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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 (3^rd 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 3^rd in class and 8^th 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 (5^th overall), Shane second (7^th overall), and Pete third (9^th 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 10^th at the Independence Speedway.  Registration is now open so get signed up so you don’t miss out!

Cones, cones, cones!  A rallycross event wouldn’t be a rallycross event without lots of cones being slaughtered, and Sunday was no exception.  While we only had 11 racers, a total of 69 (haha!) cones were hit, an average of 6.25 cones per racer!  Every racer got in 11 runs between our two courses.  The heat and dust made for an exhausting day, but everyone had a lot of fun!

After a long hiatus, Charles P returned to rallycross in Stock FWD piloting his 06 Civic to competitive times throughout the day.  While taking first in a class of one, he ended up 7^th overall.  Charles also takes the honor of our only racer who didn’t hit a cone the entire day!

Stock RWD was also a class of one, with Ryan W tearing things up in his Infiniti G35.  Having added snow tires on all four wheels, Ryan was now able to put down surprising fast times for a RWD car.  Starting off a touch slow, he found his stride on our afternoon course and put down times that were quicker than some FWD and AWD cars.  There were also some impressive rooster tails of dirt coming off the car!  Perhaps it’s time to add some mud flaps Ryan?

Stock AWD had three contenders: the always fast Jay K and the father & son duo of Brian and Ian L.  Brian and Ian went over to the dark side and replaced their Miata with an 05 Saab 9-2X (a Subaru disguised as a Saab).  They had owned the car for barely a week, so it was a trial by fire.  Jay decided to show no mercy and began laying down blistering fast times starting with his first run, carrying him through to victory at the end of the day.  Jay also managed to hit only one cone for the day!  Brian and Ian spent the day learning their new car, with their run times dropping significantly throughout the course of the day.  They had huge smiles on their faces, so it appears the AWD switch was a hit!

There was another class of one in Prepared FWD, with David C wrangling his SRT4 around the course (hey, that’s me!). With no one in my class, I decided to chase the Mod AWD guys to have a gauge on how fast I was driving.  I unfortunately tagged seven cones, but managed to put down times quick enough to beat all but one of the MA cars and end up second overall for the day!

Kim K battled her way through the day in Prepared AWD despite having the AC fail in her car early in the morning.  Knowing that she was in a class of one, Kim decided to just have as much fun as possible. With music blaring, and her co-pilot dancing in the passenger seat, Kim put down respectable times all day.

Have you noticed the mention of drivers that had far less cone hits than the 6.25 average?  Well, that high average was thanks to the hooligans in Modified AWD.  Between the four drivers in MA, there were 40 cones hit— and one of the drivers only had one cone!  The cone massacre started with the first run of the day and didn’t stop until the end of racing.  Cliff J, our reigning Cone Killer, spent the day trying to defend his title.  The heat and dust must have gotten to him though, as he only managed to hit seven for the whole day.  Eric L seems to be determined to stop Cliff’s reign as Cone Killer and really gave the cone murder his all.  He was definitely seeing the orange mist as he ended up nailing 18 (!!!) cones for the day.  Not wanting to be left out on the fun, Aaron B also steered for the cones and managed to smash 14 of them!  Devin P only took out a paltry one cone the entire day. You gotta pump those numbers up Devin!

Oh wait, this is racing so you might actually care about their times?  Cliff and Eric ran neck and neck all morning, with Cliff in the lead by only 0.033 seconds after the first course.  Cliff opened this lead up as the day progressed and with his cone problem, Eric couldn’t make up the gap.  Eric did manage a blisteringly fast clean run in the afternoon of 46.374, over a second faster than the next fastest run in MA. Cliff managed to take both first in MA, and first overall, while Eric ended up second in class and third overall.

Our rallycross season continues with events planned for every month through the end of the year.  Be sure to check out the schedule to ensure you don’t miss out!

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!