Rally New York 2010

Rally New York 2010- perhaps the best weekend we had ever achieved as a team. Through the owner of our US based team we were hired to run an event for Turkish rally champion and WRC driver Volkan Isik. This was a huge opportunity for us and we were nervous about making the event as perfect for them as possible. The team- Volkan and Vedat who was the codriver flew in to New York mid week with a group of representatives and support staff including Osman who is here on Instagram also. We met at a private rally school in upstate NY before the event with the freshly prepared STI so we could get the car setup right for Volkan. This meant not only suspension tuning but also seating position and other small details. This, to be sure that he was comfortable and at home with the car. Our friend who owned the team did a heavy amount of translation for us because we spoke no Turkish and there was a period in the beginning that wasn’t going smoothly. 

The seat needed major adjustment but it was at it’s maximum so it had to come out, with the harness and this was before we drove an inch. The car, which earned the name Smokey after serving stints under Ramana, Burak Tuglu, Lauchlin O’Sullivan, Volkan, and later me was really tired. Smokey, like most Subaru rally cars had a good appetite for engines. It was a Super Production car which meant that the engine HAD to remain stock. This wasn’t good news for a Subaru engine. At this particular event the class for which we built the car didn’t exist so we were racing in the open class against faster cars with purpose built engines that could be pushed harder. These open class cars also had competition gearboxes with better ratios and dog ring gearsets instead of street-syncro setups. We had a great SP car but not a great open class car on our hands.

Smokey tended to keep an engine around for a rally or two. This meant a heavy investment every time it came out to play. For Rally New York and these special visitors I had built a fresh engine and the car was carefully setup as usual. For the first practice session we sent Volkan off on a loop (which I never saw) the property was built by a rich commercial developer from NYC for this purpose. He wanted a place to practice and we rented it from him. Others were there prepping for the rally as well, friends of the developer. They had parked their street cars and tow vehicles close to the berm over which you could see the dirt road where the car would later go by.  

Several cars passed at quick clips before we saw Volkan. I was sweating. I wanted a perfect weekend. There was so much investment in flying 5 people over, boarding them, prepping the car, paying for our team to be there to work on the car and transport it.. nothing could go wrong. Finally Volkan came by. The car was screaming. He passed us at about double the speed of all the other cars in practice, raining down a shower of rocks all over the other competitors street cars and tow vehicles parked about 3 ft from the road. They yelled and swore in heavy Irish accents, cursing him and also cursing their prospects of a good finish that weekend after seeing his speed.

Finally after what seemed like two hours of straight running (I was counting engine life in hours) Volkan came in. I was sure that the engine was half used up at this point. The brakes were smoking and the heat radiating from the engine bay as I opened the hood felt like opening an oven door. Volkan stepped out of the car and was swarmed by his team. I was full of trepidation about what might be translated to us about the setup.  He was happy. He told us that in Europe they have special gearboxes without syncros. He did a few laps without the clutch before realizing what was going on. No one told him that he’d be racing a production car against open class cars.

We spent the rest of the day driving to the worst ever place to stay. It’s called Villa Roma if anyone wants to check out my Yelp review. Once at the Vile Aroma we unpacked the car. I neglected to mention that during practice we suffered a broken motor mount and a tail light fell out  (no idea). We didn’t bring a spare motor mount so Ben offered to drive one out from Boston (4 hours) he was actually excited to do it which was cool. The service went into the night, replacing brake pads, motor mount, fluids and by morning the car looked fresh again and we were ready to rally.

The morning of the rally and I felt like the biggest challenges were behind us. The team was in good spirits and once underway we sat in service hoping to have an intact car pull in mid morning. The first thing I do is check the oil when the car comes in. I do that while the rest of the crew is sliding the jack under the front, then the rear of the car to slide the pin stands in. We work as fast as possible because if something is found we want all of the easy mandatory checks out of the way. Everything looked good. The underbelly of the car was getting HAMMERED. This terrain was shale and jagged rocks and it was claiming the kevlar protection as it’s own. By the second service we were winning against EVERY car by over seven minutes. The kevlar underbody protection was full of holes. I smashed an aluminum can and snaked it into a hole in the kevlar that protected the gas tank. Fingers crossed.

The team was pumped. We felt like we had this event in the bag. There were only a couple of stages left and the other top drivers (heavy Irish contingent) Tom Lawless were suffering mechanicals. We had already had a flat earlier in the day on stage two but clawed back at Lawless putting good time into him despite his open class car. At the final service there were mumblings about a protest. We caught wind of a problem and our team owner left to talk to the organizers. Someone requested the FIA rulebook and shockingly there wasn’t one on hand so the promoter had to leave and drive home, print one and drive back while the rally was still going.

The rally ended that evening. Day two and the car was pretty much cooked. Good old Smokey had held on for us once again. The team owner, from Turkey was on cloud 9. We were too. It was a great first outing. A huge victory and our shop was now working successfully with international drivers. We won the rally by minutes. The team owner and exchanged glances and he was crying with happiness. That was fleeting.

A few minutes later we heard that the awards ceremony would be delayed. We weren’t sure why. We checked with a steward and they told us that a protest had been entered and it was against us! The protest was entered by a friend of Lawless who had not even finished the rally himself. Usually protests are political enough that the complainer will ask a friend to submit it. In this case it was very unusual for a non-finisher to enter a protest and as far as I’m concerned it’s of questionable legality. Lawless and the Irish contingent didn’t want this newcomer to win at their rally where the finish line was flanked by Irish flags. The protest against us was for illegal service. Volkan had flatted twice on one stage and the protest claimed that a team car was “in the area”  By FIA rules team cars are not allowed near transits or stages but no one helped from the team and the team members in the car were just lost. It was a perfectly unintentional mistake that had no effect. A usual penalty would be something like 10 seconds. Ours was the FIA maximum of 45 minutes. This put us into like 8th place. This is why people probably take medication for mood swings. We fought into the night with the organizers. Volkan told them that they were a joke in the most polite and professional way he could. He won outright. No one was on his level but the political climate of this particular event navigated Lawless to the top.  Just my particular opinion on things I’m sure others will disagree.

The best thing to come of that weekend is that I’m still friends with Osman, Volkan and Ebru. We would have never met otherwise.