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Sterckx began the event on Friday in 1st for SP, fell back to 4th with some overheating issues, got up to 2nd during the day on Saturday, back again to 4th, and finally bumped Cline off the podium in the final stage securing 3rd place by a hair’s margin of 0.3 seconds. That is phenomenally close racing, and definitely why I love Super Production! Sterckx finished with a time of 1:51:17.7, which made the top four finishers in SP less than two minutes apart after nearly two hours of racing on stage.
The “Cattle Guard” jump on stage 13 is one of the most popular spectator points of the whole rally, and for good reason; who doesn’t like seeing rally cars flying through the air!? The Fiesta R2 of Will Hudson was in second place for 2WD coming into the stage, only 10.9 seconds off the pace set by ACP in his Fiesta R2.
…unfortunately they hit the jump a little bit TOO hard and tore off the little Fiesta’s thick steel skidplate, and proceeded to spew bits and pieces of the car as they sped off around the next corner. They didn’t make it too much further and were forced to pull off to the side of the road, unable to finish the event due to mechanical issues.
ACP ended the event in first for 2WD with a final time of 1:52:57.6. This was a much needed redemption for him after the slow season start at Sno*Drift last month, hopefully a battle for the championship plays out amongst ACP, Johnson, and Hudson.
With Hudson out of the running on Stage 13, Matt Johnson and the Scion Racing xD were able to move up to 2nd in 2WD finishing with a time of 1:54:57.1.
The DNF of Hudson’s Fiesta also made room on the podium for the Fiesta of brothers Troy and Jeremy Miller, finishing with a 1:57:05.4. This was their second national event, as well as their second podium finish.
The B-SPEC Honda Fit of James Robinson and James Guitar continued its winning streak, finishing first in class again with a time of 2:13:10.6.
Congratulations to all of the weekend’s finishers! The way things are shaping up it appears that there will be some close competition to watch in all of the classes. With Block taking a step back from competing in a full season, I suspect that the overall championship will come down to Higgins or Pastrana. Hopefully the mechanicals hold up from here on out so we can watch the Open class battle unfold. Super Production is anyone’s guess as to who will take the championship at the moment, with some fierce racing expected to unfold in 2WD as well!
The Rally America series will be aired on NBC Sports Network, with the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood scheduled to be broadcast on May 3rd at 6:00pm ET.
The next race in the series is the Oregon Trail Rally which takes place around Portland on May 2nd through the 4th.
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