This past weekend we participated in the second round of the United States Rally Championship at Rally New York USA. Coming off our unexpected podium finish in the winter rally in January we tried to get our heads out of the clouds and realize that miracles can happen and everyone once in a while gets lucky. We composed ourselves for the next challenge, high speed tarmac on the technical roads of Walton/Monticello New York.
We departed Thursday morning from our home base, giving ourselves enough time to tech, sticker the car and run through the days recce. With our chicken scratch in our notes, car all jazzed up with numbers we were ready for Fridays competition.
Friday started off rough as we incurred a 3 minute penalty, which we protested to no avail, giving us a very tough disadvantage. There was a confusion that wasn’t settled between the stewards and the seeded starting list. With that behind us, we erased that from out thoughts and focused on driving. We set up camp for the day in Monticello’s service park and got ready for the 6 stages of the day.
After two stages the rain started to come down. We moved up one spot, subtracting the 3 minute penalty, to 5th overall. As the rain came down, along with the lack of true rain tires, we slipped a spot back to sixth overall and ending the day. We managed to keep the car in one peice, but a miss shift at 115+ MPH, or what we think is the culprit, cost us reverse. The upside was you don’t need reverse in rally unless you spin so we needed to keep our nose clean for the Saturdays 12 stages.
After stage 4
A slippery R4 on stage 4
With a bright and early start to Saturdays action we found ourselves on the fastest stages of the event in the Mountains of Walton New York. It would consist of three different chunks totalling 84 miles each, making for a very long day in the car. The roads were warming up in the early sun and the straights warranted speeds +/- 125 MPH for us. The views were fantastic and the weather seemed to change like the wind. We did not just experience stints of sunshine but also a drizzle, a hail storm and periods of snow throughout the day making speed and braking choices a bit difficult. Taking a few stages to wake up, and with some luck, we found ourselves back to 5th overall and set the 4th fastest time on stage 8. The glory would be short lived as we ran into a moment on stage 9 that would cost us some seconds but kept our 5th place for the next few stages. After settleing into a groove and regrouping we continued to chug along batteling with Bill Petrow, trading stages which would continue to the end of the event.
As the day came to a close we managed to set the 2nd fastest times on SS15, SS16 and SS17 to finish up a fantastic event! Even with the 3 minute penalty we took 6th overall and even more rewarding was a 3rd place in Saturdays regional scoring!
Little OEM handbrake action on Steve Bogart SS
We would like to thank our supporters; EFI Logics for keeping the car running like a top and Voodoo Graphics (Sunshine Sign) for working with a short deadline to re-wrap the replaced parts from the last event. We’d also like to thank all our fans who follow our progress through our first year of rallying, we like to hear feedback and hang it sideways for you!
Lastly we’d like to thank our families and close friends who not only put up with us but help out whenever, wherever possible! We would not be here without you!
Our next event is tentatively New England Forest Rally where we will be competing in Rally America’s format against the big boys July 16-17th in Bethel Maine!