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lsprorally.com Navigating the borrowed car for Dave Anton would be a "borrowed" co-driver in the form of Robbie Durant, sometime co-driver for former Rally America regular Andrew Pinker. Robbie is a rising star in the international rally community as well as a familiar face for Team RalliSpec. Durant and Anton teamed together for the International Rally New York earlier in the year where the two took a commanding win in Group N and finished on the podium overall. It was this familiarity that was needed as Anton faced the daunting task of adapting to the powerful open class car on the stages. A brief stint in the car at the practice stage made it very clear that the car was a handful. But there was little time to adapt as the team immediately set their sites on the first stage. They were able to set quick stage times right from the outset running 4th overall from the start and maintaining their pace throughout the day. The team started the second day of competition just seconds off of third place occupied by CPD Racing's Tim O'Neil. Unfortunately, Paladin's primary driver Matt Iorio did not have the same kind of luck having rolled out of the event early on the slippery stages. Anton's confidence in the unfamiliar car grew with each stage. The team made a concious effort to step things up as they started Saturday's stages. The first stage of the day was the extremely technical 8.2 mile stage called Gratiot Lake. Anton and Durant pulled into the finish control with big smiles knowing that they had set a fast time. In fact, they were third quickest and less than five seconds off of stage winner Ken Block. More importantly they were quicker than O'Neil and now sitting in third place. However, the elation of the crew was short lived as the following stage, Delaware, would show them that perhaps they had not quite come to grips with unusual handling of the Paladin car. Continuing to push, Anton crested a fast off-camber right hander halfway through the stage and found himself sliding wide. The loose gravel at the edge of the road made it impossible to pull the car back and they rolled the car with no way of getting back onto the road. RalliSpec's day was done but it was not without first showing tremendous speed in an open class car. The team looks forward to gaining more experience and greater confidence and hopefully running at the top in their own open class Impreza. The team would like to thank Paladin Rally for the opportunity to run their car. Photos byPete Kuncis (www.onalimbracing.com) |
No,
you were not experiencing double vision at the Lake Superior Pro
Rally, penultimate round of the Rally America national championship.
There really were two Paladin Rally white & black Subaru Impreza's
tearing up the woods of the Michigan Upper Peninsula. Team RalliSpec,
having wrapped up the Group N championship in Colorado were graciously
offered the chance to pilot the "spare" Paladin open class
car. However, what started out as a double attack on the event would
ultimately turn into double trouble as both cars exited the rally
on their roofs. |
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