurani had to help push the car
(in reverse) in order to bump start the car and from there, the starter just
kept disintegrating. Today, the alternator ceased to function and the car was
running totally from the battery; their hope was to just get through the day.
As the day has progressed, they have fallen further and further down the
grid.
Photo courtesy of: Pete Kuncis - www.onalimbracing.com
Car 600 Van Way/Knott still going...and going...and going!
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
Car 600 Van Way/Knotts had two offs at SS15 and both times were brought back
onto the course by the sweep truck. Van Way's second off was at the spectator
location and was pretty spectacular. The team was high centered on the top of
the snowbank (about 5 foot tall); the act of getting stuck on top of the
snowbank caused both left side wheels to pop the bead. Luckily, the team was
carrying two spare tires and were able to continue onto SS16 - with no time to
spare!
Unofficial results of the Sno Regional Rally and current standings in the Drift Rally
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
The top 3 in the Sno Regional Rally are as follows:
Car 44 Krolikowski/Krolikowski
Car 243 Fox/Blattner
Car 323 Zens/Parps
The top 3 running teams in the Drift Regional Rally are:
Car 44 Krolikowski/Krolikowski
Car 319 Greenhouse/DeRose
Car 243 Fox/Blattner
Leaderboard for Sno*Drift after SS13
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
The leaderboard is as follows:
Car 199 Pastrana/Edstrom 1:41:09.9
Car 34 Foust/Beavis 1:41:50.7
Car 68 Bacon/Watt 1:44:34.7
Car 20 ACP/Goldfarb 1:46:22.3
Car 176 Mancin/Wislawski 1:46:38.8
Car 744 Koll/Nunnemacher beat Pastrana?
Prior to a timing correction last evening, it appeared young Paul Koll was a
superstar - in a Golf, no less! Koll's conscience would not allow him to let the
impressive time to stand and let the appropriate timing officials know - but not
until after he teased his Dad, letting him think he beat Pastrana! While Koll
did not beat Pastrana by stage time; he did in fact, win the G2 battle in the
Sno Regional Rally.
Bacon wins two stages, still in 3rd position
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
On SS10 and SS13, Car 68 Bacon/Watts have set the fastest times. On SS10, Bacon
set a time only 1/10 of a second faster than leader Pastrana. Bacon is solidly
in the 3rd position - with more than 2 minutes in front of him and 1.5 minutes
behind him. While it is possible for Car 20 driver Comrie-Picard to catch Bacon
for the final podium spot, it is not probable unless Bacon experiences
problems.
Comrie-Picard stalled the car during one of the hairpins this morning, and were
unable to start the car afterward. At the service, ACP indicated that a series
of things were leading to a lack of confidence on the teams part, but that they
were very methodically dealing with each piece and working through them.
For those of you wondering about the Plan B Rally...
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
From the Plan B Rally Chairperson, Denise McMahon...
"Plan B has 14 entrees including two prior national competitors and Ryan Millen
(Rod Millen's youngest son).
Bill Holmes is here with his brand new ride - a very trick truck...
The competitors are on their way out for recce now...
We have some battles shaping up to happen at this event..This is the mostly
Group 5 and Group 2 field. Plus we have our first Open Lite class car!!!
I wish Sno-Drift guys the best but we are warmer here in the 70's at the moment
and should get up to 80's by the afternoon."
Cars are...
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
beginning to finish SS8. So far, Car 199 Pastrana/Edstrom, Car 34 Foust/Beavis,
Car 68 Bacon/Watt, and Car 20 ACP/Goldfarb have come through with no obvious
damage or trouble.
Car 20 ACP/Goldfarb still facing niggling problems
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
Car 20 ACP/Goldfarb struggled last evening with intermittent power issues while
they were able to diagnose the problem as the idle air bypass, as of yet, they
have been unable to fix it. "Yesterday, we were stalling at hairpins, we are
just happy there are not many today" stated driver Comrie-Picard. "Our goal for
the day is to overtake Car 68 Bacon/Watt and to let the front guys battle it out
and see where weare sitting at that point".
Car 68 Bacon/Watt beating personal best
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
A timing correction late last evening put distance into what promised to be a
tight battle for the third position, leaving Bill Bacon with some breathing room
on both sides. When asked how he felt about his current position, he indicated
that he was trying to avoid thinking about it - "I have never finished higher
than fourth in the States. We are just going to try and run a clean rally."
Bacon indicated he doesn't feel he can or will try to catch either the 199 car
of Pastrana or the 34 car of Foust.
