Author: David C

Iowa Region, with the help of Milwaukee Region, brought the thrills and chills of the annual Freeze Your Curds Off Rallycross Challenge to the hills of southwestern Wisconsin this past weekend.  It drew a huge crowd this year with 68 drivers from eight different states battling each other in the wildly varying conditions.  As always, Mother Nature decided to get involved in the fray as well, with weather conditions covering the gambit, from dry and mild, to rain, followed by snow and 40+ mph wind.

Before we get into the action, we need to thank this year’s sponsors:

• Gibbsville Cheese provided us with some fabulous custom cheese curds. If you’re looking for great cheese in the Midwest, we highly recommend their offerings!
• Mayhew Tools contributed a variety of American made tools for door prizes. If you are in need of some high-quality hand tools, be sure to look for Mayhew Tools!
• Penguin Garage added some Kartboy pedals to the door prize mix. Penguin has the hook up for all your racing parts needs, including tires!
• Subies of the Corn threw in a ton of Subaru merch. They are an Illinois based charity that raises money for various charities through car related events.  Please consider making a donation to them here so they can continue this fabulous work!

Saturday’s course was approximately two miles long, with run times over 180 seconds in the dry and far in excess of 200 seconds as it became wet and muddy.  The day started off fairly beautiful, but quickly turned to “Hope you packed extra socks, shoes, and basically every item of clothing!” as the rain and eventually snow rolled in.

TL:DR Class Highlights for Day 1:

• Stock FWD: Brian S’s Honda Fit held firm, topping the front-drive pack ahead of Ben D’s Mini.
• Stock RWD: Greg F’s Corvette held down the lone RWD stock slot in classic V8 fashion.
• Stock AWD: Hugh H piloted his Subaru SVX through the slop for the AWD win.
• Prepared FWD: Edwin C’s bright yellow Cobalt SS held the top spot despite a new Bluetooth axle.
• Prepared RWD: Adam L’s Mustang GT roared to a decisive victory over Oliver S’s Miata.
• Prepared AWD: Alec S’s silver WRX splashed to the win in what was basically a mud jacuzzi.
• Modified FWD: Shane B’s Honda CRX kept it tidy for the class lead.
• Modified RWD: Eric A’s Toyota MR2ZZ danced to another win over Chris E’s vintage Lotus.
• Modified AWD: Eric L dominated in his WRX, with Aaron B and Jay K close behind.
• SxS: Zach S’s Can-Am X3 RR sprayed rooster tails of clay en route to the UTV win.

First up in the dry was Stock FWD, with eight drivers facing off.  Michael B from Land o Lakes (LoL) region surprised everyone with a quick first lap in his Mitsubishi Lancer, but Brian S (Honda Fit) and Ben D (Mini Cooper S), both of Milwaukee (MKE) region, struck back on the second run.  Michael did his best to keep up with these two, but picked up a cone and had a bit of engine trouble too.  Brian proceeded to keep laying down flyers and opened up the gap, easily capturing first by 14 seconds.  He was followed by Ben in second and Michael in third.  There was also a good battle for fourth between Peter S (Toyota Camry, MKE) and Charles P (Honda Civic, Iowa).  Peter had a solid lead over Charles after the first two runs, but then Charles found a bunch of time and clawed back.  Fourth ended up in Peter’s hands with Charles less than two seconds back in fifth.

Stock RWD was a class of one, with Greg F (MKE) piloting a C4 Corvette around the still dry course.  With the right course conditions, that generation of Corvette can be quite the stock class rallycross car, as they can fit up to 27” tires, such as mud terrains.  One of these cars captured the National Championship in 2023.  Greg treated us all to some sweet rooster tails of dirt as he laid down times faster than many of the FWD cars.

The six drivers in Prepared FWD also got to race in the dry conditions.  It was some stiff competition, with two former national champions in the class.  David C (Iowa, yours truly) had a small lead over Edwin C (Alabama) and Devin P (Iowa) after the first two runs.  However, disaster struck for me on run 3, with my axle shearing off, putting an end to my racing for the weekend.  Not to be outdone, Connor B of Kansas City (KC) region blew a power steering line, Ed spectacularly broke an axle on his fourth run (we’ll find that shaft eventually), and Devin shattered a plastic coolant fitting, bringing the class down to one running car with two drivers from LoL. Sara S and Matt S were trying out rallycross for the first time ever in a VW GTI and appeared to be having a blast.  Despite all the DNF penalties, Ed ended taking first, Devin second, and David third.

Modified RWD also ran while the course was dry, with seven drivers slinging dirt.  MR wins the award for the most unique entries: a 1978 Buick Skylark, a ’89 engine swapped MR2, a ’69 engine swapped Lotus Europa, a turboed ’81 Mustang, an ’83 RX7, and an ’01 Lexus Land yacht, err, GS300.  Right off the bat, Eric A of Michigan in the MR2, laid down a stunning run that was the fastest of all cars in Heat 1.  This left everyone else trying to play catch up.  Chris E in the Lotus answered right back with a flyer lap of his own.  This set up a back-and-forth battle between the two.  Chris E couldn’t quite overcome the difference so Eric A walked away with the first-place trophy.  Travis H piloted his Lexus to third, not far behind Eric and Chris.  Keegan S’ turbo Mustang and Brian S’ RX7 both had some mechanical issues, but managed to complete the day. 

Second heat was led off by Prepared RWD, with seven drivers competing.  Conditions started off dry, but by run two, the rain was starting and by the third run, it was extremely slick.  Adam L of Lake Superior (LS) region set the quickest first run in his ’86 Mustang GT, but Oliver S of Iowa was hot on his heels in a ’94 Miata.  These two hung close through all the dry-ish runs, but Adam pulled away as the rain set in.  Adam snagged first with Oliver not far behind.  The battle for third was an all Ford show, with Sam S & Dustin P co-driving a ’98 Mustang GT and Blade K in a ’20 Crown Vic.  Blade put down an extremely quick second run, putting him in good shape to take third.  However, he ended up getting very out of sorts in the slop and missed a gate, allowing Sam to take third away from him.

