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www.100aw.org The stages at 100AW are an interesting mix of extremely fast and flowing stages and tight technical ones. The surface consists of pea-sized gravel over a hard packed base. Friday's more open stages favored the power open class cars and the Subaru factory team of Block and Pastrana looked to be dominant. For Team RalliSpec, it was a new co-driver in the hot seat so the first stage was somewhat of a learning experience. Rebecca Greek had stepped in at the last minute and proved to be up to the task. By special stage 2 the pair was already starting to gel and managed a fifth fastest stage time nearly 4 seconds quicker than Pinker over the four miles. However, it all seemed to go out the window on SS3 when the team suffered total brake failure near the end of the stage. They were barely able to get the car stopped for the finish control and clearly had lost a few seconds near the end. Nursing the car into service the team's mechanics identified a broken brake line as the culprit but the team had no spares. For the short 'Haul Road' tarmac stage the team was forced to run with the one brake caliper pinched off requiring frantic brake pumping at every approach to the immovable chicanes set up on the stage. Fortunately for RalliSpec the stage was followed by another service stop and their crew had managed to source a replacement brake line thanks to the Paladin Rally crew.
The final service of the day seemed to be routine until Dave went to fire the car to leave. "I turned the key and got nothing. It was a sinking feeling because we had no time to do anything." What they didn't know was that the starter solenoid wire had been knocked off during a huge impact with one of 100AW's infamous low water bridge on the previous stage. The service crew scrambled to push start the car and get them on their way without incurring any penalties. The team started the final three stages with a bit of trepidation knowing that they absolutely could not stall the car. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened on the penultimate stage. Dust had been an issue all day but as darkness fell it became a serious problem. Anton recalls, "I punched through a cloud of dust mid-stage only to find we were almost on top of a ninety degree left turn. I was on the brakes hard but just couldn't get it slowed enough to turn in so I let the car loop around and it stalled. It was a disaster". Nearby spectators were initially prevented from helping to push start the car until at over two minutes had passed. Once underway the crew lost a further 30 or 40 seconds to the dust of Mark Utecht who had just passed them as they got underway. It was a devastating end to a hard fought rally even if it was only for overall position and not class position. The team finished in 12th place overall, easily 4 or 5 places lower then they would have been without the stall. The team's next Rally America event will be STPR in June. Photos by Lars Gange courtesy of Subaru of America (www.rally.subaru.com) |
The team finished their first rally of the season by claiming 2nd
in group N at 100 Acrew Wood. Having chosen to sit out Sno*Drift
for logistical reasons, this was their first opportunity to size
up the competition in 2006. Unfortunately much of the competition
in group N was absent. In particular, the NCRally team of Otis Dimiters
had stepped into an open class Subaru from Autosport Engineering
after their group N Impreza suffered yet another engine problem
on the practice stage. RalliSpec would start the rally with only
the STi of Andrew Pinker as their class competition, but he would
prove to be tough competition indeed. The crew of Pinker and Durant
had already shown at Sno*Drift that they were quick enough to challenge
the open class cars for the overall win.
The
start of Saturday's stages saw RalliSpec starting to lose touch
with Andrew Pinker despite their best efforts. The team recorded
another two 5th fastest stage times on SS8 and 11 but by this time
Pinker was pulling as much as a second or two per mile on them nearly
every stage. 6th fastest stage times on SS14 and 15 showed that
RalliSpec was not holding anything back but just didn't have the
speed to keep up with Pinker who now had the speed to keep up with
the open class cars on these more technical stages. |
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