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| Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino power through the last stage to take victory by a narrow margin. Photo Neil McDaid/RallyWorldNews |
Newry, ME
(July 28, 2013) --Hoonigan Racing's Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino won their
first New England Forest Rally (NEFR), round 5 of the Rally America National
Championship, on July 26-27th headquartered in Newry, Maine after a
closely fought battle with Subaru Rally Team USA's David Higgins and Craig
Drew. The margins between the two teams were incredibly thin and either could
have snatched victory. Subaru Rally Team USA drove a nearly flawless event and
pushed the Hoonigan camp hard all weekend, but Block and Gelsomino persevered
with a 6.5 second buffer at the end.
Block and
Gelsomino's NEFR nearly came to an end when their Ford Fiesta H.F.H.V.
experienced electrical problems on stage 11. They had no intercom
communications for nearly 13 miles before the alternator quit on the transit
back to service. Open Class rivals Rifat Sungkar and Steve Lancaster, who were
in fourth place overall at the time, graciously towed the Hoonigan Racing Team
back to the service area so Hoonigan Racing Team could complete repairs and
continue their race.
"It
took a bit of good luck, it was a great battle with Subaru," said Block,
"I know a couple of these stages, so I put the hammer down and built a bit
of a lead. I had some small problems and then a big problem with the alternator
going out. What a struggle, I put everything into it, and drove my heart
out."
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| Subaru Rally Team Driver David Higgins piled on the pressure to try and close the gap on Ken Block, he would come up just a little short, nonetheless Higgins still holds a firm grip on the championship points lead. Photo Neil McDaid / RallyWorldNews |
The New
England Forest Rally marks Ken Block's second consecutive Rally America
National Championship victory having won the Susquehannock Trail Performance
Rally last June. David Higgins currently leads the Championship Standings, but
Block still has a mathematical chance at the title if he outright wins the
final two rounds of the season.
Rifat
Sungkar and Steve Lancaster were able to climb from fourth place to third
overall to complete the NEFR podium with a little luck. Over the course of the
weekend Sungkar saw a few competitors ahead of him fail to finish. The Rockstar
Energy Drink Rally Team of Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard ultimately
broke their wheel bolts on stage 11, and privateers Joseph Burke and Alex
Kihurani went off on stage 6 and were unable to continue. That left Sungkar
alone in third place.
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| The pace and the tough stages at the 2013 New England Forest Rally was just a little much for the Tiburon that Antoine L'Estage took out of retirement for this rally. Photo Joel Sanford / RallyWorldNews |
Notably
L'Estage and Richard have won the New England Forest Rally the last three years
in a Mitsubishi EVO X and looked to add their fourth overall victory to keep
their streak alive. This time they competed with a Tiburon rally car that has
seen plenty of rally action in the past, but the team experienced problems that
effectively ended their event on the second day.
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| David Sterckx and Karen Jankowski get their rally off to a flying start with a hard charge down the opening stage of the rally, the infamous "Concord Pond" Photo; Neil McDaid / RallyWorldNews |
In the Super Production Class, David
Sterckx and Karen Jankowski notched a third consecutive class win and also
placed fourth overall in the event. This is their fourth podium finish since
failing to finish the Rally America season opener Sno*Drift Rally in January.
This NEFR win extends their SP Class standings total while keeping third place
in the overall Championship standings.
"The New England Forest Rally was hard because of all the sharp
rocks," added Sterckx, "We broke some things, but we fixed it all in
service and it was good enough to win."
Super
Production's Mason Moyle and John Hall took second in the class after an
exciting battle with Rookie of the Year contenders Nick Roberts and Nick
Judkins. Over the course of the weekend Moyle lost second place to Roberts, yet
later snatched the position back when Roberts suffered a strut failure on stage
11. Moyle had suspension damage as well; only he was able to carry enough speed
to overtake Roberts and win by 6.1 seconds. This is Moyle's third podium finish
this year and Robert's first in his rally career.
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| Keeping the streak alive, Australians Rhianon Smyth and Brendan Reeves celebrate yet another overall podium finish in two wheel drive in their Team O'Neil /Ford Racing R2 Fiesta. Photo: Neil McDaid / RallyWorldNews |
The
Two-Wheel Drive category was an absolute knockdown fight won when Australia's
Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth finally overtook fellow Australian rivals Will
Orders and Toni Feaver on stage 11. Orders jumped into the lead on stage 1 and
fended off Reeves until Orders overheated his brakes on the more technical
stages of the event. Reeves seized this opportunity to take the lead with his
Ford Fiesta R2. The 2WD win is Reeves and Smyth's third top podium finish since
joining the Championship at the Oregon Trail Rally.
Said
Reeves, "We've been driving these (Ford Fiesta R2's) for a few years, so
we have the experience to win. Car is driving great, we have three wins now, next...
we'll try for four."
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| Will Orders made a return to the New England Rally in his newly developed Toyota GT86, despite leading for most of the rally, problems slowed Orders on day two, he would eventually finish 2nd in 2WD. Photo : Neil McDaid / RallyWorldNews |
Will
Orders had won the 2WD Class at the 2012 New England Forest Rally. This time he
takes another podium with a newly built Nameless Performance Toyota GT86, the
first of its kind in America.
Current 2WD national standings leader
Andrew Comrie-Picard and Jeremy Wimpey were able to preserve their points lead
by taking third place in class. The team overcame early gearbox problems in
their Scion xD and drove a fantastic race to come back as far down as 7th
in class to the podium. Comrie-Picard and Wimpey have made the podium every
event this year and just needs to keep that trend going in order to finish the
season with their first 2WD national title.
Team
Honda Research's James Robinson and Ross Forde won Rally America's B-Spec
category. Tracy Gardiner and Nigel McGinn took second place. Robinson was a one
man show driving and crewing for his Honda Fit, and squeaked out the win
running his Honda with a broken engine mount and limited power on the last two
stages of the day.
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| Mark Piatkowski on his way to the regional rally victory. Photo: Joel Sanford /RallyWorldNews |
The Maine
Regional Rally and the New Hampshire Regional were both won by MAP Rally Team's
Mark Piatkowski and Robert Maciejski in their Open Light Class 2000 Subaru
Impreza 2.5RS.