Also in the second heat, Stock AWD chewed things up, with 10 drivers slinging dirt into the air.  Michael G (LoL) put down times that appeared to be unmatchable while the dry conditions lasted, being in first by nearly 17 seconds. Then the rain struck and Michael had to do two reruns back-to-back in the slop.  By the time he got a time that stood, conditions were terrible and he gave up over 20 seconds to his competitors, falling to third.  Capitalizing on this issue, Hugh H (Iowa) and Jason J (MKE) jumped ahead, with Hugh taking first in his Subaru SVX and Jason capturing second in his ’09 Impreza Outback Sport.  The battle for fourth was also a hot one, with very little time separating the fourth through seventh finishers.  David L (Iowa) managed to hold the rest off in his daily driven ’05 Forester and brought home fourth.

UTV/Side by Side class rounded out the second heat, with two drivers taking the field.  Zachary S put down an absolutely stunning first run of 170.466, the fasted run of that course by all drivers by almost 15 seconds.  Zach followed this up with another very quick lap, but failed his water pump at the end of the run and had to retire from competition.  His sole competitor, Dale Barr (MKE), tried his hardest to take advantage of this failure but couldn’t quite get there.  Zachary took first overall, still besting Dale despite the DNF penalties.

Our final heat faced the worse course conditions as well as fading daylight.  Their runs didn’t finish up until 20 minutes after sunset, by which time visibility was hampered even further by the start of the snow.  Modified FWD went on course first, with four drivers. Shane B (Honda CRX, Iowa) and Andy W (Honda Civic, LoL) jumped out way ahead of the field in their first two runs.  Unfortunately, something happened to Andy on his second run and he turned in a time almost 100 seconds slower than his first run.  This allowed Ryan K (CRX, Iowa) to pounce and grab second place.  The little CRX decided to create problems for both its drivers, shredding the alternator belt, forcing them to charge the battery between runs in the hope of having enough juice to get through a run.  Shane ended up take the win, followed by Ryan in second and Andy in third.  Fourth went to Cooper E, a 15-year-old rookie, racing on his driving permit.  That’s right, permitted teenagers are allowed to race with a parent or instructor in the car, so bring your teens out to race!

Next up were the 16 drivers of Modified AWD, typically one of the fastest classes to watch.  By this point, the course was soup that required true mud tires to have any chance of a quick time.  Eric L (WRX, Iowa) gave us a great example of this, jumping out to a 10 second lead on his first run.  Conditions continued to get worse and no one could make up enough time on Eric to prevent him from taking first.  Second place turned into a battle between co-drivers, Aaron B (Iowa) and Jay K (Iowa) in a ’95 Impreza.  Jay had the upper hand until his last run, when the before-mentioned decreasing visibility cost him significant time, allowing Aaron to capture second.  There was also a close battle for fourth between Ben H (STI, MKE) and Jamison W (Audi A4).  The pattern above repeated with Jamison besting Ben in the final run to finish the day in fourth.  As a final illustration of rallycross mud tires versus non-mud tires, the difference between first and sixteenth was a shocking 427 seconds!

Our final class of the day was Prepared AWD, with six drivers struggling through the mud.  Alec S (LS) used his superior tires and driving skill to easily run away with the class win, over 200 seconds ahead of second place.  Runs for the other drivers varied wildly in times, due to the extremely difficult conditions.  A minimal screw up could end up costing a driver huge amounts of time.  Bryan O managed to be the most consistent in his ’24 GR Corolla, taking second by only 6 seconds, quite the accomplishment given he was racing on all season tires!  Brian, we all give you kudos for bringing that car out to race; it is living its best life! Third went to Andy M (’97 Legacy, MKE) who managed to claw back from a terrible first run to capture the podium spot.

By the time we were done with the first day award ceremony, the snow was coming down fast and furious, setting the stage for another hard and frustrating day of racing in unpredictable, slick conditions.

Sunday dawned cold (20 F), snowy (roughly 3” on the ground), and ridiculously windy.  We all definitely froze our curds off.  The snow quickly deteriorated into treacherous mud and had many drivers sacrificing cones to the rallycross gods.  Sadly, 26 drivers dropped out of the competition for Sunday, although we picked up a couple new drivers.  With the lower numbers, we opted for a two heat race day.

TL:DR Class Highlights for Day 2:

• Stock FWD: Ben D flipped Saturday’s script, taking the win from Brian S for the first time this season.
• Stock RWD: Greg F repeated unopposed, adding more Corvette glory to the event.
• Stock AWD: Hugh H again claimed top honors — two clean sweeps in one very dirty weekend!
• Prepared RWD: Adam L stayed consistent, keeping his Mustang sideways and fast.
• Prepared AWD: Alec S’s WRX was untouchable, taking home the hardware over Andy M’s Legacy.
• Modified FWD: Andy W clawed back to win the front-drive modifieds.
• Modified RWD: Eric A remained king of sideways style in his MR2ZZ.
• Modified AWD: Eric L edged Aaron B & Jay K by just over 1.1 seconds — a nail-biter finish in these conditions!

Mod FWD ran the course first, with the same four drivers returning from Saturday.  The CRX had a new alternator belt so its drivers’ hopes were high.  Andy W quickly crushed these, taking a 14 second lead on the first run.  Shane B fought back as hard as he could, cutting the lead to only 5.7 seconds, but could not stop Andy from taking first.  The CRX started acting up on Ryan K’s runs, preventing him from getting anywhere close to his co-driver.

In Mod RWD, the entrants dropped down to just Eric A, Chris E, and Travis H.  The doors of Chris’s Lotus were frozen shut, so Travis H offered him a co-drive in the land yacht so that he could continue competing.  While it’s a delight to watch in the hands of Chris and Travis, the land yacht couldn’t touch the times that Eric A was able to put down in his cheater car (his own words).  By the third run, the ice had melted enough that Chris was able to resume competition in his Lotus, cutting into Eric’s lead a small amount.  Eric had opened up so much of a gap that he easily hung onto first place, followed by Chris in second.

Mod AWD was down to 11, with one new entry of a WRX piloted by William B. The top spot was a three-way fight between Eric L, Aaron B, and Jay K.  After two runs, it was still anyone’s game, though Jay was at the top.  For the final lap, Jay laid down the fastest time but then overcooked the finish, taking out two cones after the timing lights, which is still a penalty.  This allowed Eric to take first by a bit over one second, and Aaron second by only 0.15 seconds.  Again, there was a fight for fourth between Jamison W and Ben H.  Jamison couldn’t best Ben despite his best efforts, so the finish order was flipped from the previous day.  The remaining drivers slogged through the worsening conditions in their not-mud tires, with times getting slower every lap, making for a frustrating experience.

