"The road looks good. The car feels good. I like my chances." - Robo-Colin
The Gravel-Spec Rally Sport team drove through a freaking May snowstorm to descend upon the sleepy hamlet of Duquette Minnesota with the Midwest's top Group 2 teams for rounds 5 and 6 of Rally America's Central Regional Rally Championship. The nine G2 teams starting the rally included seasoned veterans and newcomers to the sport, making up over three quarters of the field. Four stages today are held on a section of the Nemadji Truck Trail which snakes its way 8.6 miles deep into the state forest. The stages are run in a twin-sprint format, where each pass out and back is scored as a separate race with a brief service break between each rally.
Overnight snow made for slick conditions for Nemadji 1A - the first run through the stages. Chad Eixenberger and Chris Gordon in their GTI held a 15 second lead over Matt and Silas Himes' Honda after stage 1. Jim Scray and Colin Vickman were lurking in third place less than five seconds behind in their Datsun 510. Workers scrambled as smoke poured from the Datsun's fresh header wrap at the finish control. Jim's only comment on the incident was "We don't worry about that." Despite a rear brake failure late in the first stage, Eixenberger held on to take top honors in G2, second place overall. Matt Himes couldn't make up any time on Eixenberger's water-cooled Westmoreland era wiring nightmare, but stayed ahead of the charging Datsun to keep second place.
Waiting to start the second leg
After a 30 minute service at the Duquette General Store, the cars headed back to the forest for a second sprint through the stages. Silas Himes took over driving duties in the Team 535 Honda Civic for Nemadji 1B and held an 8 second lead over Eixenberger and Gordon's VW after stage 1. With badly worn tires Jim Scray slipped to fourth place less than a second behind Mark and John Huebbe's historic class Beetle. On the final stage Silas Himes pressed on with a blown head gasket to set the fastest stage time of the day and take 1st place in G2, second place overall. Chad Eixenberger drove to a solid second place 18 seconds behind. Taking advantage of the drying conditions Mark Huebbe pulled away from Jim Scray to take third place in the Ass-Engined Nazi-Mobile.
Derek McCorison and Paul Johansen took the top rookie honors in their V6 powered Hyundai Tiburon, finishing 5th in G2, 8th overall.
The results today move Mark Huebbe into third place in the driver's points championship, but don't change much at the top as Chris Greenhouse maintains his lead. Andrew Bushore stays on top in the navigator's championship but John Huebbe and Christopher Gordon move into second and third in the points chase. We had a smooth and solid run to put points on the board in our first rally of the season. At every rally you learn something, this time it was that some tires are more equal than others.
The Central Region Rally Championship continues on Memorial Day weekend with rounds 7 and 8 at the Gravity Park Rally, another twin-sprint rally outside of Chilton Wisconsin.
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