Story: Evan Rothman
Rallying the United States of America is growing at a rapid rate. The Rally America series (which concluded this past weekend) is most probably one of the most entertaining championships (and most competitive) in the world, and HANDBRAKES & HAIRPINS was fortunate to track down ace co-driver Jake Blattner for an interview on rallying in his country. This is Part Two of the interview; to read Part One, please click this link: http://wp.me/ppkXc-1kN
H&H: What are your memorable moments in rallying thus far?
Jake Blattner (JB): “Oh man, so many! One from this year is 100 Acre Wood Rally with Evan Cline…
“While trying to leave for the practice stage, which ended just four hours before Parc Expose, there was much swearing, driving. Finally we were on our way to the practice stage with just enough time to get a couple of runs in, and we were pumped up. Perhaps too excited? Suited up and charging we, were in-stage and things seemed to be working good, getting a feel for the car: Oops! I spoke too soon. A couple miles in there was what was noted as DIP, but it was a deep cement culvert and we hit it hard resulting in a broken axle.
“We limped to the end of the stage to survey the damage and noticed a significant amount of oil leaving the engine. It turned out that the inner CV gave out and the end of the shaft beat a hole in the oil pan. We were supposed to be at Parc Expose in less than four hours – not counting the hour and a half drive time. The first car was scheduled to start the rally at 16h00 and we were about 20min back so there was still hope as we loaded the dead car on the trailer.
“The motto in rally is to press on regardless, and we had to do our best to make the start. We got back to the team house and got straight to work. We disassembled the front end to get the oil pan out, found a welder thanks to a local friend, hammered and cut out the damaged area and handed it off to be welded. We got the oil pan back an hour before the start of Parc Expose, which was an half hour away, and had a lot of work to do to put it all back together.
“After a good thrash we were back in business, but short on time. We were on the road to the start, but had long missed Parc Expose. Thankfully there was no time penalty missing it, but there would be if we missed our start time.
“With all the drama we weren’t” around for the official start list, but we knew we were cutting it close. As our rig closed in on the start, we began to see the competition vehicles in transit to SS1. With each car passing it was another minute closer to our out-time.
“It seemed like forever, but we finally barged into the service/expose/start area and unloaded the car. We raced to put our gear on and get through the mess of cars and spectators, trying desperately to get to our spot at the start, but what was our official out time? “Who are we to follow?” I said as we pulled up to the main time control expecting to have missed our start. It sparked the driver’s memory to the unofficial online start list and he said “That car. The one that just left! Is it our minute?” It was 16h25, our minute, our time to start! Relieved, we happily took our time card with no penalty and laughed in amazement throughout the 15min transit to the start of SS1 and we were stoked!
“3-2-1 and we were off and charging through the fast gravel roads, intercom flowing, making good time, happy to have pulled it off. Not this time: four miles into the stage, the temp gauge was off the charts and we milked it for another half mile until we saw a fellow competitor on the side of the road, retired. We pulled over to check the situation. They had an engine fire and there was oil in our engine bay: rally over. To add insult to injury, as we watched the rest of the competitors while waiting to be towed out a car kicked up a rock and broke the rear window of our car. We started laughing, it was all that was left to do. The highs and lows of rally are just amazing sometimes…”
H&H: Ever been off the notes, and gotten lost? What other humourous moments can you share with us?
JB: “I don’t find being off the notes or getting lost to be humorous at all [laughs], but I can see what you are getting at. If you have ever watched any in-car of the Lenin twins it’s pretty dang funny, but seriously it’s something I take very seriously. It’s something that the driver needs to know. You need to stay calm, line up the mileage and reference point and get back on it immediately. At first it’s tough, but you learn to ignore distractions and keep multiple operations clicking. It becomes more about delivery and timing than keeping place. It’s something that I’m still working on, for sure.
“I’ve had a majority of stages where I’ve felt damn near perfect, but yet to nail an entire rally with that feeling for every stage; it’s something I’m striving for. If you must know, yes I have been lost. Once. And I vowed to never let it happen again. I was messing with the time card and the driver kind of knew where he was going from recce and tracks in the snow. He took the first left without me knowing so when he asked me which way to go at the stop sign I looked at the first instruction, and said left. We were at the second instruction, a right. It got pretty confusing for a bit, with maps flying around, speeding, turning around, speeding some more, seeing another rally car, turning around again, more speeding, passing cars at damn near stage speeds. Oh, did I mention swearing? It was all bad. We pulled into the control right on time though.
“It hasn’t happened since – knock, knock on my head – and I don’t won’t do that again. If we were running light on fuel for weight, we would have run out without a doubt [laughs]. I’m sure it was pretty comical from the outside looking in. I actually spiced up a screen play my friend, and wrote using that experience.”
H&H: Ever had a “this is going to hurt” moment?
JB: “Yeah, but the hurt never came. We got lucky: there was a big drop with a lot of big trees and we slid wide into a soft bank, flipped wing over hood and proceeded to roll about a further 2 ¼ times.
“Everything went all quiet and it was like slow motion: I was thinking when are we going to hit hard? How far down the ravine are we? Big trees. We were flying into the ravine. All quiet. When are we going to hit? Crunch, crunch, glass, loud noises. We ended up balancing on the driver’s door directly across the middle of the road blocking cars. It was so narrow with a steep soft bank on one side and a sharp, deep ravine on the other. We had to push it out of the way to get the cars through. Thanks for reminding me [laughs]!”
H&H: What is the first rally car you can remember?
JB: “It was a corded remote lancia stratos I must have got for my third birthday. It wasn’t until later I knew how cool a rally car it was.”
H&H: What is your favourite rally car? What is your favourite rally car you’ve competed in?
JB: “It’s got to be the Renault Alpine A110 or the HF Integrale. And, you got to love Audi and all the Group B cars!
“I don’t play favorites; I’m happy to compete in anything. The most capable car I’ve competed in is an ex-Ken Block VermontSports car.”
H&H: As an accomplished co-driver, have you ever had a moment when you thought you could have driven the rally car quicker in a stage? Ever given rally driving a chance?
JB: “I don’t really think that way as a co-driver. I try to help the driver be as fast as they can be, whether I would be faster or not. I have only done SCCA RallyCross (one car at a time, dirt course not like european rallycross) and been on a track a bit. I got into karts for a bit, not competitively though. I would love to give it a rip: I think have skills.
“I’ve driven a lot snowy parking lots, pretending to be a rally driver [laughs]. Gimme the keys; where is my co-driver?