2021 Show-Me Rally
- unamusedrallysport
- Mar 27, 2022
- 3 min read
Time for a 2021 Show-Me Rally recap! Sorry for the delay. This was an event that is always a local favorite of ours with new "features" every year. This year, we had 2 stages that had several minutes of tarmac combined! More to come on that in a bit, though.
The event this year was a super regional, which meant it was a 2 day regional rally. On Thursday, we had open recce to check out the stages for the first time and write our own notes. Some of the stages we were already mostly familiar with but there were 2 new stages this year, which had a few gotchas within. Recce went well without any drama. No rain for several days leading up the event would mean a dusty event, unfortunately.
Day 1 we did a loop of 2 stages twice. Once during the daylight and the second with the lights on. We managed a few second lead in our class after the first loop as we got back into the rhythm. The Floyd Tower stage this year ended in around 3 miles of tarmac, which was an absolute blast. The traction with gravel tires was surprising good as we hit 5th gear a few times (>100mph). Service was uneventful with only a zip tie needing to be replaced. The second loop of stages we had the lights on. This was our first real test of the Diode Dynamics light setup and it was a game changer. We have historically dropped loads of time at night but with these lights, we hardly dropped any time at all. At the end of day 1, we were sitting comfortably in first by roughly 30sec.
On the transit back from the last stage we noticed an increasingly loud exhaust leak. We blew out one of our exhaust gaskets. No big deal. We pulled into the AutoZone parking lot, grabbed some sealant, bolts, and nuts before heading back to the hotel for a, what was supposed to be, a quick repair. The exhaust gasket repair took slightly longer than anticipated but the real kicker was when we tried to remount the skid plate. Both front mounting points were broken! After all of the pulling, repair work, skid plate mounting/unmounting they finally gave up. We ended up securing the front of our skid plate to the tow hooks with metal zip ties, which, luckily, held for the remainder of the rally.
Day 2 started with a nice parc expose in downtown Potosi, MO . After catching up with everyone
and swapping stories, we headed out to the first stage of the day. This stage had a narrow, tricky downhill section into a hard turn. As we were setting up for the turn, we grabbed the hand brake and pushed hard on the clutch to pivot the car. Surprise! It was handbrake with a whole lot more brake instead of the clutch, which killed the car instantly. We spent a good 30sec struggling to get the car restarted before finally taking off again. We spent the next few stages trading times with our close competition. We were comparing stages times after each stage. It was a close battle and it made it fun. As the day went on, the wind died down and the dust got worse. We backed off, wanting to save the car since we have big plans for it over the winter before the 100 Acre Wood Rally . The second place car went for it in the blinding dust in a high risk, high reward situation move that paid off for him. They ended beating us by 17sec the last stage, which was enough to beat us for the NA4WD win.
Overall, we finished this rally 2nd place in NA4WD, 4th in AWD. With these points added to our 100AW placement, we finished 5th in class and tied for 7th overall in the American Rally Association East region. Not too shabby for only 2 events in 2021! We are super happy with that and with the progress we have been making on the car. We are looking to continue that momentum with, of course, more car improvements as we attempt to learn some new skills along the way.
Thank you to all of the organizers and volunteers for putting on another great event. Special thanks to Misha Avrushenko for the continued use of Recce Riccardo and as always, thank you to our sponsors for their continued support!
EcoTECH Import Auto Service J-Spec Auto Sports Inc. Dyno Pro Technologies Diode Dynamics
Photo Credit: Matthew Thomas Jones Photography
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