Wild West Rally

Location: Olympia, Washington, September 6-7, 2003

Details: Leg One; Seven stages, 84.18 stage miles. Leg Two; 7 stages (3 run twice), 65.67 stage miles. 149.85 total stage miles. Run on Simpson Timber Co. logging roads west of Olympia near Shelton. Rough, demanding, technical logging roads that also use the infamous "Mainline," a flat-out, boulevard-wide gravel straight. Leg One roads are covered in large round gravel, Leg Two in even larger, sharp quarry rock. Roads are difficult to read in the clear-cut areas with no tree-line.

Friends, who lived in the area as children, have long told apocryphal tales of mass hysteria and virgin sacrifices whenever the great, glowing ball of fire appeared in the sky. The sun rarely inspires such acts elsewhere in the United States but according to legend could go years between appearances through brief gaps in the clouds shrouding the Pacific Northwest. Times have changed, no recent sacrifices have been reported and local residents have become used to seeing the golden orb. The sun has been brightly shining over the Olympic Peninsula for weeks on end this summer and less than 2 inches of rain have fallen on the region, part of the USA's only temperate rain forest, since the end of April.

The Washington State Division of Natural Resources is responsible for fire protection of 12 million acres in this tinder-dry logging region. The DNR had assigned much of the area around the rally roads Industrial Fire Precaution Levels 2 and 3, prohibiting many activities between the hours of 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. Things could have been worse, had the precautions (issued daily) gone to Level 4, the woods would have been closed during daylight hours and both Legs run on an overnight 'hoot owl' schedule!

So there was some relief among the competitors when it was announced the Wild West International ProRally would start as scheduled. There was also disappointment when SS3 and SS4 (repeats of SS1 and SS2) were cancelled. At least the competitors would be allowed to leave the service area and catch a nap at the hotel during the enforced 8-hour layover.

There was plenty of excitement for the start of the rally. With their 2003 championships in hand, David Higgins and Daniel Barritt were free to answer any challenge offered by Subaru's new team, Pasi Hagstrom and Marko Taskinen. The Finns were an unknown quantity and despite supplying `gravel notes' for Tommi Makkinen the last two years, this was their first rally together. Ramana Lagemann and Michael Orr have been on a roll since setting fast time through Maine's last three stages and finishing second in Ojibwe while Tim O'Neil and Alex Gelsomino still had a chance to reclaim second in the championship from Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Christian Edstrom; not to mention the extremely close GpN, PGT, Gp2, Gp5 and Woodner Cup races.

First on the road and using the U.S. organizer notes for the first time, Hagstrom and Taskinen may have been a bit conservative as they swept SS1's slippery gravel road. Higgins was anything but, 13 seconds faster through the 7-mile stage. He later admitted feeling a bit territorial and "having a bit of a go." Teammate O'Sullivan slid wide and found a tree lurking in the bushes, damaging the left front of the car. O'Neil couldn't capitalize, the Focus slowed by a leaking front strut. Gp N leader Utecht spun and later went the wrong way a `Y' costing valuable seconds. Gp 2 and Woodner Cup leader Burmiester made the same error shortly thereafter.

The rally gods showed little mercy on SS2. Barritt, who had spent the last several days battling a viral infection, couldn't continue and Higgins parked the #1 Mitsubishi. O'Neil and O'Sullivan were slowed by their troubles and a coil-pack on Lagemann's Subaru failed just a mile into the 22-mile stage, limiting his top speed to 70 mph. Gp 5 leader Doug Shepard slid wide 18 miles in, hitting a stump hard enough to close co-driver Pete Gladysz's door for the rest of the rally and high-centering on the berm. The shovel required by fire regulations came in handy. Brian Scott gave Claire Chizma a ride, getting caught in a rut and `endo'ing their Gp2 Focus. They landed on their wheels but couldn't continue. By the time Hagstrom returned to service he was up by more than 2 minutes.

This being ProRally's wettest season ever, despite the drought it was no real surprise when it started to rain as the cars sat waiting for the 8:03 p.m. start of SS5! Tim O'Neil missed a call and slid off the now wet and slippery stage after a quick right suddenly appeared over a blind crest. Mark Nelson, in co-driver Duncan McMath's Gp N WRX, hit a tree with the right rear, the impact snapped the front end into another tree, but unlike O'Neil and Gelsomino, the pair was able to continue. Hagstrom set fast times through the evening's three stages while teammate Lagemann put on a charge and caught O'Sullivan for second place.

The overnight rains kept the dust down and eased the fire precautions for Leg Two, and the schedule was unaffected. The sun was in and out but little rain fell as the Finns continued their run of fast times. Needing only a podium finish to lock up second place in the Drivers Championship, O'Sullivan was content to stay in third. With no real challenge from O'Sullivan and no hope of catching Hagstrom, Lagemann also held position, though he was rarely far behind his teammate's stage times.

While the battle up front was steady, further back it was raging. Shane Mitchell and Paul Donnelly set fast time through all five Leg One stages and five of seven Leg Two stages in their attempt to catch points leaders Mark Utecht and Jeff Secor in the championship. The pair was hoping Nelson and McMath would slot in between and take valuable points away from Utecht but as one wag put, "Nelson is a patient man. Most guys would destroy a car in one go, but Mark is taking the whole rally to do it." Another encounter with a tree on muddy SS10 caved in McMath's door and dented a couple of more corners but more importantly allowed Utecht and Secor to take second place in Group N and both keep a slim two-point lead in their Championships.

Scott Fuller and Jeff Call took the Group 2 win, first 2WD and finished ninth overall in their ex-WRC Golf. Eric Burmiester and Cindy Krolikowski were hoping to add to their slim class lead until dropping a minute to Chris Whiteman and Mike Paulin on SS10. Shepard and Gladyzs put on a tremendous charge through SS14 and caught both Whiteman and Burmeister, the three placing 14th, 15th and 16th in the overall standings. Whiteman now leads the Woodner Cup by one point over both Shepard and Burmiester with Paulin and Gladysz tied in the Co-driver standings. Shepard and Gladysz have locked up Gp 5 and Paulin the Gp 2 Co-driver championships while Burmeister leads Whiteman by just three points in the Gp 2 Drivers race.

In Production GT, Scott and Bob Trinder would go on to win the class but points leaders Valdermaras Maciukevicius and Ernest Bogusevicius were more concerned about expanding their narrow two point lead over Bruce Davis and Lee Sorenson. The Lithuanians were 12 seconds ahead of Davis and Sorenson at the end of Leg One. But after swapping 1-second stage victories, Davis picked up 40 seconds through SS9-SS13. Maciukevicius answered on SS14 but Davis and Sorenson finished 20 seconds ahead in second place. Sorenson has now locked up the Co-Driver's Championship and Davis now holds a one-point lead going into the season's last round, Lake Superior ProRally.