The second heat featured all the remaining classes.  With the slimy mud and tires not intended for dealing with it, the drivers had to battle continuously to stay on course and not slaughter a ton of cones.

Up first was Stock FWD with 6 drivers, all veterans from the first day, although none had faced the afternoon mud.  Ben D & Brian S both put down stellar times, but Ben pick up two cones, handing the lead to Brian.  However, Ben made his Mini dance the following run and bested Brian by over 4 seconds to take the class win by less than a second.  Peter S also dropped a very quick run in his ’99 Toyota Camry to lock up third place.

Greg F was once again playing with himself in Stock RWD and used the opportunity to try new things in the muddy conditions.  I’m not sure these worked, as he picked up a missed gate and four cones.  All in all, it didn’t matter and he went home with another trophy.

Stock AWD featured 8 returning drivers from Saturday as well as Oliver S switching into Hugh’s SVX from his Miata.  Time wise, it looks like Michael G was going to easily take the win, until the cone and missed gate calls started rolling in.  Hugh kept things fast and tidy, taking the win with no cones and roughly a 5 second lead over Michael.  Cones again decided the battle for third, with Oliver’s raw times looking good, but 12 seconds of cone penalties handed the trophy to Jason J.

Prepared RWD had 6 returning drivers, until Martin & Peter couldn’t even get their BMW out of grid due to the mud.  This turned the class into another Ford only affair.  Adam L once again demonstrated great car control In his Mustang while laying down times as fast as some of the AWD cars.  He took first with a solid 16 second lead over Blade and his Crown Vic.  Blade did utilize tactics he learned from ice racing to capture second with a healthy 40 second margin.

Only three drivers returned in Prepared AWD but Luke W drove over from Iowa to add his WRX to the fray.  Right off the bat, Alec S established dominance, dropping runs in excess of 25 seconds faster than his closest competitor.  Andy M captured second with a comfortable lead over the remaining competitors.  Bryan O and Luke had quite the battle for third, swapping fastest times.  Bryan captured the last trophy by only 0.7 seconds, thanks to Luke catching a few more cones.

This year’s event was also a National Tour event, where the two-day winners of every class qualify for Tier1 entry to the 2026 National Championship event.  The cumulative winners can be seen at this link, as you are probably already tired of reading about this event.

FYCO is also a division competition between the regions of CenDiv.  The members of each region earn points for their region, based on their finish in their class each day, with 10/8/6/4/2/1 points earned for 1^st/2^nd/3^rd/4^th/5^th/6^th and on place.  This was the closest year yet between the regions, with Land o Lakes Region earning 41 points, Lake Superior Region earning 54, Milwaukee Region snagging 145, and Iowa Region taking the win with 154 points.  The absurd cheese curd trophy will be returning to Iowa until the 2026 event. Iowa is still undefeated for all five years of this competition!  Breakdown of the points earnings can be seen here.

We also presented to special awards this year: a Road Warrior award for the racer that traveled the furthest distance to come to the event and the Curd Happens award, for the racer that had the hardest weekend due to breakage and other difficulties.  The Road Warrior award went to Edwin C, who traveled over 825 miles from Birmingham, AL to come race with us Midwest nuts.  The Curds Happens award was given to yours truly, David C, mainly for battling the difficult weather and other hardships to keep the entire event running, though I did also break my car.  An important note, I was not on the committee that made the decision on who would be presented the award. 😀

Summing things up, it was two days, two courses, dozens of drivers, and enough frozen mud to sculpt a dairy cow — the 2025 Freeze Your Curds Off Challenge delivered exactly what rallycross fans came for: unpredictability, camaraderie, and curds that lived up to their name.  Massive thanks to everyone who helped out and made the event great!  We hope you all had fun despite the challenging and frustrating course conditions.  We’ll be back again next year!

A crisp fall morning, a little dew on the grass, and the unmistakable sound of turbo Subarus and rev-happy Civics echoing through Independence Speedway was the story this past Sunday as the Iowa Region RallyCross crew wrapped up another action-packed day of sideways dirt-flinging fun.  Potentially the dustiest event of the season, a stiff breeze prevented any delays due to visibility or angry neighbors.  17 racers from four different states threw down the gauntlet to try to bring home first place on a very technical course featuring four hairpin pivots.

Stock FWD was an in-law battle with Jeff W facing off against his son-in-law, Dan A, both behind the wheel of a 2010 Focus.  Jeff jumped off to an early lead, putting 18 seconds on Dan in the first three runs.  Dan clawed back some, nearly matching Jeff time for time as the day went on.  However, he was unable to dig up enough speed to overtake his father-in-law.  Jeff finished the day sitting in first for Stock FWD and 8^th overall.

When it’s slick and technical, Hugh H is the man to beat in Stock AWD — and he proved it again today. The red ’96 Subaru SVX glided across the course like it was on rails, clocking in times consistently faster than the rest of the field. Even a ten second missed gate penalty couldn’t hold him back.  Hugh’s performance also earned him 4^th overall. Kirk E’s ’02 BMW 325xi, David L’s ’05 Forester, and Adam B’s $300 ’06 Impreza rounded out the field, all improving their times throughout the day on the exceedingly tricky course.  When the extreme dust settled, David had taken 2^nd with Kirk tight on his heels.

Prepared FWD was the battle of boosted 4 cylinders with Devin P in a ’14 VW GTI and yours truly, David C, in an ’04 SRT4.  Devin’s times were quick right off the bat, whereas I lagged behind as well as picking up a couple cones.  While I wanted to blame my poor performance on the terrible turning radius of the SRT4 with all the [damn] pivots, Devin truly drove the wheels off his GTI.  His fastest lap was only bested by cars in the Modified classes.  Devin also captured 6^th overall for the day.

