(January 24, 2003)–(12:22 pm)

Cold weather and flurries greeted a surprisingly large cadre of spectators coming to watch dozens of drivers ramble through a 3.38-mile practice stage, commencing the 2003 Sno*Drift ProRally this morning in Northern Michigan.

The morning practice stage was marked by no real surprises, with most drivers handling the snow-blanketed roads with relative ease. The practice run gave both the heavily-financed factory teams and the myriad self-supported teams a chance to test components such as their snow tires as well as brush up on their winter driving skills. Mitsubishi team co-driver Daniel Barritt, who sits next to last year’s open class champ David Higgins, said the partly-clouding, sub-freezing conditions were perfect.

Although the practice run lent few surprises, new timing equipment provided by Rally America Inc. greeted drivers, causing a lot of adoring glares and questions at the starting line. The timing equipment, leased from Tag Heuer, electronically prompts drivers with a 30-second digital countdown and a ten-second audible warning count prior to the driver’s starting time.

The fact that snow is abundant actually brought a lot of smiles to drivers and team members, many of whom prepare for the rally expecting snowy conditions. Last year’s Sno*Drift saw unusually mild temperatures, which led to muddy and boggy conditions for which most of the teams were not ideally prepared.

As always, this year’s Sno*Drift comes with plenty of side lore. New Hampshire’s Timothy O’Neil and California’s Alex Gelsomino are driving an all-wheel-drive Ford Focus, sponsored by the Air Force Reserves are looking to add a bit of competition to a class mostly-populated by Subaru and Mitsubishi (Mitsubishi is making its factory team debut). Subaru driver Mark Lovell has plenty to worry about out here, including O’Neil’s Focus, but no doubt he can’t help but think of his wife who is home expecting their baby at any time. Lovell and his open class counterparts don’t have to worry about Hyundai, which has perennially won the SCCA ProRally manufacturer’s championship.

In all, 57 cars make up this year’s field, down two cars from last year’s 59. This is the first Sno*Drift to carry two-minute intervals between car start times at each stage, but the two minutes only applies to the first five cars, which are all “Seed 0” entries. The rest of the vehicles will keep Sno*Drifts one-minute wait period before following the car behind it.

(8:15 pm)

At the end of Sno*Drift’s first three stages, little more than a minute separates the top seven drivers, according to tentative times. Leader Mark Lovell, driving a Subaru Impreza WRX, was the only driver to check in under 19 minutes, running through the opening stages at a 18:53 pace. Seamus Burke, driving a Mitsubishi Evo 6.5, came in 11 seconds behind Lovell.

Timothy O’Neill is causing somewhat of a “domestic disturbance” with his open class Ford Focus, trailing Lovell by only 21 seconds in third place and leading team Subaru’s other driver, Ramana Lagemann, as well as Mitsubishi’s two drivers—2002 champ David Higgins and Lauchlin O’Sullivan. O’Neill approached Sno*Drift as a bit “conservatively,” owing to the fact that he’s running the specially-fit Focus for the first time. In addition, O’Neill, a 19-year SCCA rally veteran, is also driving with a new co-pilot, Alex Gelsomino, in rather challenging conditions.

As for conditions, drivers are somewhat unanimous in asserting conditions are tough, due to the fluctuation between ice and snow surfaces—“Like a skating rink,” as Iron Mountain, Mich.-native David Cizmas put it. Stage 2 proved to be especially treacherous, with most drivers going off into the weeds at one particularly hard turn.

J.B. Niday spun the rear-end of his Subaru Impreza into a tree at that turn, “trying to impress the spectators,” disqualifying himself and co-driver Allan Kintigh from the event. Kintigh estimates the speed of the Subaru to have been about 40 mph at the point of impact. Neither driver nor co-driver were injured in the accident, but the car had significant damage to its rear-end.

(9:00)

Six stages are complete and Mark Lovell’s lead is no longer. With it, Subaru’s hopes of leading at the end of day one also dissolved. Seamus Burke, driving a 2002 Mitsubishi Evo, grabbed the lead from Lovell after service and currently holds a 15 second lead at 38:41.

