The first day of competition is in the book for Rally America’s Olympus Rally. Round 3 traces through the rugged Washington forest and forces all drivers to use their full range of skills. Ken Block used his skills in day one’s flat out stages to take a twenty second lead. Block though early in the morning that the car was tooand perhaps there was a problem. After SS1 he led the field by 5 seconds.
Behind Block was an intense fight between Travis Pastrana and Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard. Pastrana led ACP most of the day in the battle for second. However during the last three stages, ACP turned up the NOS Energy Mitsubishi and passed Pastrana. Tanner Foust fell two spots as mechanical reliability struck hit the Rockstar Energy Evolution X. Foust complained the drivetrain was failing which caused him to slow up big time through the rest of the day. Mechanical reliability has never been a friend to Foust and even with the new Evo X it looks as though the gremlins are still following.
As day 1 introduced some long quick stages, day 2 is exactly the opposite. The stages will now become slower and deal with a lot more twist and turns than before. Keep it here for day 2 results.
1. 43 Ken Block 45:47.1 0.00
2. 20 Andrew Comrie-Picard 46:07.2 0:20.1
3. 199 Travis Pastrana 46:09.8 0:22.7
4. 34 Tanner Foust 46:16.2 0:29.1
5. 176 Andi Mancin 46:56.8 1:09.7
Noteables: Dave Mirra 7th place, Mark Fox 10th place
Go Ken! 20 sec isn’t a big lead, but on the tight and twisty stages, he’ll have a definite advantage over Travis and Tanner. Travis is better at the high-speed stages, and with Tanner having drivetrain issues, he’ll be no competition either. Block’s only concern is going to be ACP.
ACP would be his only competition if reliability was not an issue. However, Block’s Turbo turned to crap and he is sixth right now during day 2
Aw carp!!!