Author: David C

On Sunday May 7th 22 racers descended upon the Southern Iowa Fairgrounds in Oskaloosa for Iowa Region’s 5th rallycross of the season.  Dust and warm temperatures were definitely the theme of the day. Thankfully, the severe weather held off until the event was done.

The fastest overall for the day was Eric L, who took 1st place in MA, making his girlfriend Rachel carsick in the process.  Eric commanded a 37 second lead over 2nd place, Aaron B.  Aaron’s lack of power and poor gear ratio in his 1995 Subaru Impreza kept him between 1st and 2nd gear and unable to close the gap to Eric.

2nd fastest of the day, and only 9 seconds behind Eric was David C, who did put down the fastest single lap of the day of at 108.884, giving him the win in PF. Keith B pushed his non-turbo automatic Neon to the limit, taking 2nd.

3rd fastest time for the day and 1st in SA goes to your author, a whopping 37 seconds slower than Eric. Clean driving and a smart tire change definitely helped me out. Dave M was also driving clean, but my strategy of keeping him updated on the Cardinals game as a distraction may have helped, as he took second.  SA also saw the debut of Bella and Molly L, a mother daughter duo, both of which seemed to have a blast!  Unfortunately, they had to retire part way through the day, victims of the heat and car sickness.

That brings us to SR. A class of 1, so the win went easy for Zach P.  The road to the event wasn’t as easy as Zach had done a lot of work to his Boxter himself, including the dreaded clutch replacement. Top notch work Zach!!

MF saw Austin T of Wisconsin tearing up the course in his Escort, taking a commanding lead over 2nd place finisher Rich C.  Both racers had to battle the heat, and lack of AC in their cars. 

PA was also a class of 1. Kim K used the time to play around with driving adjustments, and was getting steadily faster throughout the day. Look out for her at the next event!

PR saw the father and son battle of Brian and Ian L.  Brian was pushing their Miata hard and took 1st, with Ian coming in 2nd. 

Parents, take note, you can make rallycross a family event with your permitted child able to race with us!  This is a stellar way for them to learn car control and become better drivers on the street.  Children 12 and older are able to ride along with you as well!

That brings us to our final class, SF. Brandon G was able to take first, keeping his Honda Civic together.  2nd place went to Jaden G in his PT Cruiser.  His day was sadly cut short with a mechanical issue.

I’d like to thank everyone who came out and raced/helped.  I hope you all had a great time and were not impacted by the evening’s storms. See you all in July!!!!!!

-Jay

Another rallycross, another snow storm!  Despite being April 16^th, our racers got to contend with snow once again.  While it didn’t accumulate on the ground, it was falling rapidly enough to make for slick conditions and impede vision.  The 40+ mph wind gusts certainly didn’t help either and it was more than a bit miserable to be working the course.  Even with the weather, everyone had a blast!

Attendance was on the lighter side, so everyone got more runs!  We did 12 runs total, averaging well more than 10 minutes of seat time per racer and were still packed up and on our ways home by 2 pm.

Stock AWD saw the return of our regulars Jay K and Dave M, with the addition of a new racer, David L.  After four runs on the morning course, Jay K had a commanding 32 second lead.  However, disaster struck as he was crossing the finish line, with the steering rack on his wife’s ’06 Subaru Outback Sport failing in spectacular fashion.  Jay had to retire for the day, leaving the door wide open for someone else to take first place.  After the morning course, Dave M was in front by less than two seconds.  When racing resumed on the afternoon course, David L laid down a pair of blazing fast runs, putting himself in the lead by nine seconds.  Dave M struck back with his own fast runs and brought the gap down to about two seconds.  David L responded to this pressure with more fast runs, pushing the gap larger.  Dave M finished out the day with two great runs, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead back from David L.  Way to go David, winning your class on your first ever rallycross!

