A tale of two seats

Rallying is about the unexpected, the challenging of man and machine against the elements. Little did I realise that in competing on the New England Forest Rally in the American state of Maine that I would tackle the rally with two different men in two similar machines.

My travel to the event itself was fraught: I left Ireland almost seven hours delayed due to bad weather in JFK airport in New York upsetting flight schedules. I was travelling to join Irishman and now Georgia native Seamus Burke to compete in his Open Class Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX on what was to be the last round of the 2010 Rally America series. It had been almost two years since my last event in the USA so I was looking forward to a return visit. However, even my connecting flight to Boston was delayed and I sat frustrated by a further delay in JFK, listening to rally podcasts on my iPhone for fear I might fall asleep on the floor and miss this flight call.

When I got into Boston, eventually, I had another member of the Irish/USA Rally Mafia waiting right at the door to deliver me the final four hour drive to the event HQ. That was Dan Brosnan, an accomplished 2WD competitor in his own right. We both rally gossiped our way up through the journey and I grabbed just a few minutes of sleep as recce started at 06:15 and I knew I wouldn’t have time to do anything other than throw my bag into the hotel room. No sleep just yet.

Recce was good: we went without incident and the organisers were brilliant and helpful. John Buffum, the famous and much lauded US rally driver, was the man in charge of the recce convoy and he knew just how to keep it competitor-friendly. A one pass recce of the supplied notes is all we were allowed, but it was enough just to get dialled in and familiar and make a few small but necessary changes. From recce it was straight to shakedown where the first run in the car unfortunately underwhelmed me. Seamus’ car is running to open spec with larger restrictor and more Group A and WRC spec parts than I would be used to sitting in Group N spec Evos, and it was clear that something was wrong with the car. A quick return to service diagnosed that the car had jumped its timing and that explained why it was performing below par. Unfortunately by the time the mechanics had diagnosed and repaired the problem the shakedown stage was over, but we retired to bed happy that the car was in good health for the first stage and that shakedown had proved its worth.

The rally started with the customary pomp, ceremony and excitement amongst many spectators as we left the parc expose at the Sunday River Ski resort and drove a short distance to a similarly short but tricky spectator stage of just under a half a mile. Fifth fastest was our reward, just 1sec of the general pace so we drove on to the town of Mexico for another spectator stage of just half a mile in the Mexico Recreational Park. The stage was interesting not least of all because it ran around the perimeter of a baseball pitch and over a crunching jump under the RedBull arch, plenty of places to spin or make a mistake under much spectator scrutiny. Regardless, we cleared both runs clean again fifth fastest, but Ken Block in the Ford Fiesta was blitzing a trail at the top of the field now in a lead of over 5sec.

After service the real forest stages began, fast flowing, rhythmical and challenging. However, our challenge ended almost two miles into the stage. The water temperature shot up to 120 degrees and we limped to the end of the stage knowing that the end was nigh and returned to service. Hopes were that a head gasket was the cause and solution, but the team found that the head was badly warped and there was no way we could continue even in the second leg of the rally as a re-entry.

It was a disappointment to travel so far and recce with no practical sleep after delayed flights and then for Seamus Burke and I to have the rally end on the first full stage, but that’s rallying as they say and my year has been in a vein of mechanical troubles so what can you do only enjoy it while it lasts. Tom Lawless is another Irishman living in New York and he was doing the rally in an Evo IX also. I knew at the end of SS4 that Tom’s co-driver was unwell and struggling to the point of being unable. When Tom came into service and his man was unable to continue the notion of me sitting in just for SS6 was mooted and Tom asked the stewards and they agreed. I thought it was a long shot, but I was happy that they gave me the opportunity. We never poured over rule books or gave it any consideration other than well let’s ask the question and if the stewards approve it then why not continue. Unlike our regulations at home, in case of illness a co-driver can be replaced so it opened up a new opportunity for both Tom and I.

It worked well, still using Seamus’ notes in my own handwriting and style we clicked in right from the first stage. Tom was not a stranger to me as I had stayed in his home in 2005 while travelling to another Rally America event so right away the atmosphere in the car was great and we got right down to work on the famous Concord Pond stage. The record for the stage stands at 4min 26sec set by Ken Block and we managed a respectable 4min 39sec despite a stall on the start line and this was strong enough for third fastest; a good debut. We gelled well and the pace increased so much so that we found ourselves winners of the regional section of the rally for that day, but more of that in a moment.

Day Two dawned bright and after working late into the night with Tom working on the recce video footage and adjusting the pacenotes, we began Day Two in fighting form. We were 12th overall and set ourselves the goal of getting to the top six by the end of the day. It was a strong marker to put down, but we felt confident. These Open Class cars have such power that they are a pleasure to co-drive in as it is something akin to a WRC car in performance terms. Tom’s car even has a 6-speed sequential gearbox which further removes it from the Grp N experience I am familiar with. We opened with a ninth fastest time and improved to a fourthd time fastest on the repeat of the stage and by SS11 we had reached sixth overall and we began to think of holding station, but a quick check of the times saw us just 11sec behind Roman Pakos in a Subaru. Good humouredly we joked at the stage start of the penultimate stage that we were coming to get him and the battle line was drawn. It was a case of head down and push on and we hoped we could break the Pakos speed and spirit. Amazingly we did just that taking 26,9sec from the Polish crew in the 13,6miles. The final stage was to be a reverse of the stage we had just completed so as we waited for the turn around Pakos admitted to backing off in the dust where we knew we had been brave and therein lay the reason for the big gain in time. Not only had we gained on Pakos to claim fifth, but Travis Pastrana was stopped in the stage with a blown engine and his misfortune meant he lost the rally lead and a certain win as we moved into fourth overall.

So after the final stage and a conservative fifth fastest time we reached the finish again at the Sunday River Ski resort and although there was an absence of snow there was much celebration and satisfaction not only for ourselves after a fight back to fourth but for Antoine L’Estage/Nathalie Richard as they claimed their first Rally America championship to much applause. I quickly checked the results and confirmed us as fourth overall and I jumped right into a waiting truck for an overnight lift back to New York for my return flight. Much to my surprise I got a phone call to tell me that at prizegiving we had been announced as winners of both regional rallies. This is where the entry is divided into regional and national grade competitors and due to Toms licence grade we were classed as regional grade and unknown to me we featured on the results in this class having won the title by 38sec on the first day and a hefty 4min on Day Two out of 40 finishers. A satisfying end to a great event which was very unique for me having managed to compete on one rally in two different cars and in fact appear on the one set of results twice as both a retirement and a finisher!

I say without disrespect to any other event in the championship but this was the best event I have competed on in the USA so far. The organisers and workers added that extra something of friendliness and welcome. The rally seemed to be there to do the best for the competitor to enjoy it, every thing was simple and pragmatic from the recce then sign on for drivers briefing and to the time controls. It was a very enjoyable rally I could not find fault with the event even if I had to, and that is regardless of whether my rally ended after SS4 or continued with another driver. The great thing is I was lucky enough to see all of the event and the stages.

The New England Forest Rally was certainly a highlight because I enjoyed it so much, I have travelled to many rallies outside of Ireland this year in the IRC series and have not had much luck or even finishes so it was nice to travel so far and to get to the end of a rally smiling.