The Ozark Forest Daredevils (Rally in the 100 Acre Wood day 1)

The Rally America Championship arrived in Salem, MO on March 18th and 19th, and so did we. My wife and I made the long trek down from Minnesota to the Ozarks to watch the action at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, round two of the national championship.
I was looking forward to going down and just watching an event. If you are a regular reader of this blog you'll know that at my first Rally I volunteered, my second Rally I was in the co-drivers seat. So this time I'd be able to move around the scenic Ozark forest and watch the action in many different locations and (hopefully) get plenty of good pictures, indulging my passion of photography.
We arrived at our hotel on Thursday afternoon to find competitors cars in the car park being worked on, We knew we were in the right place.

Danny Norkus working on his car before going out to tech inspection

We spent much of the evening working on a plan to see as much action over the 17 stages as we possibly could. The handy dandy guide put out by the organizers helpfully listed all the spectator viewing points with maps and advisory routes to get to them. The way I saw it, there were two possible courses of action to us, as on both days of the event, the cars used each stage twice. So we could head to one stage and camp out there for the day, or we could move about and see action at different locations. We chose to move about, that would be more fun and allow us to see more of this great countryside.
Our first stop on Saturday morning was Parc Expose in Steelville to see all 67 cars before they headed out. It gave me a chance to meet up with a some of my friends there, Susi Little and Paul Johansen I see quite regularly when I'm over with Dan Little working on his car, as both cars share the same garage. But Ryan Dunham I hadn't seen since Nemadji.  The rally community is very close knit and you very quickly build up friendships. I got the chance to chat with them and wish them luck.
Entrants had come from all points of the USA. Cars were there from Washington DC and Washington state, Minnesota and Texas, so all the extremities of the country were represented.
With that we headed out to our first location, quite naturally on Stage 1. We thought it a good idea to get there in plenty of time so we could get our pick of prime spots, with a view unobstructed by trees.  It was a good job that we gave ourselves plenty of time for the roads to the spectator point were quite the journey itself. Wonderful hilly roads both black top and dirt. The dirt ones were an extra experience. We crossed causeways and forded streams in places. Brilliant! It's a good job the water level was low in places otherwise some of the roads might have been impassable, indeed there were road signs alerting us to that fact. When we arrived we found that the spectator point was on a nice hairpin bend in the forest and our early arrival meant we found space for ourselves on the inside of the corner, exactly where I wanted.

Spectator location A. Stage 1. Cars approach from the left and then head towards us

Time passed quickly as we waited for the cars to arrive. It was a pleasant day, not cold at all. I figured that our viewpoint gave us the chance of see cars really sliding around the corner, putting their back ends out as well as the chance to see a few overshoot this sharp corner. Also, knowing Rallying as a sport of attrition I knew that a viewpoint early in the first stage might be our only chance to see all of the cars taking part. I was right on all accounts. For on the second stage came the first of many heavy crashes that put several cars out delaying things several times. Still, that was all to come as we watched the competitors slide around this corner.

Nick Roberts using as much of the corner as he can

Others, like Rasaiah and Hoffman, ran out of corner

We were enthralled by the skills of Travis Pastrana, David Higgins, Nick Roberts et al., as they drifted around the corner and powered past us, and entertained by the fun and games of other competitors like car 360 (above) who slid off the road and tried to get back on course with two flat tyres. The co-driver even got locked out of the car at one point. They lost about 4 minutes before they limped on their way.

Once the stage was over it was time to head to our next location. Along with almost everyone else. As we walked away I thanked a few of the Marshals for working, I know how important their efforts are to the running of the event.
The delay with car 360 and an original delayed start due to a school bus needing to use a short section of the stage meant that things were running behind schedule already. So instead of going to stage four, a special "Super Stage" in a park, we changed plans and headed to stage five. As it turned out we needn't have worried as the first of the many incidents had happened on stage two, a car had wrecked, closing the stage. So as it turns out we might have been able to make it to stage four but stage five was a pretty sweet location. I got some very neat pictures and chatted with some great rally fans, comparing cameras and shots in the minutes lull between passing cars.

Spectator location, Stage five.

The photo above doesn't quite do the location justice. The downhill section, seemed much steeper as the cars approached, speeding past us, and then up another steep hill as they encountered a L4> R3/Cr (probably) to go out of our sight. Delays meant that the cars were well over an hour late getting to us, but it was certainly worth it.

David Higgins, up close. Very Close

The Porsche of Feinstein and Mayo passes us and heads up the hill.

The enforced lateness of proceedings meant another rethink of our plans for the day, our plan had been to go on to stage eight, but it would have been dark by then and with the sun going down things were starting to get chilly, so we thought we'd go back to stage six (stage one repeated) as we'd had a lot of fun there and seen quite a bit of action. But this time we didn't get located on the inside of the curve sadly.

Darkness descended quickly when we arrived and it even started to rain. The attrition of the event had cut the number of cars still on course from 67 to 40 some at the start of the stage. But still the action didn't disappoint. At one point four cars in a row missed the curve and headed straight on.

Nick Roberts takes the curve with ease 

Darkness is falling as Gekiere and Tuten round the corner in the dark.

At every spectator point we were always watching for the people we knew. Paul and Susi in the Audi and Ryan in the Suzuki Swift. When the Audi, hadn't passed us on six by the time Ryan had gone by we were a tad concerned, there had been many stories of crashes through the day. We later found out that the roads had shook their car about so much some wires had come loose and grounded on the engine management computer, frying it. No computer, no car. We were disappointed for them that's for sure.
With the last car past us it was time to head back to the hotel for the day. It had been a fun day with great roads, great scenery, good people and some excellent Rally action. We were primed for an early start on Saturday morning for more of the same.
All that is for another post.