Day two of Sno*Drift has started
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
Car 199 is leading the charge for day two of the Sno*Drift rally. This is the
first rally with veteran co-driver Christian Edstrom in the last year. In that
year, Edstrom had assumed a semi-retired state whilst raising his young family
and refocusing his energies back to work. Pastrana is clearly happy to have his
mentor and friend beside him; "Derek was awesome and I learned so much from
him, but I learned initially from Christian. I know from his tone what is
coming, I am so excited to have him back."
A little Sno*Drift humor...
- Saturday, January 31, 2009
referencing Car 199 Pastrana/Edstrom's rally ending accident of last years
event.
Cars are coming in...
- Friday, January 30, 2009
Very little has changed in the lineup of tonights race since the cars have left
service after SS4.
There is little to report on damage or survival of those cars still left except
to say that those still running have a singular focus on getting through the
evening - just trying to survive tonight so to be around and competitive
tomorrow.
The leaderboard is as follows:
Car 199 Pastrana/Edstrom
Car 34 Foust/Beavis
Car 68 Bacon/Watt
Car 20 ACP/Goldfarb
Car 176 Mancin/Wislawski
The one notable above is the amount of time that Car 68 Bacon/Watt made up; the
battle seems to be heating up now between Bacon, ACP, and Mancin for 3rd
position. Both Mancin and ACP struggled in the last few stages; ACP with
intermittent car issues, Mancin with learning the ropes of a new system.
Car 55 Sarasin/Kihurani is being reported as off, but ok, on SS8.
31 cars have finished SS8.
Some of the new changes...
- Friday, January 30, 2009
Car 34 Foust/Beavis are now driving a Hyundai Tiburon serviced by Libra
Racing.
Car 59 Moro/Rossey brought out the car that they used at X Games 14 this past
summer.
Car 46 Johnson/Wimpey has a new car sponsor, Sticker Dude.
Car 55 Sarasin/Kihurani are driving an Eagle Talon!
Car 199 driver Travis Pastrana is partnering again with Christian Edstrom;
Pastrana's co-driver of last year, Derek Ringer is riding with Rookie of the
Year Dave Mirra.
Car 93 Olson/Ketelson are in a new Subaru painted in a new "parched desert dirt"
paint scheme.
Heath Nunnemacher (normally Car 686 driver) is right seating for Car 744 driver
Paul Koll - "I am trying to teach him what not to do here at Sno*Drift".
Prior Bartram co-driver Dennis Hotson is co-driving for rally newcomer Rooney
(Car 47).
Stage 7 -
- Friday, January 30, 2009
is starting on time!
SS6 is still running and 31 cars have finished SS5.
Car 43 - Block/Gelsomino
- Friday, January 30, 2009
is being reported as off but okay on SS6. Apparently, Block went off - doing
heavy damage - on SS5, initially - likely causing the final off on SS6.
Small notes
- Friday, January 30, 2009
Car 606 Balda/Topor "stuffed it" on SS3, they were able to get out on their own
and continue on.
Car 667 Donlin/Sherwood were missing part of their bumper, their lights were
hanging on tenuously. The front of the car was stuffed with snow, indicating a
rough "Ranch" stage!
Car 47 Rooney/Hotson had minor damage to the front of their new 2009 Subaru. It
appeared to be damage incurred by just cutting into the corners too tight.
Car 61 Wiktorczyk/Dorman are having problems of an undisclosed nature; they have
been running at the end of the pack throughout the latter part of the evening.
It is believed that he had an off on SS5 and lost a lot of time trying to get
out.
585 Bell/Hyde came in on a rope.
Car 59 Moro/Rossey DNF
- Friday, January 30, 2009
Car 59 Moro/Rossey is the car that is off at the end of SS4. He had passed
Johnson on stage (Johnson had a minor off), and had been pushing to keep ahead
of Johnson.
Moro slid on the ice and over the bank, into trees. In an effort to avoid the
carnage, Johnson slid into a snow bank and was able to be pulled out some time
later when Dave Mirra (Car 40) tugged him out. Unfortunately, Moro’s night is
over as the radiator, timing cover, and frame rail are damaged. Moro is hoping
to attend 100 Acre Wood. Until their car went off, Moro was very happy with how
the car was handling.
Stage 4 finishes
- Friday, January 30, 2009
Stage 4 has finished. It has been reported that several cars may have had offs
near the finish of this stage.
Car 811 - Sozanski/Sawicki has moved down in starting positions at least 4
minutes below where he started the rally; Cars 13 (Pepp/Stang) and 55
(Sarasin/Kihurani) have moved up equally as far. This is the first rally for
Kyle Sarasin in the Eagle Talon and is viewed as his attempt to keep his X Games
hopes alive. Car 418 Keeney/Keeney arrived at the start of SS4 as much as 7
minutes late.
