Racers with the Iowa Region RallyCross took on a long, challenging course at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Sunday, August 17th. Due to blistering hot weather, the racing was less of a battle between racers and more of a battle against Mother Nature. The extreme heat and humidity took its toll on all the racers and cars, leading to numerous cars and drivers having to retire from competition prior to completing all their runs. Despite the exceptionally unpleasant weather, much fun was had by all!
Stock FWD was part of our first group of the day, with three racers slinging dirt. All were posting times very close to each other and it was not clear who would be taking the win until the very end. Charles P, piloting an ’06 Civic, had a missed gate on his second run and the 10 second penalty cost him dearly. Jeff W, rocking a ’10 Focus, also had an “oops” run on his third run, keeping Charles in the running. Michael B from MN started to open the gap with his ’02 Lancer, but then had a couple slower runs towards the end. When the dust settled, Michael managed to take the win, with Jeff in second and Charles in third. Only 7 seconds separated first from third, a rather small margin considering all the seat time.
Prepared RWD had two drivers sharing a ’98 Mustang GT. The course had more than a few elements that were well suited to a RWD car’s ability to pivot the read end with power. Initially, it appeared that Dustin P would be snagging the win, but then Sam S’s greater experience with his own car began to shine through. By the fourth run, Sam had taken the lead. Dustin pushed too hard and began collecting a lot of cones, sealing his fate to second place. Sam took the win by a solid 31 seconds.
Next up on the course was Prepared FWD, with four drivers. However, before they could take any runs, the venue required a watering of the track for dust control. This led to a huge time penalty for the first couple cars on course, thanks to the greasy mud created by the water. Yours truly, David C in an ’04 SRT4, jumped on the grenade first and slid his way around the course, laying down an abysmally bad time. Chris W followed suit in his ’07 Focus wagon, completing the course with another mud punished time. Devin P was third up, but got very lucky, with the timing equipment having an error and not recording his slippery time. The course dried fast and the times dropped massively. Oscar B struggled with a lot of cones, making it look like he was not going to be in the running for first or second. However, Devin’s ’15 GTI blew a coolant hose, forcing him to retire for the day after only two runs. The heat began to really take a toll on Oscar and I, as we were required to run the SRT4’s heat to keep it from overheating on track. We both opted to retire from racing after our fourth run, as we were both on the verge of heat exhaustion. Chris’s Focus soldiered on, but with the lower HP on tap, was unable to compete with the times from the turbo cars. At the end of the heat, Oscar took first and Devin second, despite the DNF penalties. My abysmal first mud lap left me in third with Chris a bit behind in fourth.
The final heat featured Stock AWD and Mod AWD. Again, the water truck came out for dust control, leading to some painful mud runs that essentially decided the winners.
Stock AWD was a competition between the H6 Subaru SVX of Hugh H versus the turbo STI of Dave M. These gentlemen got off a couple runs before the water truck and then ran back to back after the water truck, keeping things rather even. Hugh jumped off to the lead on his first run, and never looked back. Despite his best efforts, Dave couldn’t close the gap. Hugh ended up taking the win by roughly 27 seconds, a lead he built up bit by bit every run.
Modified AWD had two cars, each driven by two drivers. Aaron B and Jay K piloted Aaron’s high compression ’95 Impreza wagon versus Brandon G and Collin C in an ’05 STI. Aaron jumped on the grenade for everyone and took the first run after the water truck, turning in a painful time that basically decided his finishing position for the day. Brandon and Collin also tackled the fast-drying mud and put down respectful times. In the meantime, Jay faked a bee sting so that he didn’t have to take any runs until the course was fully dry. Just kidding Jay, we know you were actually stung. Thanks to all his dry runs Jay took first by over 66 seconds. Brandon put down fast and consistent times once the mud dried up. Aaron gave chase, clawing back time on his later runs, but couldn’t get past Brandon. Sadly, the STI gave up the ghost before Collin could get all his runs in. Brandon ended up in second, 3.7 seconds ahead of Aaron.
We are racing at Oskaloosa again on Sept 21st. We hope you’ll come join us for some fast and dirty fun! We would also like to say thank you to Ryan A for supplying photos of the event!