Prepared RWD saw two new entries, a father (Brian L) and son (Ian L) duo racing a beautiful blue ’91 Miata. At the lunch break, Ian was in the lead, despite having a few cones.  Ian couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to give his dad a hard time about being in the lead.  Brian couldn’t let this go unpunished and showed no mercy on the afternoon course, putting himself in the lead by over 14 seconds after ten runs.  Brian ended up overcooking a turn on his 11^th run, picking up two cones and a painful ten second missed gate penalty.  This pile of penalties put Ian back in the lead, bringing the winner decision down to the final run of the day.  Ian pushed a little bit too hard and picked up four seconds of cone penalties, allowing Brian to take home the win.  From some overheard comments about how much fun they had, I think it’s a guarantee we’ll be seeing these two again!

Prepared AWD was a class of one today, with Kim K rocking her ’06 Subaru Outback Sport.  Kim started off the day with four very quick runs, putting her in the top five after the first course.  Sadly, her husband broke the car as previously mentioned, so Kim also had to retire for the day.  Hopefully Jay will get her car back together for her soon so she can get back in the competition at our May event!

Modified AWD was our biggest class of the day and the competition was quite fierce!  Eric L jumped out to an early lead over the field.  However, on his fourth run, he had a hiccup on course and had to momentarily stop, leading to a run that was over ten seconds slower than his previous times.  This opened the door for Aaron B and Cliff J to try to take a trophy spot. On the afternoon course, the racers pulled out all the stops in their quest for first.  Aaron laid down repeated blisteringly fast runs, putting him into first a few more runs.  Eric turned up the heat and was hot on Aaron’s heels.  Aaron proceeded to shoot himself in the foot, picking up 12 seconds of cone penalties in his last four runs, handing the win to Eric by only 0.93 seconds.  Cliff, our reigning three Cone Killer champion, got concerned that Aaron might be trying to take his title and began slaughtering the cones on course.  Cliff picked up ten cones on his afternoon run to ensure that he is still in the running for Cone Killer 2023!

Once again, if you didn’t race with us today, you missed out on a lot of fun!  We’ll be racing again on May 7^th at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, IA.  This large half mile dirt track plus infield allows for huge, fun courses.  You won’t want to miss it!  Make your plans to join us today!

Surprise was the theme of the day at yesterday’s rallycross!  The biggest surprise was Mother Nature deciding to dump nearly 6” of snow on us during the event!  The snow started coming down during the drivers’ meeting and never let up until we were packing up at the end of the day.  All this unexpected snow led to very tough driving conditions for the 29 drivers from five different states. 

Stock FWD was dominated by a Fiesta ST co-driven by Neil C and Brady S, both hailing from MN.  Brady jumped off to an early lead, but then Neil hit his stride and pulled away by a large margin.  Brady closed the gap with some valiant final runs, but could not overtake Neil.  Third place was taken by Alex P in his PT Bruiser, err Cruiser, an impressive showing on all season tires in the snow.

Stock RWD was a rematch from our January rallycross, with both Ryan W and Chase D returning to face off.  Ryan jumped off to an early lead in his G35 and never looked back, taking the win by a significant margin over Chase and his IS300.  The battle between these two will on to watch through the season, as they have now each taken a win.

As usual, Stock AWD was a clash of the Subarus.  After the first two runs, it seemed like it was going to be a battle between Jay K (06 Outback Sport) and Hugh H (96 SVX).  Sadly, Hugh broke an axle on the third run, putting him in the paddock for the rest of the event.  Dave M stepped into second with a flurry of quick runs, but Jay was able to hold him off, taking first in class and sixth overall.

Prepared FWD was a class of one, with the purple Neon of Keith B ripping off very quick runs all day.  Keith took 7^th overall, one of two two-wheel drive cars making it into the top ten.

Jamison W set out to prove that you don’t have to have a Subaru to win one of the AWD classes.  His Prepared AWD 2001 Audi A4 sounded mean as he piloted it through the mud and snow mess on course.  Jamison took first in class and fifth overall, followed closely by Kim K in her 06 Subaru Outback.  Kim took 9^th overall, her best finish this year to date!