Prepared RWD was again a spec Ford Mustang class, with Sam S and Dustin P piloting the same ’98 GT.  Dustin was a bit cone happy throughout the day, while Sam was consistently faster, opening a pretty wide gulf between their times.  Disaster struck part way through the first heat, with the Mustang’s power breaking up right in the power band.  They retired for the rest of the heat, but got things squared away to continue their battle in the afternoon.  Sam headed home with 1^st place and bragging rights until our November event.

Modified FWD was a pack of Hondas, all of which were flying! Andy W was incredibly quick as always in his ’99 Civic, staying out front all day. Shane B and Anthony W followed close behind in a ’91 CRX, proving once again that light, loud, and low works wonders on loose dirt.  Sadly, the CRX ripped out its transmission mounts near the end of the first heat, forcing both drivers to retire.  Andy didn’t slack off though, continuing to put down times that were only bested by one other car, in the Modified AWD class!  Andy took home 2^nd overall as well as the class win.

Travis H had Modified RWD all to himself in his Lexus GS300, but don’t mistake that for an excuse to slack off.  Travis pitched his luxury barge, err sedan, into every corner, taking advantage of drifts to get around the four [damn] pivot cones with ease.  Without a doubt, Travis also introduced the most dust to the atmosphere, allowing him to murder cones unnoticed.  While a bit behind the fastest times, there’s no doubt that Travis had the most fun of all of us.

 Subarus filled the Modified AWD class, with an ’05 Forester championed by Dave E, a ’95 Impreza wagon piloted by Aaron B, and an ’05 WRX sponsored by Rachel D, but driven by Eric L.  Dave E, with less horsepower and far more weight than the other two, pushed hard trying to keep up, but quickly fell behind.  Eric started off cone heavy as usual and it looked like Aaron might be able to snag first without much of a fight.  However, Eric figured things out and took off, opening a gap by the end of the first heat.  Aaron struggled with the [damn] pivot cones, which amusingly, he had inserted into the course design.  In the afternoon, both drivers threw caution to the wind and traded times back and forth.  Eric managed to hold onto first through the end of competition and also took home first overall.

Next up for Iowa Region is our annual Freeze Your Curds Off two day rallycross near Darlington, WI on November 8-9^th.  Entry includes a t-shirt, stickers, cheese curds, and door prizes, as well as some cool trophies.  Don’t delay in signing up, as we have to enter our shirt order by 10/14, so we cannot guarantee shirt sizes if you register after that date.  Get all the details at www.msreg.com/FYCORallyX

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 21^st.  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!

Sunday, January 12th, 25 racers headed to the new Freitag field for the first event of the season. Cold temperatures and a heavy wind for our first ever event at this new venue made it quite a chilly day. The wide-open rolling hills of this 140!!! acre field are going to make for some great events!

The top time and first in Stock FWD for this inaugural event goes to Issac H, who piloted his Honda Prelude to victory by a mere 0.965 seconds over 2024 class Champion Charles P.  This close battle came down to cones hits with Charles’s three costing him the win.  Charles also took 2^nd overall, helping show that FWD may have its advantages in winter racing conditions.

Stock RWD saw Brian T piloting his Camaro on course, and as more ice started to form, he was putting on a show.  Even with the show, he was able to beat Jeff W by less than a second.  Jeff was having shifter issues “because his wife Candy broke it.”  We’re not sure we believe you on this Jeff!  Memories of Camry bumpers flying off and other incidents are still fresh in our minds. 😉

3rd fastest overall was Greg L, piloting the ever popular, unkillable RuSTI (04 Legacy) to a 4 second win in Stock AWD over Dave M in his clean STI.  Greg was fast out of the gate, with his first two runs of the day giving him this lead.  He was able to maintain it for the rest of the day despite having Dave hot on his heels.  Of special note in Stock AWD was the ’02 BMW 325xi, whose owner was trying to give it a Viking’s funeral with FOUR drivers pounding on it all day.  Amazingly, the car took this abuse without complaint.  Perhaps you guys need to actually give the car some love and keep in around after this impressive performance!

6th fastest overall and first in Prepared FWD went to Devin P, despite some clutch issues with his RSX.  He was really tearing it up, putting down times faster than most of the AWD cars, even with having to hold the shifter into second gear.

Modified RWD was a class of one with Todd F drifting his Jeep Wrangler around the course.  We hope you join us again Todd!

5th fastest overall went to 2024 MAWD Champion Aaron B, who also captured first in Mod AWD.  Aaron would likely have ended up first overall, but he made a costly tire change at the break, in hopes of finding more speed.  Instead, these tires had less grip and caused him major control issues. 2nd in class went to Christopher G, who was handling his GMC Yukon like a vehicle 1/4 its size. Chris raced with us once before a few years back and shocked everyone with how quick he can get his Yukon around a course.  As an aside, large, top-heavy SUV/trucks like this cannot be raced with us in stock form.  Chris has greatly increased the track width of his Yukon, allowing it to meet our track width to height requirements.

In the SXS class, Cory S was throwing his Maverick around and having fun.  We imagine it was awfully cold in that machine, so we hope you had a great time, Cory!

Full results for the event can be seen here.  I want to thank everyone that came out and raced with us, helped with teardown, and breaking into my truck! Perhaps it’s time to add a lockout kit to the items in the rallycross trailer! 😀

I can’t wait to see everyone back at the Freitag’s on February 2nd!!!  Be sure to get registered at www.msreg.com/IAFebRallyX as soon as possible.

~Jay

It was an absolutely beautiful and delightfully cool summer day for our rallycross yesterday in Oskaloosa at the Southern Iowa Speedway.   All our drivers got to enjoy 11 runs on the roughly 110 second long course.  Grip levels were quite high, thanks to some rain on Friday putting some moisture in the ground.  The competition was intense, with some surprising winners.

Stock FWD had five drivers competing for the win, including the father & son duo of Charles and Devin P, a semi-regular attendee Aaron D, and a couple newbies.  After the first two runs, it looks like it was going to be a three-way knife fight between Charles, Devin, & Aaron, with less than a second separating all three.  Things changed drastically on the third run, with Aaron really finding his groove in his 2ZZ equipped Matrix XRS.  He began opening up the gap by at least two seconds every run, eventually taking 1^st in class by 38 seconds as well as capturing 2^nd overall.  Charles and Devin fought each other hard for second place, trading who was fastest several times.  With one run remaining, Charles was in the lead by roughly five seconds.  Charles took his final run first, getting out of sorts and running his slowest time of the afternoon as well as picking up a cone.  Devin’s second place spot appeared to be in the bag, until he also pushed too hard for his final run, picking up three cones to net a nearly identical run time to his dad.  Thanks to Devin’s mistake, Charles took 6^th overall in addition to 2^nd in class.  Our two newbies showed drastic improvement over the course of the day, with both dropping over ten seconds between their first and last runs.