Tim O’Neill who was trailing Lovell and Burke after stage 3, retired during stage 5 after hitting a tree stump. Neither he nor his co-driver were injured. Third place now belongs to David Higgins, driving one of two factory Mitsubishi’s in the team’s inaugural rally. Higgins’ teammate, Lauchlin O’Sullivan, finished seventh on the day behind Ramana Lagemann in fourth, Tapio Laukkanen in fifth and Jonny Milner in sixth.

The ice and snow conditions proved to be a difficult challenge for most drivers during day one, many of whom experienced at least one punctured tire along the way. Higgins punctured a tire on stage 2 and then again on stage 6. His teammate O’Sullivan also experienced a puncture on stage 2.

Sixteen-year-old driver and co-driver tandem, Karen Purzycki and Tyler Bell (both from Michigan), made it through the entire day driving a 1978 Ford Fiesta. During stage one, the pair went parallel into a ditch and about a dozen spectators, recognizing the team in their “Skittle” multi-colored car, jump the tape and pushed the Fiesta out and back on the course. Purzycki will co-drive for her father tomorrow in Drift-Club action.

Highlights of day one, of course, were primarily contained to the course, but some off-track happenings also marked the day. A deer was killed by a car that was allegedly driven by a spectator. Also, Sno*Drift workers had their hands full as the final drivers lined up for the start of stage 3. A man, driving a pickup, insisted on driving through barricades in order to drive to his fishing hole. He said he’d be back in a few hours. Workers had no choice but to let him go.

Forty-nine drivers of the starting 56 finished through stage 6. Of the seven that did not finish, some are expected to return in the morning for stage 7.

Saturday

(10:30)

Start of day two saw weather ranging well below 20 degrees, a blanket of freshly fallen snow and plenty of spectators.

Yesterday, we should mention, Mark Cox and co-driver Jim Gill took first place in the Sno-Club rally, driving their Mistubishi Evo VI to a time of 44:13 overall. Michigan’s Scott Harvey and Toledo-based co-driver Kent Garden, driving an Eagle Talon took second, joining two other Eagle Talons occupying the Club’s top five slots.

Stage 7 kicked off after 8 am with privateer Irishman Seamus Burke leading the pack, followed closely by Subaru team driver Mark Lovell. The stage ran smoothly this morning, with all cars finishing and moving onto Stage 8. Timing equipment had a few hiccups this morning, according to reports, but it still is getting rave reviews. It seems that teams are using street tires instead of snow tires today, as the snow tires proved to be a bit misplaced for Sno*Drift’s icy conditions.

Stage 8 wasn’t so kind to all competitors, although only one pulled out of the race on this stage. David Cizmas and co-driver Brady Sturm, piloting a Volkswagen GTI, are out of the race with no reported injury. Stage 8 also saw David Higgins and Ramana Lagemann leap-frogged the previous leaders, finishing the stage within seconds of each other. Higgins led after 8.

The start of Stage 9 was delayed a bit due to a particularly slippery hill on the stage that needed attending to. It is unclear what needed attention, but the stage saw its share of dropouts, top of which was Subaru’s Lagemann. Lagemann was characteristically calm while waiting in line to enter the stage, but it seems that calmness doesn’t necessarily pay the bills as he had to be serviced on the stage. Sno*Drift higher-ups are looking at the legality of a team servicing a car on the stage, but it’s pretty much common knowledge that the move is against the rules.

At the late-morning service, drivers appear to be complaining about inconsistent conditions which constantly fluctuate between snow and ice (what did they expect?). Service also marked the arrival of Stephan Gingras and Scott Putnam with their Subaru WRX stuck in second gear. Gingras headed out of service less than an hour later with only 3 rd, 4th and 5th gears functioning.
 

(2:30)

“It’s hard to be safe out there,” so said Charlie Bradley at today’s lunchtime service. Bradley serves as Seamus Burke’s co-driver, the pair led Sno*Drift starting competition today but has since fallen well behind the leader board in their Mitsubishi Evo 6.5.