Modified FWD saw the return of Andy W with his blazing fast Civic, Rich C with a new engine in his CRX, and Nate Smith, a new contender from Indiana.  Andy stunned us all with his morning course runs being significantly faster than everyone else, putting him in first in class and overall at the lunch break.  A couple of cones in the afternoon knocked him down to second overall, but he still took first in class.  Rich followed him up in second and Nate in third.

Modified AWD yielded our other big surprise of the day.  A new challenger, Chris G, entered a 2001 Yukon as his race vehicle.  Typically, these large SUV’s are not allowed, but Chris had added spacers and higher offset wheels to meet our height to width requirements.  With his first engine roaring run, Chris demonstrated he was definitely in the fight for first.  Eric L (05 WRX) and Chris traded the lead back and forth for the first three runs until Eric got himself in cone trouble.  Both drivers kept pushing harder and their times continued to drop.  When the flying mud had finally settled, Chris had taken first in class and first overall.  He attributes his win to his experience competing with the Western Iowa Mud Racing Association.

Full results for the day can be seen on our results page.

We’ll be racing at Cedar Falls Motorsports park again on April 16^th.  Make your plans now to come join in on the fun!

Iowa Region’s second rallycross of the 2023 season was held at Cedar Falls Motorsports Park on Sunday, February 12th.  If you’ve ever wanted to race on a couple inches of mud with ice underneath and with a couple small water features mixed in, this was your event! 

On Sunday, Cedar Falls Raceway was home to the Iowa Region 2023 RallyCross season opener.  23 racers came from all over Iowa and surrounding states to test their skills and cars on our two courses, both of which had 4+ inches of snow sitting atop a hidden layer of ice.  

Tire selection and driver skill was the theme of the day, as no matter how much power or skill you had, the wrong tires were going to humble you. Your author made the wrong tire choice and was rewarded with 15 cones, essentially equal my entire 2022 season total of cones.

Nobody showcased this theme better than Keith B and Rich C. They had made the right tire choice for Keith’s powerhouse 1998 Dodge Neon automatic.   Skillful driving on the morning runs had Rich in first by what looked like a comfortable margin of over 5 seconds.  Not to go down without a fight, Keith picked up the pace in the afternoon and clawed his way into first by only 0.112, taking both first in Prepared FWD and overall fastest time of the day. Rich hung onto the 2nd place spot in PFWD, and also posted the second fastest overall time of the day.

The third fastest time of the day went to Eric L, who was only 2.23 seconds behind Keith.  Eric’s time was enough to have him take first place in Modified AWD, with the class newcomer Charles P taking second. Charles remained consistent, and didn’t hit any cones on either course! 

In Prepared AWD, Jamison W showed what his Audi A4 was capable of, and drifted himself into a sizeable lead and eventual victory while only collecting 2 cones. 

Stock AWD was the battle of the VA chassis Subaru WRX. Brent L was the class victor in his 2021 WRX, but Dave M was hot on his heels in his 2018 WRX, missing out on first by only 0.663 seconds! 

Stock FWD was a family battle, as Victoria W pushed her VW Passat to victory, against her spouse Andrew in his Chevy Cobalt SS. 

Rounding out the day was our bravest class, Stock RWD.   With course conditions and low ride heights, these competitors struggled to even get to the starting line.  However, they managed to power through the courses, with each only needing one recovery.  Chase D was able to drive his Lexus IS300 to the top spot, with Ryan W and his Infinity G35 taking second. 

Full results are live at this link.  Thank you to everyone who came out to race, volunteer, and spectate!  It was a great way to kick off the season! We’ll be racing again in the snow on February 12^th in Vinton, IA!