Stock RWD was a class of one with Luke W putting on a master class of how to be a smooth yet fast driver in his Miata.  Luke captured an impressive 3^rd overall in his Miata, besting cars with more than double the horsepower.

Stock AWD was our largest class of the day with 9 entries.  The usual SA culprits were in attendance, along with a couple less frequent attendees and one newbie.  The morning runs saw some fast times and very good competition with five drivers all in contention for first place.  Jay K was leading the pack despite some intermittent issues with his car.  When the drivers returned to competition in the afternoon, they had to deal with a freshly watered track.  The slick conditions led to much slower times at first.  Run times began dropping fast as the track began drying fast and there was some shakeup in the standings due to the variable conditions.  Disaster struck for Jay in the afternoon when the engine of his Outback Sport seized just after crossing the finish line while his co-driver Kim S was behind the wheel.  In the meantime, Hugh H had dialed in his racing line and began opening up a huge lead over the rest of the field.  He finished the day taking 1^st in class by over 26 seconds and fourth overall.  2^nd place went to Greg L, 3^rd to David L, and 4^th to Dave M.  Random trivia for the day: we had four David’s competing, three of them in SA.

Prepared FWD was a class of two with yours truly sharing my car with Cliff J.  Sadly, on the very first run on the day, the car stopped putting power to the wheels.  Fingers are crossed that it was a failure of the recently installed modular clutch and not a grenaded transmission.

Prepared RWD saw the return of Steve M in his Porchse 944.  Unfortunately, the car began struggling with a fueling and overheating problem after just a few runs.  Steve’s best efforts could not remedy the situation and he had to retire for the day before completing his runs.

Prepared AWD was a class of one with Ethan T in his lifted Outback sedan.  As a fellow owner of one of these cars, I really enjoyed seeing it compete.  Ethan dropped his run times all day, despite battling significant body roll from his Outback. 

Modified AWD was the class to watch at this event with very stiff competition between Mark M from Kansas City Region and Iowa Region’s Aaron B.  Mark had the horsepower advantage in his ’05 STI whereas Aaron’s gutted ’95 Impreza wagon had the edge in nimbleness.  After the five morning runs, Aaron had the lead by nearly 6 seconds, thanks to a rare missed gate by Mark.  As afternoon runs resumed, Aaron’s car wouldn’t start and a quick repair had to implemented.  In the meantime, Mark took his first run of the afternoon in the slick, post-water truck conditions, netting a painfully slow time.  The rapidly drying track gave Aaron much more grip on his late run and he opened up the gap to 19 seconds.  This gap was further opened on the second run to 26 seconds, again from the rapidly changing grip level of the course.  By the third run, both drivers had similar conditions and the battle for the fastest individual run of the day began.  Mark dropped a 100.261 on run four to briefly hold fastest lap of the day but then Aaron answered with a screaming 98.248 on run five to take and hold it for the rest of the day.  Aaron ended competition taking 1^st in class by just shy of 31 seconds and captured 1^st overall by nearly 3 seconds.  Mark captured 5^th overall for the day in addition to 2^nd in MA.  Side note, having taken a couple fun runs in Mark’s car in the afternoon, I can confidently say he was held back by the tires on his car.  The car understeered even through the slaloms and I can hardly fathom how Mark produced the lap times he put down.

Our next rallycross will be in Oskaloosa again on August 18^th.  Make your plans to join us now as you will not want to miss out on the fun!

Only 13 racers took to the field on this beautiful past Sunday at CFMP, but the competition was still quite intense.  With the lower attendance, every racer got to make more runs as well as finish racing earlier in the day, so it was a win-win situation for everyone.

First up was Stock AWD, with Jay K (’06 Outback Sport) and Hugh H (’96 SVX) laying down extremely close times.  At the break, Jay was in the lead by over six seconds, thanks to a little cone trouble from Hugh.  The afternoon course favored horsepower a bit more, so Hugh started clawing into Jay’s lead.  It looked like this one was going to come down to the last run, but then Jay lost control right at the finish, plowing down six cones.  This allowed Hugh to take the win by 11.89 seconds, a lead of almost exactly the 12 seconds of penalty that Jay picked up.  Hugh also captured third overall with sharp driving.  Special mention goes out to Krista W, who tried out racing for the very first time!  She was obviously having a blast while dropping significant time between her first and last runs on each course.  We hope you’ll join us again Krista!

Running at the same time was Modified RWD, a class of one, with our most interesting entry from David G.  His apparent 1968 F250 was actually a Crown Vic with the truck body grafted onto it!  David had a lot of fun drifting the corners, putting down times that allowed him to take 9^th overall as well as first in class.

Not to be shown up by the SA cars, Modified AWD contenders Ben H (’06 STI) and Aaron B (’95 Impreza Wagon) both threw dirt high in the air striving for first.  Ben shot himself in the foot on his very first run, missing a gate and taking a 10 second penalty.  He didn’t let this discourage him and he began to immediately eat into Aaron’s lead.  Ben had closed the gap to a minimal amount, but then began to tag cones as he pushed for the fastest possible runs.  These cones added up to a win for Aaron by a bit over 13 seconds, despite nearly all of Ben’s raw times being drastically faster.  Aaron also took first overall for the day with his quick and consistent runs.

Stock FWD was the familiar father-son battle between Charles P (’06 Civic) and Devin P (’02 RSX).  The Acura’s horsepower advantage allowed Devin to jump off to an early lead, but then his car began having troubles.  Charles wouldn’t allow Devin to retire for the day, and talked him into sharing Charles’ car. Devin ended up schooling his dad in his own car, taking the win by over 25 seconds.  You’ll get him next time Charles!

