My interest in rallying was spiked soon after receiving my license, when I participated in a scavenger hunt based road rally that was organized by Charles River Saab as a part of Swedish Car Day. I ended the day with a solid last place finish after taking a wrong turn as I tried to navigate my way back to Watertown from Fenway
Park. Despite my poor performance, I was eager to start rallying.
After some research I decided that the best place to start would be with the SCCA RallyX program. RallyX are timed events, run through a course designated by cones laid out on an open grass or gravel lot. It only took me one event to get hooked after taking a second place finish in stock front wheel drive class driving a 1991 900S. I ended the 2007 season in second place in the SF class. After competing in a second full season of RallyX I got my first taste of driving on a track when I took my mothers 9000 Aero to an instructional day hosted by SCDA at New Hampshire International Speedway. While I had enjoyed RallyX very much, blasting around a track at speed was something I needed more of.
It was at this point that I stumbled upon the New England Hillclimb Associations web page. (www.hillclimb.org) After reading through the rules I found that they allowed cars with minimal safety prep to run as long as you drove above a certain "break out" time. Great! So I signed up for an event after installing the required fire extinguisher in a stock 1992 900 Turbo and drove to Vermont's Burke Mt. After attending a mandatory rookies meeting and taking a drive up the course I was both a bit nervous, but very excited. The fully paved road twists up the mountain and is lined by rocks, trees and some stunning views. In short, every run up the course would be like a rally special stage!
At the start of the event competitors take a familiarization run up the course as a group. These runs are taken at a brisk pace, although not at full race speed. I had tried to hang towards the back of the group when lining up in order to not slow any of the faster cars. Despite my efforts, after passing the start line and putting my foot down, I looked in my rearview only to see a V8 powered, open wheel monster, coming up behind me. The look of this car behind me was intimidating to say the least. Combine that with the excitement of driving up the course and it leaves, me, at the top of a mountain, filled with adrenaline and ready for more. Over the rest of that weekend I drove consistently faster with every run and ended the event with a respectable time. I went on to drive the rest of the seasons events, enjoying every minute of it.
I returned in the 2010 season where I continued to improve my times while driving the same 900 Turbo. I was even faster at hills where in the previous year I had been driving a faster 9000 Aero with superior tires. Unfortunately, my 2010 season was cut one event short when my downpipe broke at the turbo flange, blasting everything on the right side of the engine bay with intense heat. Many plastic pieces were destroyed, including part of the wiring harness. Fortunately, all the damage was later repaired and the car is now fine.
The highlight of the 2010 season was competing in the New England Forest Rally as a co-driver. My original goal when I got into this was to compete in stage rally as a driver, and I was only a few feet from that position! It was very exciting to be competing at the top level of U.S. rallying alongside drivers like Travis Pastrana, Ramana Lagemann and Ken Block. I would be sitting next to Kevin Hans in the naturally aspirated Audi 4000 that he had secured to use for the event. I met Kevin for the first time just two days before the rally. Luckily we got to spend one full day getting to know each other as we participated in "recce", where we drove through the rallies stages while going over the stage notes. It took me several stages to familiarize myself with all of the symbols that are found within the provided stage notes, but I eventually got the hang of it.
After spending the next morning in "parc expose", where all the cars are parked and competitors mingle with fans, we set off on the first of two super special stages. These stages are very short and are designed with the fans in mind. Despite the short nature of these first stages I could tell I was in for a treat with Kevin at the wheel. Being a Team O'Neil rally school instructor, Kevin knows his way around a rally car. Despite our underpowered Audi he managed to post some impressive stage times on the first day as we moved up through the field of 65 cars. Unfortunately, the second day was cut short for us. During the days third stage the car began suffering from a failing fuel pump, the loss of power forced us to a crawl and we had to pull off the road as it became unsafe for cars coming hurdling up behind us at full speed. Despite this, I had enjoyed the experience, and will hopefully have a chance to compete with Kevin again.
Well, that was not so brief, but should give an idea of what I've been doing leading up to 2011. This season is shaping up to be very exciting, with a new car being prepped for competition, and some exciting events on the calender. Updates about these things will be coming soon!