– Jay 

Well, we certainly all froze our curds and other appendages off at this event!  A total of 36 racers from four states braved the cold & windy weather to race our massive courses. A huge thanks goes out to our sponsors for providing trophies and other giveaways for the event!  Kravings supplied the trophies, Gibbsville Cheese delivered cheese curds for everyone as well as fabulous gift boxes for our first place finishers, and the Uncle Cory Scholarships foundation provided jalapeno cheddar sausages for our winners.  If you’re looking for tasty beverages or some awesome cheese, please support these two businesses.  In addition, the Uncle Cory Scholarships would love any donation you can send to help support their charity work supplying scholarships to help children in need.  You can Venmo them at @UncleCoryScholarships4kids or contact them through their page.

Saturday dawned cold with stiff winds that only got worse throughout the day.  The remnants of corn stalks, snow, and the frozen ground led to very slick conditions in the morning.  These somewhat improved through the day, but the grip was inconsistent.  A minor mistake could lead to a massively slower time, so the drivers had to stay on their toes!  With the size of the venue, we were able to have a fairly high speed course and still have run times that were 4-5 minutes!  The top of the podium were taken by Spencer D and Jayme S co-driving Jayme’s Maverick X3.  Spencer only edged out Jayme by 5 seconds, an amazingly close margin given their total run time was 1400 seconds!  The podium was rounded out by Sean H in his Stock AWD 2001 Subaru Legacy. Another great battle of the day was between Jess M (2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart) and Eric L (2005 Subaru WRX) in Modified AWD.  Eric looked to be walking away with the win, but then spun out on his fourth run, putting Jess into first by 0.094 seconds.  Jess then laid down an extremely fast fifth run widening the gap and really putting the pressure on Eric.  Eric gave it his all on his final run, but again had a spin, making it highly unlikely that he’d be taking first.  However, Jess’s car proceeded to pop a relay on his final run, shutting down his car and forcing him to take a DNF.  Eric walked away with the first place prize after all the drama!  Amusingly, we also had a Crown Vic “spec” class in Stock RWD; all three drivers in the class were racing these cars!  Jeff W took the commanding win, with over 80 seconds separating him from second.

Sunday started off even COLDER, but thankfully, the brutal wind had died down some, making things more tolerable.  Sunday’s course was a modified version of Saturday’s, run in reverse.  The combination of sun and temperatures that crept up into the 30’s ended up turning the course into a greasy mudfest for our second heat drivers.  For many of these racers, it was a battle to just make it around the course, let alone trying to put down the fastest times.  Lap times started in the three minute range, but then slipped to over five as the mud took its toll.  Once again, there was a very tight battle between Spencer D and Jayme S in the Maverick.  Spencer pulled off first again, only being 7.8 seconds ahead of Jayme.  The SxS again took the top two spots of the podium with the third spot being taken by Jess M with his Lancer Ralliart. The battle to watch was that between Jay K (2006 Subaru Outback Sport) and Travis H (1997 Subaru Legacy) in Stock AWD.  From their first run, these racers had to deal with mud.  Jay jumped off to an early lead, but Travis stayed right on his heels, ready to capitalize on any mistake Jay might make.  Travis used every trick in the books trying to catch Jay, even besting his times on the fourth run.  Jay managed to stay clean and mistake free, taking first by roughly 25 seconds.

This event was also a competition between the CenDiv regions, with the regions being awarded points for members racing in the event as follows: 10/8/6/4/2/1 for 1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th and lower in each class (7 points if only one racer in class).  As the snow settled on day one, Iowa Region had 64 points, Milwaukee Region 63 points, Land O’ Lakes Region 12 points and Great River Region 10.  Competition remained fierce on day two, but Iowa Region held on to take the win as the fastest region in 2022.  Final points were Iowa – 112, Milwaukee – 110, Land O’ Lakes – 32, and Great River – 10.

65+ minutes of seat time: that’s what the racers at this weekend’s multi-day rallycross got!  Our annual two day rallycross went off without a hitch, with 20 racers braving the cold early morning temps to battle it out.  The event drew racers from three states, including four racers from Minnesota.

