It’s the end of day one of the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally, soaked to the bone after a torrential downpour ending stages 4 and 5. It is back to the hotel for pizza and recap of the day. Will Order’s running a 27:36.1, just 2min 31.4 seconds off of leader. Not bad considering the 10 cars ahead of him are STI’s and Evo’s. Putting him in 1st place for Friday’s 2WD Group 5 class! Ross Allan came in at 29:12.0 just 4min 7.3seconds off lead.
What has it taken to get to this point?
Thursday Morning, drivers and co-drivers go on what is called “Recce” (short for reconnaissance). This is a time for drivers and co-drivers to preview the stage and write in additional notes into the supplied pace notes. Recce is completed in non-competing cars, giving Hayden the team mechanic and John of Nameless Performance a chance to prep the cars for tech.
With a few minor chances to Will’s car, it was Ross’ car that required a little more work. New rear-traction rods and adjusting toe rods, skid plate modification, an alignment, blown tail-light fuse, and some “overnight parts…. from Australia”. The new suspension arrived as the car was nearly buttoned up for tech. So with new “Shinny Bits” to install it, was back in the air, off with the tires and in with new rally suspension vs the tarmac suspension setup that was on the car.
a professional window cleaning by team marketing manager Steph
Once the cars were completed it was up to Tioga Fairgrounds for Tech inspection.
After tech inspection drivers are given the opportunity to run Stage 2 Rattler. This is a Press/ Media stage. A 3.29 mile stage with a jump towards the end, offers a great photo opportunity. However… I was running late to stage, I so offer up this great photo from start!
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