Prepared AWD was a class of one, with Kim K pushing herself to get faster throughout the day in her ’06 Outback Sport.  Kim got in a bit of cone trouble as the racing went on, but her raw times were definitely dropping all day long.  Sadly, her Sport decided it was done for the day with one run remaining, so she was forced to take a DNF for her final run.

Prepared FWD was yours truly and Cliff J, both sharing my ’04 SRT4.  While swapping on race tires in the morning, it appeared that one of the front struts might have sprung a leak. By the end of the morning heat, this leak has grown to a fully blown strut.  We elected to retire in the afternoon, as the car became almost undriveable with no damping on the rough ground.  Cliff did manage to continue his quest towards recapturing the Cone Killer award for 2024, picking up seven cones in only four runs.  We’ll just blame the strut, Cliff.  😉

Modified FWD saw the return of Shane B and Bryan K in their ’91 CRX.  Finishing the day was a battle for these two, as the car experienced numerous issues, including a tire that was aggressively leaking air through the bead.  Shane gave Bryan a solid lesson on how to drive their shared car, taking the win by 53 seconds.  Shane also captured fifth overall!

 

 

 

Rallycross will be taking a hiatus through the month of May due to venue scheduling conflicts, so our next event will be June 30^th at the speedway in Oskaloosa.  This is our fastest and smoothest venue, so you will not want to miss racing there!

Sunday, March 10th 17 racers spent their Sunday at Cedar Falls Raceway for the second Rallycross of 2024.

Despite the early start thanks to DST, it was a good day for racing, but a not so great day for mechanical mishaps.

Overall fastest time of the day and 1st place in Stock AWD goes to your author, after a hard fought battle with Hugh H. in his red 96 SVX ( No, not that one, the other one!), The final difference was only 4.2 seconds. Rallycross regular David L brought out his somewhat reluctant wife Kelsey to try rallycross for the first time. Kelsey set aside her worries and showed a ton of improvement throughout the day, dropping 5 seconds off her morning run times and 7 on her afternoon runs. Great Job Kelsey!!!!

2nd fastest overall and 1st in Prepared FWD all by himself, David C. wheeled his SRT4 through 9 cone penalties, yet was only 4 seconds behind me!!!

First in Prepared AWD and 8th fastest time of the day went to Kim K in her Outback Sport. Kim jumped out to an early lead, and didn’t look back. Ryan L had a few minor mechanical problems in the morning, but started to find a groove in the afternoon. His times showed a lot of improvement through the day. Great Job Ryan!

9th overall, and 1st in Stock FWD was Andrew A, piloting his wife’s 08 Passat. Hopefully he’s not sleeping on the couch for the rest of the week after beating her times. Taking 2nd was Andy L in his fun to watch, parts shedding 16 Prius. By the end of the day, I don’t think the car had any under cladding or heat shields left!

This brings us to our final class Modified AWD, which was the class of issues unfortunately. Our 10th fastest of the day and first in class was Aaron B. in his high compression 95 Impreza. Aaron was looking good, but a broken ball joint on his second run forced him to three DNF penalties in the morning. A quick off-heat repair got him back in action, and able to finish the afternoon course. In second was Brian L, who was also having issues. These issues resulted in him and his son Ian not finishing all of their runs.

Hard luck mention goes out to Eric L., who’s MA WRX decided to tell some knock knock jokes. I think we’re still all waiting to hear the punchline.

A big thanks to everyone who came out to race, and stuck around to help pick up. I hope everyone had fun, and we’ll see you back at Cedar Falls April 14th!  Another thanks goes out to Scott Vavroch for shooting a bunch of photos of us tearing up the courses!  His photos are featured in this post.

-Jay

 

One usually expects our February rallycross events to be knee in snow and bitterly cold, but thanks to this unusual winter, we had a balmy 40 degree day.  This weather was a welcome break from January, where dangerous wind chills forced us to cancel the race.  The fine day allowed us to draw a crowd of 26 racers, despite it being Superbowl Sunday.  There was a diverse mix of cars, with a 35 year age gap between the newest car to the oldest.  We also had a good mix of veteran racers and new attendees.  As always, rallycross is a blast, no matter what car you’re bringing out or what your skill level is.

Five drivers took the field in Stock FWD, one being a surprise entry of a Toyota Prius!  From the first run of the day, Charles and Devin P resumed their constant father son battle for first place.  Devin took advantage or the extra HP of his RSX to open up roughly a second gap over his father on the morning course.  However, the tables turned quickly on the afternoon course, with Charles taking the lead by the second run.  It looked like there was chance that Devin was going to reclaim the lead, but he got out of sorts on his final run and tagged 5 cones at the finish line, cementing Charles in first place in class and 7^th overall.  Andy L’s Prius was a crowd favorite as he blew all of our minds with how quick it was!  He had no hesitation in wheeling the car for all it was worth, only missing out on third place due to missed gate on his final run.

Subarus filled the Stock AWD class as usual and surprisingly, they all finished the day without breaking!  Things started off very close between Jay K and Hugh H, with only fractions of a second separating them.  Jay slowly opened up the gap on the second course, but a whopping four cones on his last run put his win in jeopardy.  All eyes were on Hugh but despite putting down the fastest run of the class, he couldn’t make up the difference.  In addition to taking first in class, Jay also captured 3^rd overall.

Prepared FWD was a class of four drivers in two cars, pairing Dodge against Mitsubishi.  David C roared off to a large early lead and never looked back, taking first in class and sixth overall in his Neon SRT4.  There was more of a battle for second, between Cliff J (Neon SRT4) and Tristan S (Lancer).  Freshly disappointed with the news of not winning Cone Killer for the fifth straight year, Cliff got to work mowing down cones, hitting 7 cones just on the morning course.  All these penalties allowed Tristan to keep things close, but sadly the Lancer had to retire from the race prior to the afternoon course.  Cliff ended up with second, despite a healthy 15 cones for the day.

Prepared AWD was a class of one, allowing newcomer Anthony C to focus on improving his times without competition pressure.  He dropped significant time between his first and last runs on each course as he got the hang of rallycross.  He could be a driver to be reckoned with at future events.

Newcomer Vincent H put his bright pink Accord through its paces as the sole entry in Modified FWD.  For his first time rallycrossing, Vincent put down respectable times while also getting faster each time on course.  We hope we’ll see him back at future events!