Saturday’s day course featured a mixture of high speed offsets on the oval combined with technical elements in the infield, resulting in run times around 110 seconds.  The course was rather slippery in the morning, thanks to the heavy overnight frost.  This event was a case of perseverance for many racers, as seven experienced mechanical issues that had to be overcome to continue their battles on course.  Two front wheel drive cars took the top two podium spots: David C. in his 2004 Dodge SRT4 and Andy W. in his 1999 Honda Civic.  The final podium was taken by Eric L. in his 2005 Subaru WRX.

Next up was the night racing portion of the event.  A portion of the same course was used, having been shortened for better corner worker coverage in the dark.  Despite a full moon, it was still very dark and LED light bars were critical for visibility.  There was a close battle that took place in Modified all wheel drive, with Eric L. and Jay K. battling it out, both racing 2005 Subaru WRX’s.  Overcoming a cone penalty, Jay ended up taking the win by over 8 seconds over Eric thanks to some very quick final runs.  Overall standings ended up with Jay on top of the podium, followed by David C. who ended up less than two seconds in front of Eric in third.

Sunday’s course was Saturday’s course, but in reverse, with a few tweaks, resulting in run times that were rough 110 seconds.  Things ran extremely smoothly, so the racers got in 20 runs! In case anyone is wondering, this is the limit of our timing software. 😀  Jay and Eric resumed their battle right from the first run, trading the lead back and forth a few times.  For the afternoon runs, Eric made the bold choice of switching to 200TW summer tires.  This gamble paid off, with his times immediately dropping by 4 seconds.  Sadly, Jay’s car started misbehaving so Eric walked away with a very decisive win in class and overall.  The two remaining overall podium spots were again taken by the front wheel drive hot shoes, David C. and Andy W.  Another amusing story of the day was both Juan S. and Ramon P. mercilessly flogging Juan‘s 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer.  The poor car survived 40 back-to-back runs by this duo.  When the dust settled, Juan took the win over Ramon by a mere 4 seconds, and then drove the car home.

Make your plans now to join us for our next event, the Freeze Your Curds Off Challenge, on Nov 5^th & 6^th near Darlington, WI.  This will be a battle amongst the three active rallycross programs in the Central Division SCCA: Iowa, Land-O-Lakes, & Milwaukee Region.  We’ll be racing on a bit less than 40 acres, so courses may exceed three minutes per run!  More info can be found here or you can register here.

Nineteen drivers had a great time tearing around the track at Iowa Region’s sixth rallycross of the year this past Sunday in Oskaloosa, IA.  This large, relatively flat venue is quite smooth and allows even lowered cars to race without concern.  Taking advantage of the large size, a course that was roughly 110 seconds per run was created.  Everyone got in 11 runs, providing in excess of 20 minutes of seat time. We had a variety of entries, including a pair of Hondas, a couple side by side UTVs, and the typical mix of Subarus.

The closest battle of the day was between Dave McCloney (2018 WRX) and Jay Kurth (2006 Outback Sport) in Stock AWD.  Prior to the last run of the day, Jay was in the lead by just over 2 seconds.  Dave put down a clean fast run, so Jay had to push hard to try to maintain his lead.  He pushed a bit too hard though, losing control right before the finish and collecting two cones, a four second penalty, that dropped him into second place.

Another battle worth noting was that of Modified AWD.  For a few years, Eric Less (2005 WRX) has taken first at every event he attends, typically by a large margin.  Up and comer Eli Irwin (2006 WRX) has slowly been chipping away at this lead and found his groove at this event.  He was nipping at Eric’s heels throughout the day and ended up finishing only 6.8 seconds back from Eric.  This is awfully close with cumulative times of just under 20 minutes.  Nice work Eli!

Iowa Region’s next rallycross is on August 28th in Oskaloosa again.  Make your plans to race now and then register here to get in on the action.  We’ll see you out there!