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www.coloradocogrally.com The Colorado Cog rally, held over two days in the mountains near Steamboat Springs, showed how truly unpredictable it can be by throwing snow, rain, and hail at competitors right up to the start of the rally. Saturday's weather was overcast with intermittent rain but Sunday's weather cleared up. This made for exceptionally tricky conditions as grip levels were changing constantly and could vary dramatically within a single stage. Teams scrambled to find the best tires for the conditions. Anton teamed yet again with co-driver Jozwiak and the pair immediately set a fast pace, with a stage time 5th quickest on the first stage. Despite feeling that he had been too conservative through the 4 mile stage, Anton was still only one second slower than Subaru's open class factory driver Ken Block. However, an attempt to turn things up on the next stage would prove costly as the pair slid wide at a slippy corner into a culvert, damaging the body work but fortunately throwing them back onto the road, although pointed the wrong direction. The rest of the day did not seem to get much better for the team. Stage 7 saw them flirt precariously with disaster as they hung the back end of the car way off the road after sliding wide through a muddy section. Anton recounts the moment: "We came into the left hander just before the spectator area not really anticipating how slick the muddy portion of the corner was going to be. Next thing we knew the nose of the car was pointed skyward but I just powered through it and the car pulled itself back on the road. The crowd seemed to love it even if my co-driver didn't!". That was followed by a flat midway through stage eight after finding a hidden rock on the inside of a corner.
Several RalliSpec-sponsored teams had excellent results at Colorado Cog. Matthew Johnson took 1st place honors in the Production GT class using RalliSpec-supplied RS&SP suspension (winning every rally he has run on the suspension this year!). Matt Iorio finished 2nd overall in his RalliSpec-powered Open class Impreza solidfying his lead in the North American Rally Championship. The results this season could not have been possible were it not for the awesome dedication of every RalliSpec crew member. Service crew this season have included Eamon Byrne, Jodie Ritchie, Brian Burroughs and Josh Chang. Critical to the whole effort has been Team Manager Gen Kelly who has worked wonders to pull the whole thing together. See us next at the Lake Superior Rally in Michigan. Top photo by Lorne
Trezise (www.frozenmotionphotos.com)
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Team
RalliSpec driver Dave Anton claimed the 2006 Rally America Group
N Driver's Championship with his 1st place finish at the Colorado
Cog Rally. With two rounds still to run in the championship, Team
RalliSpec's commanding points lead puts them out of reach of their
closest rivals. This season's results have been outstanding for
Anton, with three 1st and three 2nd place finishes in six national
events (5 Rally America and 1 US Rally Championship event) including
several finishes within the top 6 overall.
Sunday
at first did not seem like it was going to get any better for the
team. That rock impact from stage eight had bent the front control
arm and the team made the decision to change it just a half hour
before the start. Some unexpected difficulties created drama as
the time ticked down. But an awesome effort by the service crew
and some help from Palladin Racing had the team rolling with a minute
to spare. Clear skies dried some of the stages but the first pass
through the Elkhead Flats stage was extremely technical with deep
mud and ruts for the better portion of the stage. Rather than take
it conservative and cruise to the end, the team decided to push
for overall position and set a fourth fastest time, some 16 seconds
quicker than Tanner Foust and just 13 seconds off the time of Matt
Iorio through the 6 mile stage. Fast times on several other stages
moved them from 9th to 6th overall just ahead of Robert Olson's
open class Impreza. But Olson, using mud-specific tires, would turn
around and set a blistering pace on the final 4 stages overtaking
Anton by nine and a half seconds. With Foust's dramatic roll on
the final stage, that left Team RalliSpec in 6th place overall at
the end. |
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