Author: David C

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 2nd 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

Our annual two-day rallycross competition against the other regions of CenDiv took place this past weekend.  We had a beautiful day for racing on Saturday, but Mother Nature decided a monsoon would be fun for Sunday.  Racers from six states took on the long courses that the Darlington venue is known for.  The average racer got about 18 minutes of seat time on Saturday and 15 on Sunday, leading to lots of fun and big smiles all around.  We’d like to thank Mayhew Tools for once again sponsoring the event and providing tool giveaways for our racers.

As always, this write up gets a bit long, so the TL,DR version is: you need to attend 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.  Plus, we typically have some great door prizes and cheese curds!

Saturday

38 drivers tore up the 3+ minute course that flowed over the rolling hills of the 35 acre farm field.  The course was a bit biased to those with more horsepower.  The course was designed to be as flowing as possible due to soft ground conditions from rain earlier in the week.  Aggressive tires also played a large role as the shredded corn stalks made for initially slick conditions.

Stock FWD had five racers mixing it up for the top spot.  Brian S jumped off to an early lead in his ’08 Honda Fit despite the ice-like slickness of the corn stubble.  He never looked back, opening up the gap further on every run to take the class win by over 24 seconds.  He also captured 10th overall amongst the heat 1 competitors (a full comparison against the heat 2 cars cannot be done as they had MUCH improved course conditions).  Ben D captured 2nd in class with his ’06 Mini Cooper S which is a great finish considering this is his first season of rallycross!

Nearly a 20 year gap separated the cars competing in Stock RWD, with Luke W piloting a ’90 Miata versus Daniel L’s ’18 BMW 330e (without a doubt the cleanest and nicest car on course).  Luke utilized his years of racing experience to take the class win by a good margin as well as 6th for heat 1.  Daniel was getting the hang of rallycross by the end of the day, with his final run being over 30 seconds faster than his first.

Stock AWD was a surprisingly small class this year, with only Hugh H and Michael G battling it out in Hugh’s ’96 SVX.  Much pre-race trash talk occurred, with bets placed on who would win.  Hugh took the lead right off the bat, though Michael clawed back a lot during runs 3 & 4.  At the break, Hugh was up by only 2 seconds.  When action resumed, Hugh put the hammer down and took a commanding lead, taking the win by 12 seconds as well as taking 2nd overall in heat 1.  This race would have been much closer had Michael been able to stay away from the cones, as he took ten seconds of penalties.  Michael, I hope you enjoyed your loser’s shot of Malört!

Four competitors took to the course in Prepared FWD.  Having the most horsepower and most aggressive tires allowed David C to take control from the start in his ’04 SRT4.  David captured the class win by 62 seconds as well as first overall for the morning heat.  Devin P tried his best to close this gap while learning how to get the most performance out of his newly acquired ’03 RSX-S, but had to settle for second with a comfortable margin over 3rd place.

Prepared RWD was a competition between American muscle (’98 Mustang GT piloted by Sam S & Dustin P) and Japanese nimbleness (’96 Miata piloted by Jake R & Tony K).  The two Miata drivers quickly pulled away from the Mustang (tires were definitely a factor here) and then slugged it out amongst themselves.  Things were looking very close until the final run of the morning when Tony put down a flyer of a lap, adding almost 8 seconds to his lead.  Despite a valiant effort by Jake, Tony held on to take the class win and 5th of the heat 1 cars.

Three Subarus mixed it up in Prepared AWD, though Brian O didn’t give his competitors much of a chance.  Brian used the horsepower of his ’06 STI to take the lead from run 1 and added to each run.  Brian took first by 49 seconds and 3rd overall for heat 1.  Second place was a much closer battle between Rochelle D (’07 Forester) and Eric E (’95 Impreza).  By the end of the morning runs, Rochelle had a comfortable lead, but then disaster struck on her first run in the afternoon.  Her Forester lost second gear and she was forced to take a DNF.  A mad scramble of attempted repairs ensued and ultimately failed, forcing Rochelle to take her final run using only first and third gear.  Despite her valiant effort, Eric was able to fend her off, capturing 2nd by less than 5 seconds.

From the first run, Modified FWD looked like it was going to be a knife fight between the three drivers.  Shane B (’91 CRX), Ryan J (’95 Neon), & Ryan K (’91 CRX) all posted very similar times, with Shane having just the slightest edge.  Unfortunately, this stiff competition was cut short, when the CRX sheared off the attachment point of one of its struts during Ryan’s K third run.  Despite the assured victory, Ryan J didn’t back off, laying down times that bested some of the MA cars.