We took a trip back to the ‘80’s in Modified RWD, with our competitors piloting an ’85 Porsche 944 and an ’81 Ford Mustang.  Things were looking good for Keegan S in his American muscle, opening up a 13 second gap over Steve M (Porsche) on the morning course.  Steve attacked the afternoon course with a vengeance, looking to redeem the Porsche’s reputation.  A gap of only 3 seconds kept Keegan in the lead with one run remaining for each driver.  Sadly, something failed in the read end of the Mustang, forcing Keegan to forfeit his last run and handing the win to Steve.

The Subarus (including one rebranded as a Saab) were out in force in Modified AWD.  The battle to watch was between Eric L and Aaron B.  Aaron was rocking a freshly built high compression engine, which allowed him to put significant pressure on Eric.  Aaron had a few struggles as he relearned the car with so much more power on tap, allowing Eric to take the first in class and first overall by a few seconds.  The remaining drivers were father son duos squaring off against each other.  Experience prevailed over youth for the day, with both fathers taking the wins over their sons.

We also had two drivers racing in our Constructors class, home to custom built vehicles or caged race cars from other racing series.  Clayton S and Alex P battled it out in Clayton’s ’02 Ford Ranger.  Things looked like they might be close after two runs, but then Clayton hit his stride, opening a large gap up over his friend to take the win.

Thank you again to everyone who raced with us and then helped us clean up afterwards!  I honestly think it was one of the fastest clean ups we’ve had in a while.  We’ll be racing again at CFMP on March 10^th, so head to the event page now to get signed up!

Well, we lied in our advertising as Mother Nature was awfully kind to us this year with highs in the 50’s for both days.  No complaints were heard from anyone, especially given the miserable weather from 2022.  Racers from six states and at least five regions took on the very long courses that the Darlington venue is known for.  The average racer got 20 minutes of seat time on Saturday and 16 on Sunday, leading to lots of fun and big smiles all around.  We’d like to thank Mayhew Tools for sponsoring the event and providing tool giveaways for our racers.

This write up gets a bit long, so the TL,DR version is: you absolutely want to plan on making this event next year as you’ll get a huge amount of seat time while hitting speeds you typically don’t see at a rallycross event.  There’s also a great social element, as nearly everyone stays at the same hotel and we invade restaurants as a group.

Saturday

51 drivers tore up the 3+ minute course that flowed over the rolling hills of the 35 acre farm field.  The course was a good balance between horsepower and technical, leading to some interesting battles.  Tire choice played a large role as usual, with a wide mixture of course conditions.

Stock FWD looked like it was going to be a class dominated by the father & son duo of Charles and Devin P.  Devin’s first run in his Acura RSX was over 3 seconds faster than the next closest driver.  He proceeded to speed up with his following runs and open this gap up further all day long, taking first by over 51 seconds.  By the end of the morning heat, his father Charles held second in his Honda Civic by over six seconds.  However, an error on his first run of the afternoon heat had him giving up second to Aaron D.  Aaron used the high revving 2ZZ engine is his Matrix XRS to widen the gap and take second place by a solid 14 seconds over Charles.

Stock RWD had the largest range of vehicle age, ranging from a 1989 Volvo brick to a 2023 Subaru BRZ.  Joe T gave us all a lesson on how to be fast in a RWD car, taking no prisoners right from the start in his 2003 BMW 325i.  Joe took first by almost 43 seconds while making it look easy to be so fast in a RWD car.  Joe even cracked into the top 20 overall, taking 16^th ahead of many AWD cars. Second went to Nate K in his family’s beautiful blue ’23 BRZ.  Nate had second place completely locked up by the end of the first heat, so he switched to his dad’s ’89 Volvo for the afternoon to save abuse on the BRZ

Stock AWD was one of our larger classes, completely filled with Subarus or Subaru derivatives (Saabaru).  Michael G from Land O’ Lakes looked to have the advantage in his STI.  Unfortunately, disaster struck on his first run, with an intercooler hose bursting, leading to a DNF penalty of roughly 40 seconds. Sean H capitalized on this, laying down quicker and quicker times every run, using every last bit of HP that his Legacy had to offer.  Jay K was initially right on his heels, but fell back as the gearing in his Outback Sport really created power delivery problems on the long course.  In the meanwhile, Michael convinced an MA car to donate an intercooler hose and got back in the running.   His individual lap times were much faster than everyone else, but he was only able to cut the penalty deficit down to 10 seconds behind.  When the flying dirt settled, Sean had first (11^th overall), Michael second, and Jay third.

In Prepared FWD, it was the age old (well, technically only four years) rivalry between David C and Travis H from WI.  David had an all-day problem with cones, picking up 12 seconds of penalty.  However, horsepower seemed to provide an advantage, as he piloted his SRT4 to a win over Travis.

Prepared RWD looked like it was going to be a battle of older straight axle cars, with Sam S’s ’98 Mustang and Jay B’s ’66 Plymouth Belvedere.  Unfortunately, after only one run, the ignition module failed in the Belvedere, forcing Jay to retire.  Sam didn’t coast to the win though, dropping significant amounts of time each run all day long.

Prepared AWD had nearly as many Audis competing as Subarus, which is quite unusual.  There was even an AWD BMW E30, which are fairly rare cars these days.  From his first run, Jamison W of Milwaukee Region jumped off to a commanding lead and never hesitated for the rest of the day.  He ended up wheeling his Audi A4 to first by over 70 seconds as well as fourth overall.  Second place was where the action was, with Scott M (Audi TT) and Eric E (Subaru Impreza) trading the the lead back and forth throughout the day.  Scott’s first run was very fast, but then he followed it up with rather slow second run, allowing Eric into second.  Eric built on this lead, getting it up to 12 seconds at the heat changeover.  However, he struggled with the afternoon course whereas Scott turned up the heat. They both pushed hard on their final runs, but Scott came away with second, by ONLY 0.050 seconds!  This was the closest margin of the day.  There was some additional excitement early on in the heat, when the engine in Jessica T’s ’18 WRX decided to seize and blow a large window in the block, letting the oil catch on fire on the red-hot turbo.  Thankfully, this occurred near a worker station, and a quick application of a fire extinguisher prevented a serious situation.  This tragic end to the day earned Jessica the Hard Luck award, a small consolation given what had happened.

