Second Event of the 2004 RallyCross Season
by Bruce Perry, RallyCross Chairman

We have had a LOT of snow in the last month! So much, in fact, that the Ice Racing guys couldn't even find a frozen lake clear enough for us to join them on. You see, we were trying to run our second event with the Central New York Ice Racing Association (CNYIRA). We were looking to do something a bit different by setting up a course on ice and trying to entice some of our autocrossers out for what they would call an ice autocross. We just wouldn't tell them it was really a rallycross. What they don't know won't hurt them...

With no the frozen lakes at our disposal, we had to clear something at Perry's Park. Normally the wind blows the snow away but with the volume of snow in January combined with a quick thaw and refreeze, we had some deep stuff in places. So deep that Robby and I got the Suburban stuck! The contingency plan was to have someone plow a course for us. Enter Chris Durbin. Chris has a snow plow business and a couple of trucks. He saw our plea for help and promptly volunteered. He, wisely, brought the Heavy Duty Ford 350 down, just back from a tranny rebuild, and we proceeded to pound our way through the field. Fortunately we had blasted our way through the entire course before that fresh tranny exploded. I felt really bad but Chris said "hey, it is still under warranty"!

That was the weekend before the event. We still needed to widen the course and finish up the access lanes. I gave my friends at Rose's Sand and Gravel a call to see if they had any snow removal equipment available. Frank Rose supplies us with stone in the summer and knows how crazy we are so there was no explanations necessary. They brought out a Bobcat and a Jeep and did a wonderful job of defining the course and leaving us with some nice big snow banks, but more on that later. The Bobcat did most of the heavy work and the Jeep was trailing behind cleaning up the edges. The jeep got a little close, however and there was a case of metal-to-metal contact when the Jeep's blade got caught behind one of the wheels of the Bobcat. Was I supposed to fill out an incident report for that?

We had 18 drivers come out to brave the cold wind and bounce their way through the snow banks. This time, the 2FWD group went first. Boy, did we get off to a rough start! Karl Hughes, past FLR member currently CNY, brought his ice racer out and proceeded to stuff it in a snow bank. His sister, Adrianne with Roy Hopkins, in the $300 red Neon were quickly on the scene and yanked him out. Next it was my turn. I proceeded to park the RX7 on top of the snow bank in the same turn but this time on the inside. Guess who was quickly on the scene. Yep, the red Neon. It seemed that everyone who stuffed it, had the red Neon right behind them. We were calling it the Neon Curse. Every time I was in line, I would look in my mirror to see if the Neon was behind me. I even waived it ahead a few times.

By now, it was clear that we needed a sweep vehicle on the ready. Beth had taken the Suburban to run kids around so Karl, feeling bad for stuffing it two more times in the first heat, unhooked his "Exploder" and we confiscated all of the tow ropes in the area. It was a good thing too because the AWD's were up next. They started out pretty uneventful, showing us 2WD'ers how to do it. But then they started to get a little over confident. You know how they say that AWD goes better but you still stop the same. We found out that AWD does one more thing better. It allows you to REALLY STUFF IT! And I mean DEEP! Or HIGH! First Bill Laitenberger parked his Legacy on top of a snow bank. He had to step down to get out of the car. Later on, George Little jumped his Galant VR-4 over a snow bank. But the winner of "King of the Hill" was Eric Hobron (see photos at right). He managed to park his WRX STI on top of the highest snow bank on the whole course!

There was one other memorable stuff. Just as George Little was jumping snow banks at the far end, Tom Langdon somehow ended up on top of the snow bank just past the finish line. I didn't see it happen because I was watching the VR-4 but I looked over and saw his Saab just quietly sitting there, perched on top of it sitting at 90 degrees to the road. What a wild day...

Anyway, the results were quite interesting at the front. In both of the large classes, the event winner did not get the fastest individual time. Jason Kahn finished second in Stock O4 just 0.03 minutes behind Mike Occhipinti. Jason is still cursing that one pylon penalty. Jason took the individual time honors with a 1.68 minute run. Mike and Jason were first and second overall for the event.

The cursed red Neon dominated Stock U2. Roy Hopkins took the class win and 3rd overall but Adrianne Hughes took the fastest individual time not just for the class but for the entire event. Her 1.67 minute run was FTD besting even the AWD cars! Happy Valentines Day, Adrianne!

As always a special thank you goes out to our specialty workers, Carl Blocker, Alan Smith, Beth Perry and Deb^3. Who is Deb^3? Debbie Bartlett, Debbi Segall and Deb Langdon all did scoring at one point or another.

Next event is March 6. We are still going to try to run with the CNYIRA if at all possible.

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