Rally – 2013 Perryville Farm & Forest Rally

The Rally America Regional, the Perryville Farm & Forest Rally held in Perryville, MO, began early Saturday morning with sun and light winds greeting the 22 teams, ready to tackle the very fast and smoothly flowing farming and forest roads of Southeastern Missouri. Prior to the event, many teams and rally enthusiast had deemed the event to be an Open Light and Group2 showdown, with nearly 20 out of the 23 entries split evenly between the two classes.

St. Louis based rally enthusiast Matt and Lauren Conte began their first event as a husband and wife team, sixth on the road. The fast roads allowed the Conte’s to push their 1994 Subaru Legacy to its limits throughout the day. After taking third place on the first winning the final four stages the team entered the only service of the event in third overall and first in their class. There appeared to be a desire to take home the overall event win following the service break, “I just decided to go for it” stated Matt, “Lauren was calm and gave me the tulips perfectly at the right time and pushed me to go faster.“ The event was the first for Lauren, as she took on her new role as wife and co-driver to Matt only a few weeks prior, Matt later stated “Lauren freaking rocked it, and that’s not me just saying that because she is my wife.”  Matt and Lauren took first on the remaining 4 stages building up a 23 second lead over second place while in the process taking home the Open Light and Overall event win.

Second place went to the Van Way Racing Ford Fiesta of Dillon Van Way and Randall Ahrabi. After competing in the final round of the Rally America National Championship in Houghton, MI the previous weekend in a Super Production Class Subaru; Dillon was called out on Facebook by fellow competitorsto run the Perryville event. “The Facebook call out was hilarious! And good thing it happened because I wasn’t aware that the event was that weekend”.  Not only was it a quick turnaround between event, Van Way would also switch back to the Ford Fiesta he had previously been competing in for the event, “Being back in the fiesta with no pace notes and a complete rookie co-driver made things interesting for sure. It took a bit to get in the swing of things but towards the end we picked up the pace.” Van Way and Ahrabi were about to settled rather quickly as the pair set second fastest times on three stages while posting top five times on the others. When asked about his thoughts on the one day event, Dillon stated “The roads at PFFR are awesome! Being 2nd on the road made things a bit difficult with having to sweep the loose rocks away, the entire event is nice and laid back, no-pressure and most importantly we had a ton of fun!”

Following a DNF due to a roll the previous weekend at the Lake Superior Performance Rally, Charles “Chuck” Surdyke & Kim DeMotte entered the event in their recently purchased 2000 Subaru Impreza. Surdyke had initially planned to not unveil the new car until the 2014 Rally America season however plans quickly changed following the roll at LSPR. Surdyke seemed acclimate himself to the car rather quickly, holding onto a  solid fourth place throughout most of the event and eventually  taking home third place overall and second in class of the event. The team looks forward to the offseason as they prepare the car for the 2014 season.

Michigan based Rally Team Kaltak had an exciting week getting their car turned around after participating in the Lake Superior Performance Rally the previous weekend.  “It was nice to race again after just coming off such a good run at LSPR. But re-prepping the car in only five days was hectic for me,” Stated Samir.  The husband and wife team of Samir and Rachelle Kaltak shook things up this past weekend with Samir entering the event with Bill Westrick as his co-driver, Rachelle was initially unavailable for the event due to work. With Ryan Scott co-driving for Gary Gill, Justin Prichard was still in need of a co-driver for the event when Rachelle learned she would be able to attend.  Samir held a consistent pace in his 1997 Subaru Impreza throughout the event, “I came down to the event looking forward to learning as much as possible from my co-driver and experimented a bit with a few new things in my driving.” Samir later commented that hearing someone else’s voice besides Rachelle’s calling off notes was a huge change, as the team had only competed as a pair in previous events.  Samir ended the event in fifth place overall, while taking home third place in the Open Light class. Justin Prichard and co-driver Rachelle Kaltak’s day came to an unfortunate end after building a 30 second overall lead through the first four stages. While on Stage 5 the pair broke a front axle which forced them into retirement. Justin later stated “This is my family’s favorite event; they love the compact route and good spectator spots.”

The event had its fair share of DNF’s, Stage 3 saw Kyle and Zach Williams’ Ford Festiva roll after a ball joint popped out causing the car to lose control and run into an embankment, the team stated “damage to the car is very minor and will be ready to compete at the next event.” James Haas and Misha Avrushenko’s rally ended on stage 3 as well when their Mazda MX-3’s engine let go as they crossed the finish line, Avrushenko stated “We knew right away what had happened, just picture six quarts of oil pouring out.” It was an unfortunate end for the #363 as they had held a solid third place in class through the first couple stages.  Poor Boy Racing’s Kevin Young and James Dallman’s event came to an abrupt end on Stage 5 as well. Kevin commented on the incident stating “The off consisted of a right 5 downhill, I was carrying too much speed causing me to go off the road sideways, I ended up hitting a ditch which tore off the front and rear bumpers and damaged the driver’s side front suspension, with the car spinning and coming to rest perpendicular to the road. “