WORKS at Sno*Drift to support the ACP Rally effort
- Friday, January 30, 2009
ACP Rally and WORKS Motorsports will continue to work together at SNO*DRIFT
RALLY: The season opener of the Rally America 2009 season.
Rally driver and WORKS shop Foreman Lars Wolfe will not be behind the wheel this
time, but instead will be lending his mechanical expertise to help ACP finish
the Sno*Drift rally. Accompanying Lars to the Snowy North is long time Works
engineer Dave Lee. An expert in all things Mitsubishi and Subaru, Lee will
provide the team with on site ECU tuning and any other engineering assistance
that might be required. Piloting the EVO IX is former Sno*Drift champion Andrew
Comrie-Picard.
Following up his second place finish in 2008, ACP is a favorite to take the top
spot on the podium of this years Rally. WORKS is proud to support Rally America
and the ACP Rally team effort and is looking forward to launching their own
rally debut at the Olympia rally in Washington this coming April.
From Wolfe, “prior to the Ceremonial start of the rally and after only one
practice run, ACP reported there was some issues with the car. The crew found
the problem to be issues with the clutch. Not able to fix it on site, they took
the car back to headquarters and began repairs. I jumped in right away, feeling
quite comfortable with the job ahead and guided the team in removal of the
transmission. When apart they found a catastrophic failure of the throw out
bearing witch damaged the pressure plate in the process. The team replaced the
assembly and reassembled the car in an amazing 3 hours allowing ACP to make the
start of the race. And at the first service of the day ACP reported the there
was a stalling issue with the car. Dave equipped with his experience with Motec
studied the problem, and after the end of day one, stayed late into the night
and early into the morning, finding the problem and doing his best to keep ACP
in the race for the second day. And with the day one gone the team found them
selves in 4th place overall for the event.”
About WORKS:
Established in 2003, WORKS is a Northern California based motorsports firm that
specializes in the engineering, design and production of performance products
for racing and street application. Deeply rooted in the Mitsubishi tuning
community WORKS has close ties to the factory and prides itself on designing
products that combine performance with OEM levels of quality and reliability.
Today, WORKS serves a large cross section of performance makes and models and is
widely considered an industry leader in the aftermarket performance and racing
community. For more information - www.worksmotorsport.com
Notes from SS4
- Friday, January 30, 2009
The cars have started to arrive at the start of ss4. Right now, the top five
cars are here with no visible damage.
Some small notes from earlier are:
Car 20 Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb - after an off on the practice stage and an
apparent clutch issue that they tried to fix before the start, they appeared to
have not resolved the clutch issue at the start of ss1. They are nearly one
minute off the pace of the top cars. More information to follow.
Car 176 Mancin/Wislawski appears to have a suspension issue as it was bouncing
heavily on its entry into SS4.
Rally America announces changes for 2009
- Friday, January 30, 2009
Rally America, in its infinite quest to improve itself, has made several
significant changes this year.
The first change impacts the entire national series. Instead of the prior 6
classes (Open, Group N, PGT, Group 5, Group 2, P); the sanctioning body has
minimized the amount of classes to 3 - Open, Super P, and 2 wheel drive.
The second change was to announce the competitors conditionally chosen for the X
Games. Normally, the competitors are not chosen this early in the season. Rally
America has announced conditional invitations to the top 8 competitors for X
Games 15; those eight competitors are:
1. Car 199 Travis Pastrana – Davidson, MD
2. Car 34 Tanner Foust – Steamboat Springs, CO
3. Car 43 Ken Block – Rancho Santa Fe, CA
4. Car 40 Dave Mirra – Greenville, NC
5. Car 55 Kyle Sarasin – Marquette, MI
6. Andrew Pinker – Perth, WA Australia
7. Car 20 Andrew Comrie-Picard – Toronto, ON Canada
8. Car 46 Matthew Johnson - Apex, NC
More details on both stories to follow.
Sno*Drift is underway
- Friday, January 30, 2009
The First Round of the 2009 Rally America National Championship, Sno*Drift, is
underway.
There are 35 competitors starting the Sno*Drift National Rally and the
concurrently running Sno Regional Rally.
The drivers meeting will commence at 2 pm and the first car is due to start at
2:31 pm.
There were only three cars in the seeded draw - Travis Pastrana, Tanner Foust,
and Ken Block. The starting order is Pastrana, Foust, Block, Comrie-Picard, and
Johnson.