“You’re courting an accident at every corner,” Bradley quipped, referring to the unpredictable conditions on the course; such conditions are made even worse by snow banks lining the roads that often hide tree stumps or large rocks.

Coming into the day’s second service, David Higgins continued to lead the pack, and that had his Mitsubishi factory team glowing. Higgins praised his Mitsubishi Evo VIII that is making its world debut here at Sno*Drift, but said grip is nearly impossible no matter what kind of tires dress the wheels. “That’s not the car’s fault,” he said. Other Mitsubishi team execs said Higgins is doing exactly what he was recruited to do for the moniker: win. He’s got a little help, legendary rally mainstay John Buffum was seen coaching Higgins yesterday at service, while he spent today’s lunchtime break laboring on any broken or damaged equipment he could find.

As for the rest of the field, its thinned a bit with the expected drop outs, but plenty of well-bundled mechanics and passers-by loomed around service while drivers ate lunch and regrouped for the final stages. Kim Demotte, co-driving for Dennis Martin in a Mitsubishi Evo IV, was completely positive despite a warped rotor up front. The rotor was causing significant vibration up front causing lugs to loosen and even fall off. The red and yellow car came into the day’s first service carrying only two lug nuts on the problem wheel, but Demotte and Co. torqued the nuts hard at the end of every stage.

For those who think Honda’s should stick to street racing, take a look at Eric Heitkamp and his co-driver Christie Hong. Heitkamp is a Honda employee, based in Columbus, and gets to work on his Acura Integra using Honda’s Ohio R&D facilities. This is Heitkamps’ first rally in wintry conditions. “I can’t wait for gravel,” he said, referring to a rally he’ll be driving in the Carolinas in two weeks.

Heitkamp had the interesting opportunity to work on his Acura at service right next door to British racer Jonny Milner’s crew on one side and next to the Subaru and Mitsubishi service mega-service plexes on the other. As for his perception of Sno*Drift, he feels very challenged and just tries to keep distance between himself and “the big boys.” Shouldn’t be too hard for Eric, because while he works on his car by himself in a green racing suit, “the big boys” sit close by in a motor home sipping cocoa.

James and Kaari Cox, driving one of two trucks today (the other driving by the Purzycki Drift father-daughter duo), may also be worth looking up in the future if only to try to obtain a copy of the video their currently producing via the passenger-side mounted camcorder. Talk about reality television.

Dodge had been getting its feet wet in U.S. rally for quite some time, but it seems this year will represent its greatest commitment to the sport yet. Rumor around Sno*Drift is that the company will have five cars competing by Rim of the World, which occurs out West later this year. As for today, Don Jankowski is leading Group 5 driving a Dodge Neon SRT-4. He and co-man Pete Gladysz have been engaged in a dog-fight with Porsche driver Robert Olsen for quite some time.
 

(5:45)

Fifteen stages down, two to go. It may actually be safe to call David Higgins Sno*Drift lead, while hard-earned, preserved by process of elimination. Mark Lovell has fallen out of the competition thanks reportedly to an oil leak (the entire Subaru team currently sits in a conference and none are wearing racing suits). Still, Lovell and his teammate Ramana Lagemann put a good show in for the blue and yellow; Lovell’s co-driver, Nicky Beech, popped his head in after the aforementioned meeting to turn in papers and offer praise over the event. Beech has done five previous North America rallies and this one, “by far,” is the best he’s competed in.

Though Subbie’s factory team didn’t fare well, the nameplate is still running strong with Tapio Laukkanen driving his Impreza straight into Higgins’heals. Jonny Milner, also driving a Subaru, currently sits in fourth place overall. Seamus Burke sits in third, but word is he may be out of the race on Stage 15. At any rate, Burke and Milner sit approximately three minutes and five minutes respectively.

As 42 cars gear up for the final two stages, snow is falling heavily and darkness will soon trigger a string of competitor’s high-powered massive rally lights as they battle conditions. If today’s heavy attendance is any indication, the final stages should see its share of spectators.
 

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