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Not everyone had a weekend free of accident, with the notoriously rough terrain of upper Michigan would prevent 12 of the 48 entrants from finishing the event. There isn’t much room for error in rally racing, there are no sand traps or tire walls to slow you down, only trees, rocks, and ditches.
The winners of the unofficial “Press On Regardless” award goes to the duo of Ian Topping and Jimmy Brandt in their 1980 Volvo 242 also known as the “Flying Moose”. In practice they would break the right front strut, then would discover a broken engine mount that was creating a throttle issue. After getting the Moose fixed up and ready for stage one, they would then go on to break the left front strut before the end of the stage. Coming back strong for day two they made it all but three miles from the finish when a minor impact with some jutting bedrock would cause the left front strut to break again. Like true champions they drove the final three miles to the final timing control, dragging a wheel the entire way!
Crowd favorite Piotr Fetela would hold third place overall for the first six stages, but would slip off the podium to make room for Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam, finishing in fourth overall and third in class with a 1:44:50.4.
Pushing hard all day on Saturday, FY Racing would finish second to Subaru Rally Team, only giving up 35 seconds throughout the day with a final time of 1:37:42.0. Let that sink in for a moment. Some people may think that FY is just a bunch of jokers, but at the end of the day they’re a privateer team that does nearly everything in-house and are snapping at the heels of the factory backed champions. It has definitely been a long road for them to get where they are today, and they plan to share the knowledge that they’re gained along the way with their fellow rally racers through the development of an all-inclusive “arrive and drive” service for future events. If you haven't been paying attention to the videos that these guys have been putting out, they're some of the most well produced rally videos coming out of the series (aside from Subaru's Launch Control series). Check out the FY Racing YouTube channel here!Click here for a full list of season standings. The 2016 Rally America championship kicks off with the frigid Sno*Drift rally in Atlanta, MI at the end of January. With any luck hopefully we'll see more from the big names like Travis Pastrana, Antoine L'Estage, and Ken Block at future events.