Hondas dominated the Modified FWD class, with a tight battle between Nick L in his stage rally prepped Civic and Shane B (normally piloting an MA Stealth) in a CRX.  Shane’s CRX had been purchased just a scant two weeks before and had some issues that weren’t fully ironed out.  Despite a very close start, Shane started putting down times that were just a bit faster than Nick.  The additional weight of the cage and other safety equipment contributed to the gap in times.  The first-place trophy went home with Shane who also took fifth overall.  Nick took second by a large margin over the remainder of the class.

10 racers started the day in Modified AWD: nine Subarus of various flavors and one GMC Typhoon.  While this later seems like an oddball choice, it was actually the vehicle favored to win the class.  Its driver, Chris E, had brought home the national championship just a month prior by a large margin.  Sadly, a repeat of his blazing fast performance was not to be, as his cooling system failed on his first run.  This allowed Ben H, our friendly local crack, err I mean tire, dealer to walk away with first by a considerable margin.  Eric L took second, hitting a lot of cones (9, Eric?!?) as usual, which prevented him from closing the gap to Ben. Adam D was hot on Eric’s heels for most of the morning, but was unable to pass him before the end of the day.  Ben and Eric tool second and third overall as well!

We also had one entry in the Side by Side class, Piotr B.  His SxS is fully prepared for rallycross and it definitely showed with the blazing fast times he was putting down.  It seriously looked like a go-kart ripping around the course.  Piotr took first in class and first overall by almost 37 seconds!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday

Sunday dawned on some beautiful weather.  Many of our racers returned for more fun and we even had a few new faces. 

Stock FWD was again dominated by Devin and Charles P.  Devin stayed *just* ahead of his dad all day long, taking the win by six seconds thanks to a late run cone penalty on Charles.  It was amusing watching these two racing, as they rode with each other for every run.   While obviously both were very competitive, they were also encouraging each other to get faster.

Stock RWD was quite the battle for Sunday, between Joe T in his BMW and Luke W in his ’90 Miata.  Luke was hot on Joe’s heels until run #4 when he lost traction and slid outside of a gate, picking up a 10 second penalty.  In the meantime, Joe’s BMW was wounded, with a rear control arm bending.  Not giving up, Joe was able to hammer the arm back into roughly the correct shape and continue on, albeit slower than he would have liked.  Luke turned on the fire, putting down his two fastest runs of the day.  This late effort was not quite enough, with Joe taking first by only three seconds.

Stock AWD was filled with all the same suspects from Saturday, with Michael G having macguyvered a fix for his intercooler coupling.  He jumped off to a large lead, ten seconds after only two runs, but sadly, his fix blew out on the third run, forcing a DNF penalty.  Sean H capitalized, putting numerous seconds on the rest of the field for the remainder of the day.  Hugh H came in second, putting that H6 motor to work in his bright red SVX. Author’s note: I just love seeing this SVX out on course.  Most of these cars have been long sent to the junkyard, so it’s great to see one being driven aggressively.  Jay K brought up third, with a constant stream of frustrated words pouring out thanks to his gearing issue.

Prepared FWD picked up a new contender, Jake W in his RSX, and the class looked like it would be a knife fight all day.  Unfortunately, Jake’s alternator failed during his second run, forcing him to retire for the day.  David and Travis ran neck and neck for most of the morning, with as little as 0.2 separating lap times.  Travis ended up with a few issues on course in the afternoon, allowing David to open up the gap and take first during the afternoon.  Both drivers ended up in the top 10 overall.

Prepared RWD saw the return of Jay B, having fixed the ignition problem in his Belvedere.  Jessica T also switched to this class, racing her husband’s stock BMW.  For the first few runs, Jessica held the top spot, but then the previously mentioned control arm damage occurred, and she decided to retire for the day.  Sam S continued his streak of dropping time every run, minus one that we won’t discuss, and ended up taking first.  While not the fastest car, Jay’s Belvedere was definitely the crowd favorite as it powered through the course.  His high compression engine and exhaust sang a beautiful song all through the rolling hills of the venue.

There was the same eclectic mix of cars in Prepared AWD, though we did lose a few Audis.  Jamison was back in his A4 though, and put a hurting on the class from his very first run.  He ended up in first in class by nearly two minutes, despite picking up a handful of cones.  In the meantime, Maciej M put down solid times in his Mitsubishi Eclipse, taking second by a little over 24 seconds.

Modified FWD was the same Honda crowd from the day before, with Nick determined to take first.  He kept things close all day, despite Shane picking up the pace, having become more comfortable with the new car.  On Nick’s last run, he went for broke, trying to make up the last bit of deficit.  Sadly, he got out of shape entering the cone tunnel on the back half and picked up ten seconds in cone penalties.  This allowed Shane to go home with first place again.  It’s interesting to note that four of the overall top 10 cars were front wheel drive.  This goes to prove that you do NOT need AWD to be fast on the dirt.

 

The same hooligans returned for Sunday in Modified AWD, minus the Typhoon.  Eric got off to a great start, being aided by Ben getting out of shape and picking up a missed gate penalty.  However, Eric’s taste for cones dragged him down while at the same time Ben was picking up the pace.  By the end of the day Ben was comfortably in first by 21 seconds over Eric.  Adam D put on a good showing again, but couldn’t close the gap to Eric, taking third comfortable ahead of the rest of the class.

Piotr returned in his SxS to give us all another lesson on how darn quick they can be on a rallycross course. With zero cones for the day, he took first overall by just over a minute.  Thank you for making us all feel slow Piotr!

This whole event is also a competition between all the regions of CenDiv SCCA.  Each day, each racer earns points for their region, basis their standing in class.  For the third year in a row, Iowa Region brought home the bragging rights, this time by the larget margin yet.  The results for this competition can be seen below.

A big thank you goes out to everyone that assisted with the event as well as to those who came out to race.  We hope you all had fun!  Please plan on being there again next year on the first weekend in November!

P.S.: I’d like to apologize for how late this write up is.  Shortly after the event I came down with a nasty case of covid that put me out of commission for over two weeks.  Other things then got in the way after that, making this get ignored until now.  Cliff and Dawn would also like to apologize for the late photos from the event, as they have both been overworked with paying work since the event.