1989 was a good year for Modified RWD, with two of the three cars having been manufactured then.  Eric A’s 2ZZ swapped Toyota MR2 was a crowd favorite, though the rumble of Scott B’s Mustang GT’s V8 was quite glorious.  These two had a great battle throughout the day.  Eric took an early lead over the first three runs but then Scott began charging hard for runs 4 through 6.  Despite Scott’s quicker times, Eric was able to hold on for the win, taking it by 3 seconds.  Eric also captured 8th overall.  A special mention goes out to Travis H for choosing to pilot an aircraft carrier on wheels, err I mean an ’01 Lexus GS300, through the course.  He definitely had it flying, in more ways than one!

Modified AWD was our largest class of the day, with 12 cars starting the day.  Sadly, three of these vehicles (4 drivers) failed mechanically by the second run.  Ben H (’06 STI) decided to demonstrate why everyone should buy the tires he distributes, putting significant time on all his competitors every run, culminating in a class win by over 31 seconds as well as first overall.  Second place was a very tight race with Aaron B (’95 Impreza) and Tony G (’04 STI) trading blows.  With one run remaining, it looked like Aaron might have second locked up with a 3.6 second lead.  Tony had different plans though, and laid down a flyer of a run that was 4 seconds faster than Aaron’s.  Tony captured second place by only 0.462 seconds, our closest gap of the day.  It’s amazing how after 15 minutes of actual racing time, a fraction of a second can decide the winner.

Sunday

The forecast for Sunday had been looking poor all week, but we all hoped for the best.  Mother Nature laughed in our faces and proceeded to drop over 2” of rain during our event, making for some of the sloppiest conditions I’ve ever seen.  We had planned for the worst though and set up a course with no outside cones to nearly eliminate the need for course workers.

Prior to the start of racing, it was an “all hands on deck” situation to try to get all the trailers and tow vehicles out of the field.  There was significant usage of recovery straps and much mud thrown in these efforts but we succeeded in getting everyone out without needing a tractor to be called in.  We then attempted to run the Stock/ snow tire cars first, so they had more of a chance in getting successful runs in.

In Stock FWD, Ben D made our first run of the day in his Mini Cooper S.  He successfully completed one lap, but it took a herculean effort.  His competitors decided to bow out of the event, after having problems even moving the cars in grid and seeing how difficult the course conditions were.  Thus, Ben took home first in class, thanks to braving the elements.

Over in Stock AWD, Jeff J, Hugh H, and Michael G decided to give it their best.  Sadly after one run, Hugh and Michael had to retire, as the heavy rain and water splashes created charging issues with the SVX’s alternator.  Jeff J soldiered on in his ’09 Impreza Outback Sport, capturing first in class.  Jeff also had the fastest time of the day for any car on snow tires, exceeding impressive given it was his first time rallycrossing.

Only two drivers made runs in Prepared FWD, David C (yours truly) and my co-driver Chris L in the ’04 SRT4.  Chris took all his runs first, as I was busy with event tasks.  Assisted by the best mud tires at the venue, Chris held first overall by the completion of his runs, besting all the AWD cars.  By the time I took my runs, the conditions had deteriorated further, with literal rivers running down the course and lakes forming in the low spots of the field.  Despite the conditions, I was able to best Chris’s times and take first in class and first overall.

Prepared AWD also had two drivers squaring off against the conditions and each other, Rochelle D (’07 Forester) and Jason J (’14 WRX).  Rochelle had gotten the second gear issue from Saturday figured out and attacked the course with a vengeance.  Rochelle easily captured first in class as well as sixth overall.  Jason successfully completed all his runs as well, despite the crazy conditions and it being his first time rallycrossing.

Eric A put on the most impressive performance of the day in his Modified RWD ’89 MR2.  Despite having arguably the most difficult car to drive in these conditions, he not only persevered, but dominated, taking first in class and 5th overall, besting 8 AWD cars.

Modified AWD saw six cars taking on the mudfest, including Adam D, who replaced an entire transmission in his ’93 Impreza overnight, having had it fail on Saturday.  Ben H, always quick in his ’06 STI, utilized his mud tires to take first, building up a 28 second gap over second.  Ben also took 3rd overall.  There was quite the battle for second between Aaron B and Adam D, but sadly Adam ended up having to take some DNF penalties, allowing Aaron to safely capture 2nd as well as 4th overall.

