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!