www.rallynewyork.com
Team RalliSpec took top honors at Rally New York finishing 1st in group N and 3rd overall despite difficult conditions. Team driver Dave Anton says, "Co-driver Robbie Durant had a lot to do with our results this weekend. As did our new RS&SP suspension."

For Anton & Durant it was a matter of unfinished business in New York. The pair DNF'd at the event in 2005 while fighting for a podium finish. Last year's running was a mix of gravel and tarmac stages but they never saw the tarmac having slid off the road due to a broken axle. No such issues this year, though, as the pair made it through the all tarmac stages cleanly and without incident.

Rally New York USA consists of approximately 110 competitive stage miles through the scenic Catskill mountain region. The event is part of the US Rally Championship, and is the first round of a 7 event series (Cherokee Trails having been canceled). This was essentially a diversion for Team RalliSpec from their usual Rally America event schedule. However, as this was a unique opportunity to run an all tarmac national event (the first of its kind in the US), the team did not want to pass it up.

Friday's stages started wet and miserable and did not seem likely to get any better. It was not what the team was hoping for. They had been fighting some serious instability in the handling during the practice sessions and were expecting the worst. The team, unfortunately, had been relegated to running their gravel setup due to a shipping delay of their tarmac suspension from RS&SP. But some tweaks to the suspension tuning and warm tires did wonders for the handling and Anton was able to set good times right from the start.

The end of the brutal 24 mile first stage saw the team in 3rd overall behind the powerful open class Evo's of Burke and Lawless. It was more or less an indication of where things would continue to the end. The stages were blisteringly quick and the Subaru's short gearing would become a major limitation. According to Anton, "We were maxed out at 118mph on more than one occasion, the car simply won't go any faster. There is no way to catch the Evo's when they are hitting 130mph or more." To make matters worse, thick fog rolled in for the second run through the 24 mile Benton Hollow stage. It was impossible to see and the crew chose to slow down rather than risk running of the road.

Saturdays stages showed signs of drying out. A tactical decision was made to run at least the morning stages on their wets (Goodyear road tires) and re-evaluate things later in the day. However, by late morning they found themselves losing time and switched to Michelin dry slicks as they came under attack by Drislane and Pryzbysz. Ultimately they were able to hold off Pryzbysz but Drislane was unstoppable. Luckily for the team he was not classified in the national event. Within the Group N category their chief rival, NCRally's Otis Dimiters, suffered some mechanical difficulties late on Friday but was never a serious threat even earlier in the day.

Team RalliSpec is next heading to the forests of Pennsylvania for the Susquehannock Trail Pro Rally in June.

Photos courtesy of Robert Plafta (plaftaphoto.com) & Pete Kuncis (onalimbracing.com)