A huge shout out goes to anyone who competed on Sunday, given how ridiculous the course conditions were.  You all should be giving yourselves a pat on the back!

As previously mentioned, 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 fourth year in a row, Iowa Region brought home the bragging rights. 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!  We’re especially grateful for the property owners for allowing us to use their field and buildings!  Freeze Your Curds Off 2025 is already planned for November 1st and 2nd, so put it on your calendars now!

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 1st in class by 38 seconds as well as capturing 2nd 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 6th overall in addition to 2nd 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 3rd 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 1st in class by over 26 seconds and fourth overall.  2nd place went to Greg L, 3rd to David L, and 4th 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 1st in class by just shy of 31 seconds and captured 1st overall by nearly 3 seconds.  Mark captured 5th overall for the day in addition to 2nd 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 18th.  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 9th 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 30th 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 7th 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 3rd 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 10th, 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 16th 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 (11th 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.

On Sunday, October 22nd, Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa was the place to be. 20 racers showed up for a beautiful late October day of rallycross. The raw results are a little skewed, as a heavy overnight watering of the track meant the first run group had some slick conditions to contend with.  As the course dried out, the elusive grip was finally found and times dropped significantly.

Our fastest time of the day went to Eric L, who, starting in the second run group, took advantage of the drier conditions. Aaron B was just 9 seconds (and probably 130 horsepower less) behind Eric. Clean driving helped Aaron to keep it close and take second fastest of the day despite the lack of power.

Third fastest brings us to one of the surprises of the event, Aaron D piloting his 03 Matrix XRS (your author is a closet Matrix/Vibe fan).  Aaron drove it fast enough to outrun his own muffler on one run.  Cones and a missed gate kept Charles P and his Civic in second, who without the penalties was running almost the same times as Aaron. This should be a fun battle to watch in future events!

Fourth fastest brings us to your author, and on paper a SA win, however I must confess to cheating. Due to our safety stewards needing to be split amongst heats, I was running a modified WRX in stock class. There was no betting involved, so I hope for no lifetime ban.  Your real SA winner was Hugh H, who despite battling the slick early conditions, managed to have all 10 runs be clean! Way to pilot that SVX Hugh!  True second in SA goes to Brian L, piloting the Bugsaabaru, while holding off his son.

Nick L took 7th fastest, and won his class of one in MF. Nick was our course designer, and made sure his stage rally prepped Civic was eating a healthy diet of cones. 

10th fastest, and winner of MR was Keegan S, in his ‘81 Mustang.  It was a joy watching him put down good times, while running one of my favorite engines, the Lima 2.3. 

PF was a class of one as well, but that didn’t stop Jon J from pushing his ‘95 Tercel hard. He managed to only hit one cone for the day too!!

Finishing out the classes is SR. Luke W was pushing his Miata to some pretty impressive times, even while battling the slick conditions of being in the first run group.  Second goes to JJ P., who’s still getting the feel for his Boxter, getting faster every run. Good Job!!!!

 

 

 

I want to thank everyone who made it out, I know we were stretched a bit thin, but you all stepped up to the challenge, and we appreciate it!! I hope everyone had a fantastic time, and I’d love to see each and every one of you November 4th and 5th for our Freeze your Curds event! If you haven’t been to one, it’s an enormous course and lots of fun!!!

Until next time, Jay

 

 

Was that a haboob coming through the town of Independence yesterday? No, it was just the Iowa Region rallycross event!  Absolutely epic clouds of dust were generated by our racers, thanks to a bone-dry surface that just kept crumbling into, well, more dust.  28 racers braved the choking clouds, having a blast breaking in a new venue, the Independence Motor Speedway.  The course used some of the pit area, the 3/8 mile oval, and the infield.  The crumbling surface and technical corners rewarded those who gave up speed early to keep tighter lines and stay out of the piles of moon dust.

Our field of racers included racers from four states and three log-booked stage rally cars.  We had five rallycross newbies who, based on the smiles and comments, will definitely be back for future events.

Stock FWD was one of our largest classes for the day with six racers, three campaigning GM products.  Charles P jumped off to a nice lead with his first run of the day in his ’06 Civic, but one run later, his son, Devin P took the lead from him, putting his new (to him) ’02 RSX through its paces.  At the conclusion of the morning runs, Charles had regained the top spot, sitting 1.1 seconds ahead of his son.  During the afternoon, Andrew A found his groove in his ’10 Cobalt SS Turbo, clawing back from a 6.3 second deficit to take the class win by 11 seconds and the sixth spot overall.  Despite tagging a number of cones, Charles widened his lead over Devin, taking second by a comfortable 3 seconds.

