The Ozark Mountain Daredevils (Rally in the 100 Acre Wood day 2)

When we came out of our hotel on Saturday morning to head out we were greeted with the sight of ice on our car, so we had to spend 5 minutes chipping it off before hitting the road to Salem. The start point for day 2 of the Rally.
What a sight greeted us in Salem! All the remaining cars were lined up on both sides of the main street, with hundreds of people checking them out, talking to drivers, getting autographs etc;. Rally certainly isn't as big in America as in Europe but there are certainly plenty of die hard fans that turn up to events, couple this with all the locals coming out to see what then fuss was all about and you got quite the crowd of people.
Our first port of call was the Rally Superstore stall to get some souvenirs. Bruce and Beryl, Ken and Emily were doing a brisk trade supplying the fans with their momentos of the event. The lines were so long at the stall on Friday that I messaged Ken that night to see if he still had an event T-shirt in my size. He did, and put one aside for me. The Rally superstore crew do a great job at the events enriching the fan experience by supplying T-shirts, hats and stickers to show your loyalty to your favourite car/driver. If you missed out on getting gear for this event check the website they might still have some stuff.
Suitably swagged up, we headed out to our first spectator point for the day on stage 10, and what a stunning location it was! The cars swept downhill around a right hand curve into view, along a short straight before taking a hairpin left, heading up a steep slope, and cresting a rise around another right hand curve. (R3< 50 L2 50 R4/Cr perhaps?) This combination would test even the finest WRC drivers.

The approach to our viewpoint on stage 10.

Arriving early, we could take position inside the hairpin bend. An awesome location! I had visions of snapping away with camera as the cars came into view and then chasing over to the other side of the curve to catch them as they headed away uphill from the hairpin. Sadly, this was not to be for reasons that will become clear shortly. But I felt the pictures I got were pretty darned good.

Travis Patrana was first into view

A couple of minutes later, running third, Nick Roberts

Giving 110% as always, The very lucky Piotr Fetela

Along came Piotr Fetela pushing to the limit as always, you can tell just by watching him. The victor at Sno-Drift Rally was trying hard to add a second victory of the season to his record. A few miles down the road he was to be involved in a crash, the video of which went viral, but if you haven't seen it, here it is. A horrific crash that both he and his co-driver Dominik Joswiak walked away from. With car wreckage strewn across the course and emergency crews called there was no choice but to close the stage.
At our location we had no idea what was going on until a marshall walked into the road with a bullhorn telling us that due to an incident further down the road the stage was closed and there would be no more racing today.
This was serious. No more rally? At all?
Puzzled voices amongst the crowd wanted more information.
The voice came across load and clear. The Rally for the day was cancelled.
I was immediately very concerned. For the entire event to be cancelled something very, very serious indeed must have happened. Either to a car or even worse, the spectators.
There was an air of disquiet growing amongst the crowd. People had trekked out into the Missouri forests to have their enjoyment cut short after 10 cars, they were disappointed to say the least. But the message from the marshall seemed clear enough and was repeated several times. Lorrie and I's thoughts were down the stage as to what could have happened to cause this. People began to drift away. Mild confusion started to reign, those on the inside of the curve crossed the road to leave. But the stage was still hot! Potentially a car could have come around the corner at speed to find people in the road. The danger level was still high.
Then someone else took over the bullhorn.
The event was not closed. Just the stage cancelled. That was a relief. At least it meant that no-one had died further down the road. We could carry on with our plans for the day. Slowly, one by one, the cars came by, drivers without crash helmets on, we waved to them, they waved back, there were a few serious faces among them as if their thoughts were also a few miles down the road too.
Once the matter had been explained to the crowd a few of the dissenting voices apologized to the marshall who caused the confusion, and she graciously accepted.
With that we headed onto our next location. Stage 13.
A few days before we headed down to Missouri, Dan had told me of his plan to surprise his wife Susi and Paul by coming down to support them and help out if needed. In fact he ended up working on the car almost as soon as he got down there the night before as they tried to fix the Audi's fried engine computer.
"We should meet up on Saturday and watch some stages together." He'd said.
A great plan I thought. But have you ever tried to arrange to meet up with someone when you're in an area of zero cellphone coverage? It's rather difficult to say the least, and it was more by luck than judgement that we ran into Dan, and his friends Andy and Jim as they walked past us on stage 13.
Here was another good location downhill into a very tight, right angled left-hander.

Spectator viewpoint Stage 13. Whiskey Throttle rally are setting up to spin as they exit the curve.

The crowds were larger here than at any other location. Spectator cars were parked in a couple of fields as well as on one side of the approach road for about 2 miles. Yes, Rally is not as big a spectator sport in the USA as in Europe but the fans still come out in their droves to watch. Cars parked alongside the road to a spectator point for two miles was a common sight. You certainly have to be fit to walk all these distances to watch the action. It was great to see so many people out there and with everyone sharing the same interest it was easy to strike up conversations among the fans.

Travis Pastrana approaches the curve

Matthew and Lauren Conte

After this stage had finished we headed off to the next, and our last stop of the event. Stage 15. This was totally different to any other point we'd been to, this was a straightforward speed section the cars would whizz past us pretty much flat out. A great opportunity for me to try to try put over the speed of the cars in my pictures... Or not.

Laughlin O'Sullivan at speed.

Seamus Burke and Martin Brady

Troy and Jeremy Miller 

We all waited for our favourite car of the event, the Porsche of Feinstein and Mayo to pass us for the final time before calling it a day and heading back to Rolla to get something to eat. We were getting very hungry.
"Wait!" I hear you saying. "Why didn't you go to the end? See the prize giving."
That's a personal preference thing. It's not a situation like the Ojibwe Forest Rally where the final stage is in the town and the victory ceremony is minutes after the last car has run. After they had left us the cars still had two stages to run. We didn't feel the need to go to the end point to wait around for the finishers to get there, watch the prize giving and get showered with champagne. It's only the big boys that get to shower you all with champagne anyway. There are many different classes to be awarded prizes. If Paul and Susi had placed in their class we would for sure have gone back to watch and cheer. But they were waiting in the bar at Randy's Roadkill in Rolla. So we all headed back there.

Randy's Roadkill BBQ and Grill

If you ever head down to the Rally, be sure to put Randy's Roadkill BBQ and Grill near Rolla on your list of places to eat. The food is great, the owner Randy is an absolute character, and he does know about Rallying. Rally crews would be most welcome there. Susi even sourced a free meal by agreeing to put some Randy's Roadkill stickers on the Audi. Perhaps I should have told him that it was my birthday the next day and I'd have got a free meal too.
All in all then, it was a fantastic way to spend a weekend. The planning and trekking about the countryside to the different locations was a lot of fun. The action was great, and all the people were friendly.
We'd had so much fun over the weekend that the results were almost the least important thing. But if you want to know:
1st  Travis Pastrana and Christian Edstrom (Subaru)
2nd David Higgins and Craig Drew (Subaru)
3rd. Laughlin O'Sullivan and Scott Putnam (Subaru)
In closing then, a big thank you goes out to all the organizers and volunteers who worked hard to make the event such fun to attend. I look forward to coming back next year, and who knows it might even be in the co-drivers seat of the #958 Mazda.