May 4, 2012. Portland
Oregon, Day-One of three that makes up the 2012 Oregon Trail Rally got underway
Friday evening at Portland International Raceway. After the first four super
special stages, which were ran on a mix of asphalt, gravel, grass and mud, Subaru
Rally Team USA's David Higgins and Craig Drew lead the event over Rockstar
Energy Drink's Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard by 9.1 seconds.
"Crazy
Leo" Urlichich took a somewhat uncharacteristic approach on the opening
stages, in that he was somewhat reserved driving very clean safe lines, unlike
his normal “Crazy self”. Leo has slotted himself into third, a perfect
position with some challenging stages ahead for day-two.
With
defending SP Champion Travis Hanson not in attendance, Lauchlin O'Sullivan and
Scott Putnum will look to go for maximum points to take advantage of Hanson’s
absence. O’Sullivan heads into day two with a 1.5 second lead over David Sterckx by 1.5 seconds. 19 year-old Mason Moyle with co-driver John Hall are in third place by 2.4 seconds from the class leader.
In the 2WD
Class, it’s no surprise to see the Nissan Silvia of Summit Rally Team's Will
Orders from Australia jumping out to a 6.1 second lead over Andrew
Comrie-Picard and Jeremy Wimpey. Third place is Will Order's Summit Rally
teammates Ross Allan and Scott Allan 9.6 seconds. Although Orders put on a
mighty show for the fans around PIR, he had better tame the mighty Nissan for
the real stages ahead. There is some questions regarding the scoring for day-one. Rally America is currently reviewing and will update. I don’t expect that things will change much if any.
Stay tuned to www.rally-america.com for the latest
news and live video feed.
Report and images: Neil
McDaid review