Stock RWD saw a long time autocrosser, Hans V, trying out rallycross for the first time in his 2022 Toyota GR86.  Hans definitely takes the award for the best dirt rooster tails.  Paraphrasing Hans, it was very difficult to take the fast line around the course as it was so much fun taking the car sideways around the course.  By the end of the day, Hans was already scheming about buying a car just for rallycross.

Stock AWD was an all Subaru class, with models ranging from a 1996 SVX up to a 2018 WRX.  Always fast Jay K (06 Outback Sport) threw down the gauntlet with his first run and then maintained this gap through the morning runs.  Michael G (13 STI) kept nipping at Jay’s heels, taking the lead from him on run five after Jay tagged a cone.  Michael ended up first in class and second overall, only 1.5 seconds ahead of Jay (3rd overall).  The remaining four drivers were all putting down times very close to each other in their fight for third, exchanging positions several times.  When the dust settled, the big surprises was that sixteen-year-old Ian L had claimed 3rd in class and 8th overall, besting his dad for the first time and two other more experienced racers.  Nice work Ian!

Prepared FWD was a larger class than usual this event, with four racers mixing it up!  Yours truly started off the day with the fastest run and never looked back, taking first in class and first overall by comfortable margins.  Second place was a fight between Travis H (02 Civic Si) and Keith B (98 Neon), with Travis jumping off to an early lead.  Keith soon learned to trust the grip that his new rally tires were providing and clawed back a large extent over the remaining runs.  Travis managed to hold on to second by 7 seconds.  Newcomer Jon J (95 Tercel) spent the day learning his new car, dropping nearly 17 seconds from his first run to his fastest, even laying down a run that bested Travis’ best run.

Prepared RWD saw the return of Brent L in his 96 Mazda Miata.  Being the only car in class, Brent spent the day paring down his times, dropping over 18 seconds from his first run to his best run.

Prepared AWD saw three racers from three different states.  John F used the 100+ HP advantage of his 2022 WRX to jump out to an early lead that neither Kim K or Noah W would overcome.  Instead, the battle between Kim (06 Outback Sport) and Noah (Audi TT) was the one to watch.  They traded the leading position several times through the morning runs.  Sadly, this battle came to a premature finish, as a coolant leak on the Audi was determined to be a head gasket failure.  The final results came in with John taking first by roughly 36 seconds.

Modified FWD saw the return of Nick L in his stage rally prepared Civic.  Despite carrying around the added weight of the full roll cage, Nick put down blistering fast times, including the third fastest individual run.  Nick ended up first in class and fourth overall.

Modified RWD brought Neil T from MN in his stage rally prepared Mustang SVO as the only competitor.  This car was my personal favorite of the event, between being a rather rare car to begin with and having the factory asymmetric hood intake for the intercooler.  Neil hasn’t had the car for very long, so his goal for the day was learning to drive it well and to shave time off every run.  He succeeded in doing so, even getting his last run under the 100 second mark.

Last but definitely not least was Modified AWD, with five drivers slinging dirt.  Tire choice on the always slippery surface was the big question of the day, with at least one driver making a tire change in an attempt to gain an advantage.   Of our top three finishers, Aaron B (95 Impreza) and Pete S (stage rally prepared 07 Impreza) opted for rally tires while Shane B (95 Stealth RT) tried summer tires.  After two runs it became clear that rally tires were the way to go and Shane was making a quick tire change mid-heat.  Through the morning runs, Aaron stayed firmly in first, with Pete seven seconds back and Shane five more.  For the afternoon, Shane came out swinging and took second place from Pete in just one run.  Shane kept widening the gap over Pete, but a couple late cones prevented him from catching Aaron.  Final standing ended up with Aaron first (5th overall), Shane second (7th overall), and Pete third (9th overall).

We’re racing next at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on October 22.  Make your plans now to join us, as Oskie is one of our best venues and you’re guaranteed to have fun!  You can find more details about all our events on our events page.

What do you get when you take a clay dirt track and add rain?  A surface so slick you can barely walk on it, let alone race cars on!  23 racers came out to the Southern Iowa Speedway this past Sunday to put their rallycross skills to the test.  Mother Nature really upped the difficulty level with some unexpected rain.

