Subiesport Magazine - November 2008 - (Page 82)

OJIBWE FORESTS RALLY Photos: Lars Gange | rally.subaru.com TRAVIS PASTRANA CAME to Bemidji, Minn., for the Ojibwe Forests Rally fresh from a win at the 14th X Games, where he bested the cream of the Rally America contenders and the dark horse team of Niall McShea and Marshall Clarke. McShea and Clarke came over from Ireland to win July’s New England Forest rally and secure a wild card spot in the X Games. It’s been a turbulent year for the championship. In the snows of January and February, it looked as though 2008 would be the year for Ken Block and Alessandro Gelsomino to claim the championship. But a string of bad luck cost them points mid-season, and for a while Canadian Mitsubishi pilot Andrew Comrie-Picard and co-driver Marc Goldfarb held the lead with consistent podium finishes. But their luck changed as well, and after a spectacular crash at the X Games, Comrie-Picard was not able to make the show in Minnesota. Pastrana and codriver Derek Ringer took third in New England, but managed to secure a points lead in the Rally America championship season. Also out of the game for Ojibwe were Tanner Foust/Christine Beavis, Matthew Johnson/Jeremy Wimpey, and Patrick Moro/Mike Rossey – all victims of damage at the X Games. Ojibwe is known for fast, smooth roads and fabulous scenery. But rallying on fast roads has its 82 NOVEMBER 2008 own traps, as the tight competition at the top of the boards forces every team to take risks if they want to stand on the podium at the end. There are 15 stages in the Ojibwe Forest, starting with a super special stage at Bemidji Speedway. Pastrana/Ringer took the stage win here, followed by the resurgent team of “Cowboy” Kenny Bartram and Dennis Hotson. That set the stage for the rest of the rally, with Block/Gelsomino winning seven of the remaining 14 stages and Pastrana/Ringer winning six more. The only stage of the rally not won by one or the other of the SRTUSA cars was the final stage of the event, won by the Rock Star Subaru STI of Andrew Pinker and Robbie Durant. But there was plenty of action between the first and the final stage. It took only three stages for Pinker/Durant to come into service dragging their left rear wheel. The team hit a large stone (known informally as a “BFR” among rally teams) in the roadway and broke the rear suspension. Young phenom Kyle Sarasin and co-driver Mikael Johansson found themselves in third place before the end of Day 1, delivering one of their best performances all year. At the end of eight stages comprising Day 1 of the rally, Block/Gelsomino held the lead. About 20 seconds separated them from the second place team of Pastrana/Ringer. Sarasin/Johansson held third, but at a distance of over three minutes from the SRTUSA cars. Meanwhile, Pinker/Durant had been steadily working their way back through the field to end the day in fifth position. The second day of competition seemed to belong entirely to Pastrana/Ringer, but in fact teammates Block/Gelsomino were on their bumpers almost the entire day. Pastrana/Ringer won the first three stages by just 1.3, 3.0, and 2.8 seconds, respectively. Then Block/Gelsomino won Stage 12 by 3.5 seconds, erasing much of Pastrana/Ringer’s gains and maintaining their lead. The results of the final three stages have a twist that requires an explanation of Rally America’s scoring procedure. At each service interval, each rally team turns in their scorecard from the previous stages and is issued a new card for the next few stages. This allows rally officials to provide current scoring information throughout the event. However, if a team does not turn in a scorecard for a set of stages, they are not scored on those stages, even though rally officials have the original records from the stage timing crews. Block/Gelsomino hit a tree on the final stage of the rally, and though they were uninjured, the car was unable to continue. In fact, after a few minutes, the tree collapsed into the road and ended http://rally.subaru.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Subiesport Magazine - November 2008

Subiesport Magazine - November 2008 Contents Editor Letters Readers’ Rides New Products Subaru News 2009 WRX Test Drive Back on Easy Street Brothers in Boost Treasure Island ESPN X Games 14 Subiefest 3 Subie Extravaganza WWJCD WRC Rally Finland WRC Rally Deutschland Rally America: Ojibwe Forest Rally America: Colorado Where to buy Subiesport Orange Invasion - Europe 2007 STI Intake Test Dreadnought Widebody Install p2 Ad Directory Spotted!

Subiesport Magazine - November 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.