With the forecast calling for dry weather and the track being in good shape, yours truly had designed a highly technical course on Saturday afternoon.  The skies and radar on Sunday morning indicated that the dry conditions might not be the case for long.  Shortly after getting racing under way, it began to sprinkle and then actually rain.  The technical course became a painful course, as the lack of grip from the mud required very cautious and slow driving.  Laps times were INCREASING by 10-20 seconds a lap and many cones were being smashed flat.  After only three runs by the first heat drivers, we were forced to pause for safety reasons.

The radar started looking promising about 30 minutes later and the rain soon stopped.  After another hour or so, conditions had dried up enough for racing to resume.  The first few laps were rather slow as grip was highly inconsistent and even non-existent on portions of the track, but the wind and some sun soon helped make for a fast course.  By the end of the day, many racers were putting down laps that were over a minute faster than their wet laps.

Stock FWD saw Charles P returning in his Civic and a new contender, Brandon G in a 2020 Veloster N.  This was a rather unfair fight, with Brandon having 100+ more horsepower and a limited slip differential.  Brandon jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.  However, Charles did put down several laps with a few seconds of Brandon, before experiencing a mechanical issue that ended his day.  Brandon ended up first in class for the day.

Stock AWD was our big class for the day, with nine racers.  Class favorite Jay K had only brought tires for dry conditions and faced an uphill battle against other racers with snow tires.  Newcomers Aaron D and Collin C, co-driving an 03 Outback Sport took off running with their first runs, proceeding to open up a gap that Jay couldn’t overcome.  Aaron ended up first in SA and third overall, Collin was second, and Jay brought up third, despite laying down the fastest individual lap of all classes in that heat.  We also had two father/son duos co-driving Subarus in SA, having a great time competing against each other.

Yours truly was competing by myself in Prepared FWD, so I tried to benchmark my times against Nick L in his MF Civic (more on this car later).  I had brought somewhat aggressive tires, so the treacherous conditions didn’t hurt me quite as bad as others.  I couldn’t match Nick’s early times, but as the course dried out, I ended up besting his times for a number of laps.  I ended up first in PF (not very hard in a class of one) and eighth overall.

Prepared RWD had our oldest vehicle of the day, a 1977 Datsun 280Z piloted by Steve M.  Steve showed all of us some lessons on car control, ripping around the slick course in his RWD beast.  Steve took first in his class and ended up mid pack overall.  If you want to check out the video he put together of his race experience, you can watch it here.

Prepared AWD again demonstrated the importance of aggressive tires when the conditions are difficult. With the advantages of horsepower and aggressive tires, Michael G was able to hold off Kim K to take first in class and fifth overall.  Michael did shed more than a few parts on course, so perhaps we should have protested him into Modified AWD? 😀

Modified FWD was a class of one with the aforementioned Nick L in his stage rally prepped Honda Civic.  Always a fast contender, Nick had dug out his mud tires prior to leaving home, giving him quite a leg up on nearly everyone.  His first run in the mud was over 30 seconds faster than the next fastest car in the same heat.  Nick’s tire advantage dropped off as things dried up, but he still put down exception fast runs with very few cone penalties.  This consistency allowed him to take first in class and second overall, besting the times of 17 AWD cars.  This is especially impressive with the additional weight of a full roll cage. Nice work Nick!

Our final class for the day, but certain not the last, was Modified AWD.  Tire choice again played a significant role.  Shane B, racing his unconventional Dodge Stealth RT/TT, brought along highly aggressive tires, allowing him to open up nearly 25 seconds of gap between him and second place while the course was muddy.  He then swapped tires for the late afternoon dry conditions, allowing him to take first in class by 33 seconds and first overall by 18.  Competition for second was equally lopsided, with Aaron B taking second by 23 seconds.  Third place became a competition of who could shoot themselves in the foot the least.  Cliff J & Eric L resumed their cone battle from the July event from the first run of the day, picking up cones on every single run but one.  Cliff set the bar high early, picking up 5 cones on a single run.  Eric struck back the following run, taking out EIGHT.  When the broken cone pieces finally settled down, Cliff held on to third by barely over 2 seconds.  Eric does hold the honor of the fastest individual lap of the event, on his ONLY clean run of the day.

Several of our newcomers described this event as the most fun racing they’ve ever participated in. With feedback like this, how come you haven’t tried rallycross yet?  Your next opportunity will be on Sept 10th at the Independence Speedway.  Registration is now open so get signed up so you don’t miss out!